2 - La Rochelle and Atlantic Africa

Summary

This chapter explores the connections between the French port of La Rochelle and Atlantic Africa during the era of the Atlantic slave trade. La Rochelle’s slave-trading activities had multiple dimensions. The city’s merchants loaded their vessels traveling to the Atlantic coasts of Africa with a variety of commodities and luxury products. The chapter shows how these material items shaped the commercial, social, and cultural exchanges between La Rochelle’s merchants and Loango coast local. Through this broad picture, the chapter seeks to examine the positions of La Rochelle’s agents Jean-Amable Lessenne, Le Montyon’s ship captain, as well as Daniel Garesché, the rich owner of the ship Le Montyon who gave Mfuka Andris Pukuta the silver kimpaba as a gift following the Cabinda conflict in 1775. An examination of these wealthy men’s activities allows us to situate La Rochelle’s position in relation to other ports involved in the trade of enslaved Africans, as well as to envision the links between the French port and the Loango coast, and even more specifically its connections with the West Central African ports of Malembo and Cabinda, where the Mfuka Andris Pukuta was established.