African Voices from the Inquisition, I: The Trial of Crispina Peres of Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau (1646–1648), ed. and tr. Toby Green, Philip J. Havik and F. Ribeiro da Silva

Abstract

This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the voices of subalternised populations in history, and demonstrates the richness of the inquisitorial archives for knowing and understanding the lives of black men and women with African backgrounds, some of them enslaved, who usually did not leave many written accounts of their existence. It is clear that the words recorded in the trial of Crispina Peres were not the literal words spoken by the Africans involved in it, as is observed by the editors and translators of this volume, Toby Green, Philip J. Havik and F. Ribeiro da Silva; furthermore, the defendant did not speak Portuguese and her statements required a translator to explain to the Inquisition official the meaning of what she was saying. But it is still a testimony very close to the original, as was generally the case in Inquisition proceedings. The archives of the Portuguese Inquisition still have much potential and deserve to be further explored.