''Pombeiros'' were African and sometimes mulatto agents who purchased

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in the African interior on behalf of the

Portuguese crown This is a list of Portuguese monarchs who ruled from the establishment of the Kingdom of Portugal, in 1139, to the deposition of the Portuguese monarchy and creation of the Portuguese Republic with the 5 October 1910 revolution. Through the nea ...

or private Portuguese traders for the

Atlantic slave trade The Atlantic slave trade, transatlantic slave trade, or Euro-American slave trade involved the transportation by slave traders of enslaved African people, mainly to the Americas. The slave trade regularly used the triangular trade route and i ...

. The term ''pombeiro'' comes from Pumbe, a market located by the Malebo Pool.Roland Oliver and Anthony Atmore, ''Africa since 1800'', 5th edn (Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 27. In general, the Portuguese government did not want Portuguese slave traders going into the interior. It preferred them to stay at its colonies of

Benguela Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census. History Por ...

and

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

on the coast, while the native ''pombeiros'' led caravans into the interior to buy slaves. During their trips into the interior, the ''pombeiros'' resided at fortified marketplaces called ''feiras'', to which Africans from beyond the frontier would come to sell produce, wares and slaves.Oliver and Atmore 2005, pp. 78–81. According to one account from 1700, the ''pombeiros'' would set out with their own slaves, who in turn had slaves under them to act as porters. A slaving expedition could last a whole year and bring in between 400 and 600 slaves. The most distant ''feira'' from the coast was at Kasanje (founded by the

Imbangala The Imbangala or Mbangala were 17th-century groups of Angolan warriors and marauders who founded the Kasanje Kingdom. Origins The Imbangala were people, possibly from Central Africa, who appeared in Angola during the early 17th century. Their ori ...

c. 1620), and the ''pombeiros'' rarely ventured further than that. Through the ''pombeiros'', Portugal made indirect contact with the kingdoms beyond the

Kingdom of Kongo The Kingdom of Kongo ( kg, Kongo dya Ntotila or ''Wene wa Kongo;'' pt, Reino do Congo) was a kingdom located in central Africa in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the Republic of the ...

, such as Lunda and

Kazembe Kazembe is a traditional kingdom in modern-day Zambia, Southeastern Congo. For more than 250 years, Kazembe has been an influential kingdom of the Kiluba- Chibemba, speaking the language of the Eastern Luba- Lunda people of south-central Afric ...

. Slaves from Kazembe could be traded to the Lunda, who in turn sold them to the Imbangala, who brought them to the ''pombeiros'' at Kasanje. This way the human capital of Kazembe made its way to the Atlantic, whereas the ivory of the kingdom was sent east to the Portuguese ''feira'' at

Tete Tete is the capital city of Tete Province in Mozambique. It is located on the Zambezi River, and is the site of two of the four bridges crossing the river in Mozambique. A Swahili trade center before the Portuguese colonial era, Tete continues ...

for the Indian Ocean trade. In 1806, two ''pombeiros'' named Pedro João Baptista and Amaro José travelled from Luanda as far as Tete and back, but the journey took them over four years.

References

{{reflist Portuguese Angola Kingdom of Kongo African slave trade Portuguese slave trade