Folhinha de Stockwell shared a link.
HÁ MUITAS HITÓRIAS INTERESSANTES POR CONTAR, COMO A DO PADEIRO MIRANDA, DESTERRADO PARA TIMOR, QUE ACONTECERAM E ACONTECEM PRESENTEMENTE AOS PORTUGUESES PELO MUNDO FORA.
Leia o artigo em português seguidamente à história da presença portuguesa no Ghana, (IN WIKIPEDIA),
PRATICAMENTE, A HISTÓRIA DE PORTUGAL APENA FALA DAS ÚLTIMAS COLÓNIAS, MAS A NOSSA PRESENÇA ESTÁ MANIFESTA PELA ÁFRICA FORA E POR TODA A PARTE PELO CAMINHO ENTRE PORTUGAL E A INDIA.
PROCURE NA INTERNET POR EXEMPLO "ST. HELENA", CAPITAL JAMESTOWN, MINÚSCULO ARQUIPÉLAGO PERDIDO NO SUL DO ATLÂNTICO, PARA ONDE NAPOLEÃO FOI DEPORTADO E FALECEU COM 52 ANOS DE IDADE.
A FOLHINHA STOCKWELL PROCUROU PARA SI INFORMAÇÃO NA WIKIPEDIA SOBRE O GHANA, NA COSTA AFRICANA, ONDE PORTUGAL TERIA MANTIDO PRESENÇA ATIVA DURANTE UNS 200 ANOS. MAIS TARDE , O NOSSO ENVOLVIMENTO NO MERCADO DE ESCRAVOS É OBVIAMENTE TRISTE E CONDENÁVEL. É UMA MANCHA NA HISTÓRIA EUROPEIA E AFRICANA PORQUE OS PRÓPRIOS AFRICANOS PRATICAVAM E AINDA PRATICAM HOJE ESTE TIPO NEGÓCIO.
REPÚBICA DO GHANA
Pre-Portuguese
The people living along the West African coast at Elmina around the fifteenth century were presumably Fante. The Fante ethnicity bears an uncertain relationship to "Akan," itself a word connoting originality from the root word, "kan", to be first or original. Among their ancestors were merchants and miners trading gold into the Mediterranean and Near Eastern worlds from medieval times. The ancestors of the Akan-speakers of the forests however undoubtedly came from north of the forest.
The people on the West African coast were organized into numerous populations that were drawn according to kinship lines. Family was extremely important in society, and family heads were united in communities under a recognized local authority. Along the Gold Coast alone, more than twenty independent kingdom-states existed. Elmina lay between two different Fante kingdoms, Fetu and Eguafo. While there was a relative degree of interstate rivalry, peoples generally intermingled freely. Trade between localities was important for the economy. The coastal people also had strong trade relations with the Sudanese empires to the north.
West Africans nurtured ancient connections to other parts of the world. Common metals trade, iconic artistic forms, and agricultural borrowing show that trans-Saharan and regional coastal connections thrived. The Portuguese in 1471 were the first Europeans to visit the Gold Coast as such, but not necessarily the first sailors to reach the port.
[edit]Portuguese arrival
The Portuguese first reached what became known as the Gold Coast in 1471. Prince Henry the Navigator first sent ships to explore the African coast in 1418. The Portuguese had several motives for voyaging south. They were attracted by rumors of fertile African lands that were rich in gold and ivory. They also sought a southern route to India so as to circumvent Arab traders and establish direct trade with Asia. In line with the strong religious sentiments of the time, another focus of the Portuguese was Christian proselitism. They also sought to form an alliance with the legendary Prester John, who was believed to be the leader of a great Christian nation somewhere in Africa.
These motives prompted the Portuguese to develop the Guinea trade. They made gradual progress down the African coast, each voyage reaching a point further along than the last. After fifty years of coastal exploration, the Portuguese finally reached Elmina in 1471, during the reign of King Afonso V. However, because Portuguese royalty had lost interest in African exploration as a result of meager returns, the Guinea trade was put under the oversight of the Portuguese trader, Fernão Gomes. Upon reaching present day Elmina, Gomes discovered a thriving gold trade already established among the natives and visiting Arab and Berber traders. He established his own trading post, and it became known to the Portuguese as “A Mina” (the Mine) because of the gold that could be found there.
