Introduction

Summary

In 1918, former colonial administrator Luiz de Mello e Athayde published an article in the influential Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Lisbon, warning about the ongoing depopulation of Angola, Portugal’s long-standing colony in West Central Africa. While old calculations, he argued, had assumed a total population of 10–12 million, or a density of nine inhabitants per square km, newer ones suggested a density of six, or even as low as 3.3, confirming his intuition that Angola’s once abundant population had been and was still diminishing markedly. For the causes, Athayde pointed at the old emigration of slaves to the Americas, new emigration flows to Angola’s neighbouring colonies and various factors that diminished fertility and augmented mortality. For the Ganguela population in southern Angola that he had administrated and studied, these were constant raids by the neighbouring Kwanyama, who enslaved Ganguela people and destroyed their livelihoods; diseases such as smallpox and the lesser-known local scourges of michila and lindunda; alcoholism; and birth-spacing practices. Athayde’s rationales were less humanitarian than political and economic. If depopulation continued, he argued, Angola would soon face the same labour problem as other colonies, since only ‘natives’ could provide the necessary labour force needed for the colonial economy.¹