Os Bóeres de Angola. Reconstituição do Legado da sua Passagem pelas Terras da Humpata 1880-1928

Abstract

Various misfortunes led a group of Boers to undertake a trek from South Africa to Angola in 1874/5. This migration was characterized by climatic setbacks and wars with the peoples they encountered during their long journey. Many perished from disease, thirst and hunger, others eventually returned to South Africa. The group that continued their journey arrived in 1879 to Humbe, located on the right bank of the Cunene River. The arrival of the Boers was marked by fights with the indigenous people and by a certain fear from the portuguese people that lived in these regions. As this fear faded, the Boers were authorized by the Portuguese government to settle on the Huíla Plateau, in the town of Humpata, where they founded the colonies of S. Januário and Palanca. The settlement was characterized first by conflicts with the Mwíla and then with the Madeirans, who began to arrive shortly afterwards (1884-85). It is this path and settlement that we seek to reconstitute throughout this dissertation. At a theoretical level, the role played by the Boers in colonization, development of communication routes and means of transportation in southern Angola is explained. By analysing the remains found at Humpata, there was an attempt to identify both the former Boers' servants, as well as a vast funerary heritage left there. An interdisciplinary methodology was used, namely documental sources, oral tradition, living tradition, oral history, and archaeological prospecting. In terms of results, it was possible to build a basic bibliography for the study of the Boers in Angola, identify the Ovi-womu community of Humpata and Neves, create an inventory of the funerary and civil heritage. All this heritage was properly inventoried, photographed, and georeferenced.