[edit]Construction
Trade between Elmina and Portugal grew throughout the decade following the establishment of the trading post under Gomes. In 1481, the recently-crowned João II decided to build a fort on the coast in order to ensure the protection of this trade, which was once again held as a royal monopoly. King João sent all of the materials needed to build the fort on ten caravels and two transport ships. The supplies, which included everything from heavy foundation stones to roof tiles, were sent, in pre-fitted form, along with provisions for six hundred men. Under the command of Diogo de Azambuja, the fleet set sail on 11 December 1481 and arrived at Elmina a little over a month later, on 19 January 1482. Some historians note that Christopher Columbus was among those to make the voyage to the Gold Coast with this fleet.
Upon arrival, Azambuja contracted a Portuguese trader, who had lived at Elmina for some time, to arrange and interpret an official meeting with the local chief, Kwamin Ansah (interpreted from the Portuguese, "Caramansa"). Concealing his self-interest with elegant manners and friendliness, Azambuja told the chief of the great advantages in building a fort, including protection from the very powerful king of Portugal.
Chief Kwamin Ansah, while accepting Azambuja, as he had any other Portuguese trader who arrived on his coast, was wary of a permanent settlement. However, with firm plans already in place, the Portuguese would not be deterred. After offering gifts, making promises, and hinting at the consequences of noncompliance, the Portuguese finally received Kwamin Ansah's reluctant agreement.
When construction began the next morning, the chief’s reluctance was proved to be well-founded. In order to build the fort in the most defensible position on the peninsula, the Portuguese had to demolish the homes of some of the villagers, who consented only after they had been compensated. The Portuguese also tried to quarry a nearby rock that the people of Elmina, who were animists, believed to be the home of the god of the nearby River Benya. In response to this, the local people forged an attack that resulted in several Portuguese deaths. Finally, an understanding was reached, but continued opposition led the Portuguese to burn the local village in retaliation. Even in this tense atmosphere, the first story of the tower was completed after only twenty days; this was the result of having brought so much prefabricated building materials. The remainder of the fort and an accompanying church were completed soon afterward, despite resistance.
[edit]Immediate impact
The fort was the first pre-cast building to have been planned and executed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Upon its completion, Elmina was established as a proper city. Azambuja was named governor, and King João added the title "Lord of Guinea" to his noble titles. São Jorge da Mina took on the military and economic importance that had previously been held by the Portuguese factory at Arguim Island on the southern edge of the Moorish world. At the height of the gold trade in the early sixteenth century, 24,000 ounces of gold were exported annually from the Gold Coast, accounting for one-tenth of the world’s supply.
The new fort, signifying the permanent involvement of Europeans in West Africa, had a considerable effect on Africans living on the coast. At the urging of the Portuguese, Elmina declared itself an independent state whose Governor then took control of the town’s affairs. The people of Elmina were offered Portuguese protection against attacks from neighboring coastal tribes, with whom the Portuguese had much less genial relations (even though they were friendly with the powerful trading nations in the African interior.) If any tribe attempted to trade with a nation other than Portugal, the Portuguese reacted with aggressive force, often by forming alliances with the betraying nation’s enemies. Hostility between tribes increased, and the traditional organization of tribal societies suffered, especially after the Portuguese introduced them to fire-arms, which made the dominance of the stronger tribes easier.
Trade with the Europeans helped make certain goods, such as cloth and beads, more available to the coastal people, but European involvement also disrupted traditional trade routes between coastal people and northern tribes by cutting out the African middlemen. The population of Elmina swelled with traders from other towns hoping to trade with the Portuguese, who gradually established a west-African monopoly.
[edit]Atlantic slave trade
By the seventeenth century, most trade in West Africa concentrated on the sale of slaves. São Jorge da Mina played a significant part in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The castle acted as a depot where slaves were bought in bartering fashion from local African chiefs and kings. The slaves, often captured in the African interior by the slave-catchers of coastal tribes, were sold to Portuguese traders in exchange for goods such as textiles and horses. The slaves were held captive in the castle before exiting through the castle’s infamous “Door of No Return” to be transported and resold in newly colonized Brazil and other Portuguese colonies.
