Sources for the pre-1900 population history of sub-saharan Africa : the case of Angola, 1773-1845

Abstract

This article deals with the largest collection of primary sources yet located documenting the population history of any area in Sub-Saharan Africa before 1900 : 350 censuses produced between 1773 and 1845 in the Portuguese colony of Angola. It examines the administrative background of these censuses, describes the types of demographic data contained therein, and evaluates the problems raised by this corpus of data. Two major conclusions are drawn. First, although most demographers and historians have assumed that traditional quantitative sources on the population past of Sub-Saharan Africa are not available prior to the turn of the nineteenth century, a steadily growing amount of this type of documentation does in fact exit for coastal areas under European control. Second, in the specific of Angola, with the extant demographic data being closer to those found in more modem censuses, its population history can be effectively reconstructed with a fair degree of precision and detail.