Publication Date
2009
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Located at the coordinates of 15º02'03'' S and 40º44'09'' E, Mozambique Island sits on Mossuril Bay and, since 1966, has been connected to the African continent by a bridge that is about 4 kilometers long. Three kilometers in length, the island has a maximum width of 600 meters, and its surface area is nearly one square kilometer. Of coralline origin and containing little indigenous water, it exhibits a flat surface, which is covered with sand and a little vegetation. Three islets are located near the island: to the south, São Lourenço, to the east, Goa, and southwest, Sena.
The island probably first appeared in history in the 11th century as a Swahili town, like other East African port-towns which were started by Muslim merchants. Interweaving kinship relations with the Macuas, an African lineage in the coast, these merchants had a significant role in Indic commerce, using the island as a support for ships headed for Sofala. According to some authors, the settlement, where the mosque and the Sheik´s house were prominent, was politically subordinated to the Sultans of Zanzibar and Quiloa.
It was one of these Sheiks, who was designated Mussa Ibne Biki, that the Portuguese had contact with during Vasco da Gama´s first trip in 1498. Soon after, they erected in the territory a fortess with a trading post, São Gabriel Tower (1507). With an excellent port facing the continent, the island was chosen as a stopover for ships in the Carreira da India. There, the ships were provisioned and repaired while waiting for the monsoon winds that would propel them to India. The transfer of the gold routes from the Zimbabwean plateau to the north, by the Zambezi river, also rendered the island adequate for trade with the hinterland. After 1530, the captain of Sofala and Mozambique resided on the island, which remained the political capital of the Portuguese until the end of the 19th century. Growing conflict with the Portuguese displaced Swahili dignitaries to Terra Firma, where they established chieftaincies in Sancul and Quitangonha, though a Swahili settlement remained on the south of the island circa 1600.
Mozambique Island gained prominence as one of the main centers of Portuguese India. It fulfilled an essential role of supporting the navigation of the ships of the Carreira da India, serving as a base for commerce between Indian ports and East Africa, by maintaining routes to various points on the African coast, especially the Zambezi Delta and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Commerce, which normally had operated under a regime of monopoly, was liberalized in 1757, leading to economic growth that was founded on the slave traffic to Indian Ocean settlements and to the Américas. Its function as a slavocratic port was translated to a significant number of "Mozambiquans" being found throughout parts of the Indian Ocean and Brazil, a fact that nowadays is remembered in Jardim da Memória (2007).
In 1752, Lisbon gained direct responsibility for the administration of Mozambique, a transition that accentuated the role of the island as political and administrative capital. The settlement, which until then had status as citadel, was raised to town, São Sebastião, in 1763, and to city in 1818. Established right away in 1763, the town hall infused new energy into the elite´s participation in the management of urban life, in which the residents had a limited role via the municipal competencies of the Misericordias. Additionally, in the mid 1700s, the ecclesiastical headquarters was moved from Sena to the island.
The population of the island presented a high level of heterogeneity, emphasizing diverse geographical, cultural, and religious origins, in process of interacting with various spaces. To existing Macuan and Swahili populations, were added new, Christian inhabitants and their descendants: Portuguese from Europe, Portuguese India, and later from Brazil, as well as Indians from Goa. The Banian merchants from Diu, who since the end of the 17th century assured the trade between Diu and the island, were a significant community in 1700. Meanwhile, Muslim dealers from other Swahili ports and from Arabia continued to arrive, and sometimes to settle on the island. Little is known about the number of inhabitants, as the indicators apply almost exclusively to the Christian population. In the decade of 1640, there would have been 70 Portuguese and 30 mestizos, while in 1789, the families of the Christian residents totaled 370 individuals. In 1819 the inhabitants of the island and of Terra Firma were estimated at 2,450 free individuals and five or six thousand slaves. In addition to the residents, the island hosted a numerous population of individuals in transit, on either stopover or business. The total number of individuals could double with the arrival of the ships from Portugal, India, other ports in the Indian Ocean and, with the increasing slave trade, Brazil. The Portuguese urban nucleus was organized around the harbor and the stream, on the west coast ("a costa"), where São Gabriel Tower was erected. Inside the enclosed area or in its vicinity were built the Misericórdia, the hospital real, Espirito Santo Church, and the Matriz Church, which was called the See and, in 1577 São Domingos convent and Church. Chapels were located outside the nucleus: São Gabriel (which is already gone) in the uninhabited area to the north, Nossa Senhora do Baluarte (1522), on the island´s northeast tip, and Santo António, to the southeast. The dwellings, with trading post and wharf close to the sea, faced the street, and circumscribed the fortress, initially to the north and, in the second half of 1500, to the south. Due to the scarcity and aridity of soil which could only sustain a few vegetable gardens and palm groves, the Portuguese casados [men in the overseas empire who married local women] either relied on the neighboring Terra Firma for their supply of food and water - they had houses and cultivatable land there, in Cabaceiras and Mossuril - or obtained provisions in more remote markets.
