4
THE DIOCESE OF SANTIAGO:
UPPER GUINEA
4.1 First contacts (1445-1600)
Portuguese explorers reached Arguim Bay in 1442 and in 1445 they built a fort on Arguim island where, as mentioned in the Introduction, Mass was celebrated for the first time in this region of Africa. In the same year the Senegal river was reached, where in 1488 the Portuguese befriended a Wolof ex-king named Bemoim whose brother had usurped his throne. Bemoin was baptized in Portugal and was returning in 1489 with an armada of 25 ships full of soldiers to reinstate him. Priests, especially Dominicans, also came along to preach to his people. But the leader of the expedition, Vas da Cunha, suspected Bemoim’s loyalty and in a quarrel killed him before they ever reached Arguim.[1]
Other priests followed the Portuguese as they established settlements on the Cape Verde islands around 1460 and afterwards on the mainland at Cacheu and the town of Sierra Leone (Freetown), and up and down the Senegalese coast. In 1514 the diocese of Funchal was established to care for this and all further regions of Africa. The diocese of Santiago, with headquarters on the Cape Verde island of Santiago, was separated from the former diocese in 1533 and included the mainland territory from the Senegal river to Cape Palmas. The first bishop, Braz Neto (d. 1538), was a Franciscan, but he never went there. He was succeeded by a diocesan, João Pravi (to 1545), an Augustinian, Francisco da Cruz (to 1571), two Carmelites, Bartolomeu Leitão (to 1587) and Pedro Brandão (to 1608), another diocesan, Luiz Pereira de Miranda (1609) and a Dominican, Sebastião da Ascensão. (1610-14).[2]
The formerly empty Cape Verde islands, discovered around 1458, naturally acquired a Portuguese and Christian appearance, but throughout the 16th century priests, especially Franciscans, also worked in villages around Cacheu and at Sierra Leone, and in all counted a few hundred African Christians besides the Portuguese traders whom they served.
The Portuguese’ first commercial interest was in gold. Towards the end of the 15th century they tried to intercept the traditional trans-Saharan routes by sending a messenger to “Mandi Mansa”, that is, the king of Mali.[3] They also had a station at Wadan, far inland from Arguim, from 1487 to 1513.[4] In 1565 Diogo Carreiro claims to have sailed up the Senegal river as far as Timbuktu.[5] But penetration of the interior was abandoned when trade in slaves upset the trading patterns with the interior and when it was proved that Elmina and the other “gold coast” stations were more profitable because they were closer to the gold sources.
Although trade for gold, cotton cloth, hides and gum continued in Upper Guinea, the slave trade became the main Portuguese concern, with the Cape Verde islands serving as a clearing point for export.[6] Bishop Pedro Brandão made a report to the King of Portugal upon his return therein 1594 protesting that of every 1,000 slaves 900 were enslaved unjustly, that is, they were not guilty of any crime. He also protested against the way slaves were packed into the holds of ships bound for the Americas, and urged that at least baptized slaves should all be set free.[7]
[1]MMA2, I, 436, 453.
[2]Gams (1957), 472. Brásio (1962), 18, n. 6, speaks of a West African Dominican named Francisco de Faria, from Cabo de Gué, who founded the College of St. Thomas in Goa in 1593. Cabo de Gué, however, is in Morocco and the man must have been of Portuguese parentage. I thank Fr. António do Rosário, archivist of the Portuguese Dominican Province, for this information.
[3]MMA2, I, 560.
[4]Fage (1963), 27.
[5]MMA2, II, 524.
[6]Rodney (1968), 285.
[7]MMA2, III, 442.