André Álvares de Almada (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
16th and 17th centuries) was a
Cape Verdean writer, trader and explorer of mestiço (mixed) descent. He was one of the first recorded Cape Verdean writers.
Biography
André Álvares de Almada was born on the island of Santiago circa 1550 to the captain Ciprião Álvares de Almada and a mother likely of mixed Portuguese and African descent. He was involved in trading activities on the West African coast between at least the 1560s and 1580s
In 1578, he met with the
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
gold traders along the
Gambia River
The Gambia River (formerly known as the River Gambra, French language, French: ''Fleuve Gambie'', Portuguese language, Portuguese: ''Rio Gâmbia'') is a major river in West Africa, running from the Fouta Djallon plateau in north Guinea westward ...
.
In 1598, he was knighted as a Knight of the
Order of Christ. Almada died sometime after 1603, and one of his sons became the captain of
Cacheu
Cacheu is a town in northwestern Guinea-Bissau lying on the Cacheu River, capital of the eponymous region. Its population was estimated to be 9,849 .
Etymology
The town of Cacheu is situated in territory of the Papel people. The name is of Bai ...
.
[
]
Short Treatise of the Rivers of Guinea of Cape Verde
Circa 1594 Almada wrote ''The Short Treatise of the Rivers of Guinea of Cape Verde between the Senegal River
The Senegal River ( or "Senegal" - compound of the Serer term "Seen" or "Sene" or "Sen" (from Roog Seen, Supreme Deity in Serer religion) and "O Gal" (meaning "body of water")); , , , ) is a river in West Africa; much of its length mark ...
and Baixos de Santa Ana and All the Black Nations on the Coast and its Clothing, Arms, Weapons and Wars'', drawing on his personal experience trading in the region. The work focuses primarily on commercial information, and was an attempt to promote Iberian interests.[
It was not published in his lifetime, but was edited and published in Portuguese in 1733, edited and re-published by ]Diogo Kopke
Diogo Kopke (1808–1844) was a Portuguese editor and publisher, mathematician, journalist and soldier of German descent. He was the first person to publish the only existing contemporary report of Vasco da Gama’s first trip to India.
Backgroun ...
in 1841. A summary, however, was created by Jesuit
The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...
missionaries in Cape Verde in 1605 and soon spread and was translated. This profoundly impacted later authors up to the 19th century, who often borrowed Almada's ethnographic information for the entire area between Senegal
Senegal, officially the Republic of Senegal, is the westernmost country in West Africa, situated on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. It borders Mauritania to Mauritania–Senegal border, the north, Mali to Mali–Senegal border, the east, Guinea t ...
and Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
without analyzing it or updating it.
coordinated by José Hermano Saraiva, QuidNovi, 2004
References
External links
ALMADA, André Álvares de, ca 1555-1650, Tratado breue dos Reinos de guine do cabo verde ff.to pollo capitao Andre Alluares dallmada natural da cidade e ilha do Cabo Verde cursado e pratigo nas ditas partes, Regimento da Santa Inquisição, Manuscrito, Portuguese National Library, digital copy: cod-297
André d’Almada: um certo olhar "renascentista", by Raul Mendes Fernandes, September 2006
''Notice sur André Alvarez d'Almada et sa description de la Guinée'' (''Notices by Andrew Álvares de Almada'') (1842), A. Bertrand, 1842, Digitizing sponsor: Google, Book from the collections of: University of Michigan
{{DEFAULTSORT:Almada Andres Alvares
Portuguese writers
Cape Verdean male writers
16th-century Portuguese explorers
People from Santiago, Cape Verde
17th-century Portuguese explorers