African Files in Portuguese Archives

Abstract

When I first mentioned to David Henige my plan to go to Portugal to do some archival research, he expressed the hope that it would be a somewhat more welcoming atmosphere than he had encountered in 1971, with armed soldiers patrolling the grounds. Indeed it was. I spent three weeks in Lisbon doing archival research in modern African history, with a specific interest in Tanzania. The Arquivo Histórico Diplomàtico (AHD) and the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (AHU) both proved to be rich archival sources kept by accessible and friendly staff.This paper is a brief and informal review of my research in the archives. Unfortunately, I did not survey the holdings of either of the archives I used, so I cannot speak to their scope, but the files on Africa are vast. The AHU, for example, claims over 6000 meters of documents, and not just for Portuguese colonies. They include materials dating to the sixteenth century and extensive intelligence and diplomatic materials for the twentieth century. I hope that this paper will give interested researchers a sense of the type of material available.In going to Portugal, I had the goal of finding out what archival material existed in Lisbon concerning relations between Portugal and Tanzania. Portuguese-Tanzanian relations were largely formed through the encounter over Mozambique. When Tanzania gained independence, it began to support the Mozambican liberation movements, which was very upsetting to Portugal, especially in the context of the Cold War. The Portuguese archives proved very fruitful. I found hundreds of documents that were of great interest, including documents relating directly to my dissertation topic dealing with a diplomatic incident concerning some forged letters that implicated Portugal in a plot to overthrow the Tanzanian government.