1
THE DIOCESE OF GOA:
THE PORTUGUESE IN EAST AFRICA
1.4 The decline of Portugal in East Africa
By 1600 Portugal had fallen far behind England, France and Holland in sea power. But these countries were not interested in East Africa and did little to bother the Portuguese. Nevertheless fewer and fewer Portuguese ships made the trip to East Africa. This decline occurred largely because of Portugals being annexed to Spain from 1580 to 1640.
In 1630 a new king came to power in Mombasa named Jerónimo. Converted from Islam by the Augustinians and baptized as a young man, he was educated in Goa. After his accession to power he was persuaded that he could not have full power as king unless he reverted to Islam and expelled the Portuguese, who had killed his father in 1614. Entering Fort Jesus with a few followers, he killed the unsuspecting Portuguese captain and took control of the town. Yūsuf ibn-asan, as he was called once again, then gave all the Portuguese and African Christians the choice of becoming Muslim or death. Sixty Portuguese and about two hundred Africans or mulattoes were martyred. Four hundred were sold in slavery to Muslim sea merchants. The Portuguese tried and failed to retake Mombasa in 1632, but Yūsuf then fled from fear and abandoned the city to the Portuguese. After Portuguese reprisals against the people of Pate for helping Yūsuf there was a rising in Pemba in 1646 in which all the Christians were killed. The greatest threat to the Portuguese, however, was to come from abroad.
The Portuguese lost Hormūz in the Persian Gulf in 1620, then in `Umān the fort of uār in 1643 and the town of Muscat in 1650. The revived `Umān kingdom developed a navy and in 1652 landed on Zanzibar and sacked the Portuguese town. The Queen of Zanzibar and rulers of some other towns rallied to the `Umānīs, but the Portuguese from Mombasa quickly repelled them, and there was a respite from `Umānī attacks for a time.
As for the Church on the north coast at this time, a report by the Dominican Vittorio Ricci in 1654 says that Mogadishu was in Muslim hands and the Augustinians had left it; Augustinians were still in Mombasa, while on Zanzibar and the islands to the south there were Christians under the care of Augustinians and Dominicans. In 1657 in Ampaza (Faza on Pate island) an Augustinian was sending young converted slaves to Goa so that they could grow up without danger to their faith.
In 1661 the `Umān forces again attacked Mombasa, but left because they could not take Fort Jesus. In 1670 they attacked Mozambique island but here also were unable to take the fort. In 1678 the Portuguese mounted a punitive expedition against Pate, Siu (also on Pate island), Lamu and Manda, but `Umānī ships landed and chased the Portuguese out before they finished. In 1694 Pemba island rebelled successfully against the Portuguese, and in 1696 the `Umānīs once more besieged Mombasa. Although the Queen of Zanzibar sent aid to the Portuguese, Fort Jesus fell in 1698. The Portuguese lost the whole north coast, and were left only with Mozambique island and stations to the south. In the north the Portuguese made a last try in 1728, taking Mombasa but losing it the next year.
In the south the land of Mwanamutapa fell to pieces under the vigilante rule of Portuguese settler barons. The Church was doing no better. Someone was always proposing to found a seminary for indigenous priests, but like elsewhere in Portuguese Africa no action was taken. The Jesuit visitator Manuel Barreto in 1667 complained that the Dominicans would only take posts with good revenues. The Dominicans also shunned any cooperation with other orders and succeeded in keeping the Carmelites and Capuchins out of Mwanamutapa. The only new foundation was the return of the Brothers of St. John of God to Mozambique island in 1681. They wanted to take local novices to help in their hospital work, but the King of Portugal refused, saying they should get religious personnel from Portugal.[1]
In the meantime the Portuguese position on the Zambeze grew steadily weaker. From 1684 a local chieftain named Changamire threatened to take over the whole territory. The Portuguese took some emergency steps to defend their settlements, and by 1690 the gold trade was doing well again. Then in 1693 Changamire made a surprise attack on Dambarare, a remote trading post, and massacred all the foreigners. He took the skins of two Dominicans and some other Portuguese to display in front of his army in further attacks. Against the ruling king of Mwanamutapa, who was cooperating with Changamire, the Portuguese supported the succession claims of Pedro, son of the former king. No real peace came, however, until Changamire died in 1695.
Pedro died around 1698. His son Constantin was deprived of the throne by his uncle; so his Dominican friend Francisco da Trinidade wrote to Portugal in 1709 to see if the young man could be restored. The Portuguese government would do nothing; so Constantin turned to religious life, becoming a Dominican along with his brother Joćo.[2]
Candidates such as these, however, which had to be sent to Goa for training, did not prevent East Africa from entering a dark age. The Portuguese treatment of the local people and their general mismanagement led to a political impasse and economic depression. Many people on every level of society were committed Christians, but indigenous Christian leadership was lacking. The Mwanamutapa kings and other Christian officials were dependent on the Portuguese for their position and supported Christianity to suit the Portuguese, to the extent that this was expedient. Two hundred years were to go by before another serious attempt was made to introduce Christianity to southeast Africa.