Guinea - Arrival of the Portuguese
Africa has three Guineas, each with a different official language: Guinea (245,857 km²), also known as Guinea-Conakry (French-speaking); Guinea-Bissau (36 125 km²) known as "Portuguese Guinea" (Portuguese); Equatorial Guinea (28,051 km²) or "Spanish Guinea" (Spanish-speaking) or "Spanish Guinea" (Hispanic-speaking). The official language of each of these countries stems from the history of European colonization (France, Portugal and Spain).
The first European explorers to reach the area of modern Guinea were Portuguese, who sailed along the coast in the mid-1400s. The voyages were part of a long-range exploration plan of Prince Henry the Navigator that included as one goal the bypassing of Muslim North Africa in order to secure direct access to trade in West Africa, particularly to the sources of gold. Little gold was found on the early voyages, but West African captives were taken to Portugal for training to assist in future explorations. Portuguese merchants saw in the captives, rather, a source of slave labor, and exploitation of the market was actively under way by the latter 1400s.
In 1432, Pope Martin V granted Portugal the right to "dispose by force of the good of infidels, with plenary indulgence for those who would perish", thus the King of Portugal becomes the lord of the Kingdom of Guinea and of the coast of Africa. Under the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which traced the territorial boundaries between Spain and Portugal, Pope Alexander VI Borgia (1431-1503) compelled the Spaniards and the Portuguese to agree on the division of the world. What would be discovered west of the meridian would belong to Spain and to the east (Brazil and Africa), Portugal. In reality, the Catholic Church had attributed to the two Peninsular Powers, not zones of colonization, but zones of evangelization, but this distinction did not long resist the imperialist appetites. By virtue of the treaty of Tordesillas, Africa was to belong to the Portuguese only, since the Spaniards were excluded from it, slong with the other countries of Europe, such as France, Great Britain and Holland.
Between 1456 and 1460 Pedro de Sintra landed at Cape Verga and further south reached the point of the island of Tombo where Conakry was. The Portuguese gave the names of Rio Nunez, Rio Pongo (deformation of Araponka), Rio Kapatchez, & c. Rivers in the coastal zone. Off the coast of Conakry were discovered the islands baptized "Ilhas dos Idolos" (islands of the idols) because the inhabitants of these islands, when they come to sow the rice bring their idols that they adore. These sailors noted that the Portuguese came into contact with the Landouma and the Nalou in the Rio compagny and the Rio Nunez. They also reported the presence of the Djallonke in the interior.
The coast of Guinea was discovered for Europe by the navigator Pedro de Sintra in 1460, the Venetian Ca Da Mosto wrote in 1463 the relation of this trip: "The sailing of the Portuguese Pedro de Sintra", written by Messire Alvise Ca'Da Mosto "These people have the custom of having their ears pierced with holes, to which hang different gold rings attached to one another. They also have a nose pierced from below and in the middle, to which they suspend a ring of gold, as we do with our buffalo. When they want to eat, they remove those rings. Men wear it as well as women. It appears that the women of the nobles or persons of some importance have the lips of their nature pierced with holes, as well as their ears, to indicate their dignity or superior condition; Rings that they put and take away at their pleasure."
After a few clashes, the Portuguese navigators and the coastal populations made peace. The Portuguese, interested in gold, skins and other exotic products of the Sudan, spices and slaves, sold cloth, iron utensils, even horses. The Malian mansas established diplomatic relations with their counterparts in Portugal.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans, in the fifteenth century, to go along the coasts of Guinea and to come into contact with the populations that were there. They set up bazaars and traded spices, palm oil, gold, ivory and slavese. The toponymy still retains its mark (Rio Nuñez, Rio Pongo, Cap Verga, etc.) and several families have inherited their names (Fernandez, Gomez, etc.). But the Portuguese were very early on in competition with the British and the French. They were quickly circumscribed in what has now become Guinea-Bissau.
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