Given its importance in the context of the Estado da India, the island was endowed with new defensive structures. São Sebastião Fortress, one of the largest in the Orient, was erected on the northern tip of the island, sometime between the mid 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. Devised by Dom João de Castro in response to the eventuality of a Turkish attack, it proved effective against the sieges by the Dutch (1607 and 1608) and the Omanis (1669). At the end of 1500, Santo António Fort was erected on the Islet of São Lourenço. The number of effectives in the island´s regiment, which counted 150 soldiers since 1607, was raised to 300; however, this total was rarely reached.
The devastation of the urban center during the sieges by the Dutch at the beginning of 1600 was followed by reconstruction over previous structures, while the urban nucleus stretched south. In place of São Gabriel Fort, using its ruined walls, the Jesuits, who had returned in 1610, erected São Francisco Xavier College along with a church, which opened into a square of ample proportions near the harbor. The houses and Misericórdia Church were built behind the church, making use of Espirito Santo Chapel. South of this space, the narrow, labyrinthine streets led to two new squares: the new See´s square, near the sea, and the pillory square, both of which were noted during the 1630s. Built on the open ground south of the urban center when the Capuchin Friars attempted to settle in the region, Nossa Senhora da Saúde Church is of the same era. São João Convent was added in 1681, to receive the hospital real, which was turned over to the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God. During that century, the island space was divided into two freguesias [civil parishes]: the Freguesia da Sé [See], whose building was demolished in the 1880s, served the residents, while Freguesia de São Sebastião, whose center was the fortress church, included the members of the regiment. The island was also a nucleus of Christianization, from where missionaries, especially members of religious orders, such as the Dominicans and the Jesuits, departed to other East African countries.
The urban nucleus grew noticeably in the mid 18th century, due to administrative changes and increasing commerce. Although it also spread towards the interior of the island in the direction of the eastern beach (the "contra costa"), the most noticeable expansion occurred to the south, with the construction of São João neighborhood. In accordance with Pombaline urban planning, the neighborhood presented rectilinear streets around an ample plaza and extended the city all the way to the area of the hospital. There the majestic câmara [city hall] building was erected; its construction was completed in 1783. In the older nucleus, circa 1766, the Jesuit college - the Jesuits had been expelled - was converted into São Paulo palace, to house the general government and serve as the Governor´s residence. A new customs building was erected on the plaza to its right, replacing the one constructed in the 1740s, and a wharf was built.
These neighborhoods lodged political power and the island´s elite, whose houses displayed terraces equipped with cisterns, carved wood doors, and balconies that led to interior patios. In their architectonic solutions and decorative elements, the construction techniques employed in the public and private stone buildings, show Portuguese, Swahili, and Indian (especially Diu) influences. Intercalated within the nucleus of stone houses or situated in its south and east peripheries, houses made of plant-based materials with adobe-lined walls covered in macute (palm leaves), were inhabited by poorer groups of both slaves and free persons. In the 19th century, with the growth in the number of stone houses, a clear demarcation was established between the "city of stone and whitewash" to the north and the "city of macute" to the south; it still determines the urban layout today. Nowadays, the stone city is under reconstruction and counts on just a few inhabitants, while the macute neighborhoods exhibit noticeable vitality, which is supported by their Swahili population.
The political and economic centrality of Mozambique Island translated into the construction of a rare urban patrimony, which expresses the convergence of multiple cultures in its territory. As stressed by Luis Filipe Pereira, the "ilha vale pelo seu conjunto e é difícil entender uma parte sem considerar a outra. [...] Elas constituem uma verdadeira unidade." ["island is valued as a whole, it is difficult to understand one part of it without considering the other. [...] They constitute a true unity."] The identity of the island, anchored in a history of interracial mixing built by ancient commercial routes, has been represented particularly by Mozambiquan intellectuals as a "síntese que é um dos pecúlios no cadinho da moçambicanidade" ["synthesis that is one of the riches in the crucible of Mozambicity"] (N. Saúde and A. Sopa). Because of its urban patrimony and its living traditions as a whole, in 1991 Mozambique Island was recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage of Humanity.
