Esclavage africain et traite atlantique confrontés : transactions langagières et juridiques (à propos du tribunal de mucanos dans l’Angola des xviie et xviiie siècles)

Abstract

If we agree that Angola was the biggest source for the American labor force and the slave trade a major part of its activity, we cannot forget that societies of Central Africa also had its own systems of slavery. With the complex historiographical debate on slavery in Africa as background, this article examines linguistic and juridical negotiations which reveal the links between two systems. It examines particularly the introduction into colonial texts of an African lexicon of slavery; judgments of the Mucanos courts (tribunal dos mucanos) as juridical instances within chieftainships; and also courts with mbundu origins integrated into the Portuguese juridical system under the rule of the general Governor. We argue that the history of slavery in Angola is the history of the contiguities between two systems. In this article a life story reveals the bridges: an African with a pawned status was transformed into a slave in the Atlantic trade.

Keywords

• Central Africa
• Angola
• 17th century
• 18th century
• Mbundu
• slave trade