Bibliography:
ANGIUS, Matteo e ZAMPONI, Mario, Ilha de Moçambique. Convergência de Povos e Culturas, San Marino, AIEP Editore, 1999. Arquivo. Boletim do Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique, nº 4, 1988. Ilha de Moçambique. Relatório-Report 1982-85, Secretaria de Estado da Cultura-Moçambique, Arkitektskolen i Aarhus-Danmark, 1985. Ilha de todos. Ilha de Moçambique, in Oceanos, nº 25, 1996. LOBATO, Alexandre, Ilha de Moçambique. Panorama Histórico, Lisboa, AGU, 1967. NEWITT, Malyn, "Mozambique Island: The Rise and Decline of an East African Coastal City, 1500-1700", in Portuguese Studies, 2004, pp. 21-37.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel
The island probably first appeared in history in the 11th century as a Swahili town, like other East African port-towns which were started by Muslim merchants. Interweaving kinship relations with the Macuas, an African lineage in the coast, these merchants had a significant role in Indic commerce, using the island as a support for ships headed for Sofala. According to some authors, the settlement, where the mosque and the Sheik´s house were prominent, was politically subordinated to the Sultans of Zanzibar and Quiloa.
It was one of these Sheiks, who was designated Mussa Ibne Biki, that the Portuguese had contact with during Vasco da Gama´s first trip in 1498. Soon after, they erected in the territory a fortess with a trading post, São Gabriel Tower (1507). With an excellent port facing the continent, the island was chosen as a stopover for ships in the Carreira da India. There, the ships were provisioned and repaired while waiting for the monsoon winds that would propel them to India. The transfer of the gold routes from the Zimbabwean plateau to the north, by the Zambezi river, also rendered the island adequate for trade with the hinterland. After 1530, the captain of Sofala and Mozambique resided on the island, which remained the political capital of the Portuguese until the end of the 19th century. Growing conflict with the Portuguese displaced Swahili dignitaries to Terra Firma, where they established chieftaincies in Sancul and Quitangonha, though a Swahili settlement remained on the south of the island circa 1600.
Mozambique Island gained prominence as one of the main centers of Portuguese India. It fulfilled an essential role of supporting the navigation of the ships of the Carreira da India, serving as a base for commerce between Indian ports and East Africa, by maintaining routes to various points on the African coast, especially the Zambezi Delta and the islands of the Indian Ocean. Commerce, which normally had operated under a regime of monopoly, was liberalized in 1757, leading to economic growth that was founded on the slave traffic to Indian Ocean settlements and to the Américas. Its function as a slavocratic port was translated to a significant number of "Mozambiquans" being found throughout parts of the Indian Ocean and Brazil, a fact that nowadays is remembered in Jardim da Memória (2007).
In 1752, Lisbon gained direct responsibility for the administration of Mozambique, a transition that accentuated the role of the island as political and administrative capital. The settlement, which until then had status as citadel, was raised to town, São Sebastião, in 1763, and to city in 1818. Established right away in 1763, the town hall infused new energy into the elite´s participation in the management of urban life, in which the residents had a limited role via the municipal competencies of the Misericordias. Additionally, in the mid 1700s, the ecclesiastical headquarters was moved from Sena to the island.
The population of the island presented a high level of heterogeneity, emphasizing diverse geographical, cultural, and religious origins, in process of interacting with various spaces. To existing Macuan and Swahili populations, were added new, Christian inhabitants and their descendants: Portuguese from Europe, Portuguese India, and later from Brazil, as well as Indians from Goa. The Banian merchants from Diu, who since the end of the 17th century assured the trade between Diu and the island, were a significant community in 1700. Meanwhile, Muslim dealers from other Swahili ports and from Arabia continued to arrive, and sometimes to settle on the island. Little is known about the number of inhabitants, as the indicators apply almost exclusively to the Christian population. In the decade of 1640, there would have been 70 Portuguese and 30 mestizos, while in 1789, the families of the Christian residents totaled 370 individuals. In 1819 the inhabitants of the island and of Terra Firma were estimated at 2,450 free individuals and five or six thousand slaves. In addition to the residents, the island hosted a numerous population of individuals in transit, on either stopover or business. The total number of individuals could double with the arrival of the ships from Portugal, India, other ports in the Indian Ocean and, with the increasing slave trade, Brazil. The Portuguese urban nucleus was organized around the harbor and the stream, on the west coast ("a costa"), where São Gabriel Tower was erected. Inside the enclosed area or in its vicinity were built the Misericórdia, the hospital real, Espirito Santo Church, and the Matriz Church, which was called the See and, in 1577 São Domingos convent and Church. Chapels were located outside the nucleus: São Gabriel (which is already gone) in the uninhabited area to the north, Nossa Senhora do Baluarte (1522), on the island´s northeast tip, and Santo António, to the southeast. The dwellings, with trading post and wharf close to the sea, faced the street, and circumscribed the fortress, initially to the north and, in the second half of 1500, to the south. Due to the scarcity and aridity of soil which could only sustain a few vegetable gardens and palm groves, the Portuguese casados [men in the overseas empire who married local women] either relied on the neighboring Terra Firma for their supply of food and water - they had houses and cultivatable land there, in Cabaceiras and Mossuril - or obtained provisions in more remote markets.
Given its importance in the context of the Estado da India, the island was endowed with new defensive structures. São Sebastião Fortress, one of the largest in the Orient, was erected on the northern tip of the island, sometime between the mid 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century. Devised by Dom João de Castro in response to the eventuality of a Turkish attack, it proved effective against the sieges by the Dutch (1607 and 1608) and the Omanis (1669). At the end of 1500, Santo António Fort was erected on the Islet of São Lourenço. The number of effectives in the island´s regiment, which counted 150 soldiers since 1607, was raised to 300; however, this total was rarely reached.
The devastation of the urban center during the sieges by the Dutch at the beginning of 1600 was followed by reconstruction over previous structures, while the urban nucleus stretched south. In place of São Gabriel Fort, using its ruined walls, the Jesuits, who had returned in 1610, erected São Francisco Xavier College along with a church, which opened into a square of ample proportions near the harbor. The houses and Misericórdia Church were built behind the church, making use of Espirito Santo Chapel. South of this space, the narrow, labyrinthine streets led to two new squares: the new See´s square, near the sea, and the pillory square, both of which were noted during the 1630s. Built on the open ground south of the urban center when the Capuchin Friars attempted to settle in the region, Nossa Senhora da Saúde Church is of the same era. São João Convent was added in 1681, to receive the hospital real, which was turned over to the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God. During that century, the island space was divided into two freguesias [civil parishes]: the Freguesia da Sé [See], whose building was demolished in the 1880s, served the residents, while Freguesia de São Sebastião, whose center was the fortress church, included the members of the regiment. The island was also a nucleus of Christianization, from where missionaries, especially members of religious orders, such as the Dominicans and the Jesuits, departed to other East African countries.
The urban nucleus grew noticeably in the mid 18th century, due to administrative changes and increasing commerce. Although it also spread towards the interior of the island in the direction of the eastern beach (the "contra costa"), the most noticeable expansion occurred to the south, with the construction of São João neighborhood. In accordance with Pombaline urban planning, the neighborhood presented rectilinear streets around an ample plaza and extended the city all the way to the area of the hospital. There the majestic câmara [city hall] building was erected; its construction was completed in 1783. In the older nucleus, circa 1766, the Jesuit college - the Jesuits had been expelled - was converted into São Paulo palace, to house the general government and serve as the Governor´s residence. A new customs building was erected on the plaza to its right, replacing the one constructed in the 1740s, and a wharf was built.
These neighborhoods lodged political power and the island´s elite, whose houses displayed terraces equipped with cisterns, carved wood doors, and balconies that led to interior patios. In their architectonic solutions and decorative elements, the construction techniques employed in the public and private stone buildings, show Portuguese, Swahili, and Indian (especially Diu) influences. Intercalated within the nucleus of stone houses or situated in its south and east peripheries, houses made of plant-based materials with adobe-lined walls covered in macute (palm leaves), were inhabited by poorer groups of both slaves and free persons. In the 19th century, with the growth in the number of stone houses, a clear demarcation was established between the "city of stone and whitewash" to the north and the "city of macute" to the south; it still determines the urban layout today. Nowadays, the stone city is under reconstruction and counts on just a few inhabitants, while the macute neighborhoods exhibit noticeable vitality, which is supported by their Swahili population.
The political and economic centrality of Mozambique Island translated into the construction of a rare urban patrimony, which expresses the convergence of multiple cultures in its territory. As stressed by Luis Filipe Pereira, the "ilha vale pelo seu conjunto e é difícil entender uma parte sem considerar a outra. [...] Elas constituem uma verdadeira unidade." ["island is valued as a whole, it is difficult to understand one part of it without considering the other. [...] They constitute a true unity."] The identity of the island, anchored in a history of interracial mixing built by ancient commercial routes, has been represented particularly by Mozambiquan intellectuals as a "síntese que é um dos pecúlios no cadinho da moçambicanidade" ["synthesis that is one of the riches in the crucible of Mozambicity"] (N. Saúde and A. Sopa). Because of its urban patrimony and its living traditions as a whole, in 1991 Mozambique Island was recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage of Humanity.
Bibliography:
ANGIUS, Matteo e ZAMPONI, Mario, Ilha de Moçambique. Convergência de Povos e Culturas, San Marino, AIEP Editore, 1999. Arquivo. Boletim do Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique, nº 4, 1988. Ilha de Moçambique. Relatório-Report 1982-85, Secretaria de Estado da Cultura-Moçambique, Arkitektskolen i Aarhus-Danmark, 1985. Ilha de todos. Ilha de Moçambique, in Oceanos, nº 25, 1996. LOBATO, Alexandre, Ilha de Moçambique. Panorama Histórico, Lisboa, AGU, 1967. NEWITT, Malyn, "Mozambique Island: The Rise and Decline of an East African Coastal City, 1500-1700", in Portuguese Studies, 2004, pp. 21-37.
Translated by: Maria João Pimentel