"Early European contact by the Portuguese, who came to Ghana in the 15th century, focused on the extensive availability of gold. The Portuguese first landed at a coastal city inhabited by the Fantenation-state, and named the place Elmina.[20] In 1481, King John II of Portugal commissionedDiogo d'Azambuja to build Elmina Castle, which was completed in 3 years."More than thirty forts and castles were built by the Portuguese,
Gold Coast & European Exploration: Before March 1957 Ghana was called the Gold Coast. The Portuguese who came to Ghana in the 15th Century found so much gold between the rivers Ankobra and the Volta that they named the place Mina - meaning Mine. The Gold Coast was later adopted to by the English colonisers. Similarily, the French, equally impressed by the trinkets worn by the coastal people, named The Ivory Coast, Cote d'Ivoire.
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to arrive in what is now Ghana, landing on the shores in 1471. Aware that the source of the rich trans-Saharan gold trade was inland, the Portuguese named the region the Gold Coast. At a coastal village that they named Elmina (Portuguese for “the mine”), they established a commercial mecca, trading firearms and slaves from other parts of Africa for gold dust. Competition with Portugal’s gold trade monopoly soon came from Spanish, Italian, and British traders, among others. To protect their commercial interests, the Portuguese constructed several fortresses. Saint George’s Castle, the most impressive of the Portuguese strongholds, was begun in 1482 at Elmina.
The Portuguese began exploring the Gold Coast in search of gold and trading opportunities in the early 15th century. In 1482 they built the Sao Jorge Castle, to help support their trade networks and fend off European competitors. Castle São Jorge da Mina (or St. George's Castle as it is known today) was the first fortified European trade post in subsaharan Africa.
The Portuguese were interested in gold and luxury items such as ivory, pepper, and redwood, as were the Dutch who captured the fort in 1627. Elmina was under Dutch control until 1872 when it was captured by the British. In response to a revolt by the Elmina residents, the British burned the city and abandoned the fort.
The first slaves traded out of Elmina were imported into the city from Liberia, Benin, northern Ghana and other parts of coastal Africa, by the Portuguese during the 15th century. Slaves became the primary export from Elmina in the 17th century.
ARTIGO POR ANNA CRISTINA PEREIRA NO JORNAL O PÚBLICO PT DE HOJE 14 DE JANEIRO DE 2013 SOBRE UMA FAMÍLIA LUSO-TIMORENSE EM TIMOR DURANTE A INVASÃO PELAS TROPAS DO JAPÃO. ARTIGO DE ALTO VALOR SOCIAL, POLÍTICO E HISTÓRICO.
A carestia de vida era desmedida. Desde 1919, as greves sucediam-se. No início dos anos 20, estourou a violência contra polícias, patrões e fura-greves. Na sequência de um atentado contra o director da polícia, uns 100 activistas foram detidos. Instaurada a ditadura, 64 foram deportados para Timor.
Simões de Miranda ia no navio Pêro Alenquer, que partiu de Lisboa em Abril de 1927 com deportados no porão. O desterro não foi tão terrível como temera: decidido a equilibrar a balança de pagamentos da colónia, o governador, Teófilo Duarte, decidiu fazer deles colonos. E o padeiro, então com 25 anos, recebeu um espaço, um forno e farinha para começar o seu próprio negócio.
Formou uma família – primeiro com Laura Ximenes, depois com a irmã dela, Áurea. Quando a II Grande Guerra chegou à ilha, já enviara os filhos mais velhos, Alice e José, para os avós paternos, em Aveiro. Com ele viviam o enteado, Marcelino, e os dois filhos mais novos, João e Manuel.
Muito pão da Padaria Europeia vendeu aos aliados, que desembarcaram em Timor em Dezembro de 1941, decididos a impedir que os japoneses usassem a ilha como base para atingir a Austrália. Morreu durante a invasão japonesa, deixando os dois filhos com apenas nove e cinco anos. Para lá dos confrontos, muitos morriam de fome e falta de assistência médica.
Depois de muitos meses a fugir no mato, Manuel e João foram resgatados por militares australianos e levados para um campo de refugiados na Austrália. No início de 1945, ainda antes do fim da II Grande Guerra, seguiram, via Moçambique, para Portugal, onde foram entregues à Casa Pia de Lisboa.
Houve reflexos em Aveiro. José cresceu com um forte sentimento de injustiça provocado pelo que acontecera ao pai e pelo que via à sua volta. Fez-se marceneiro, casou-se, mas nunca se esqueceu disso: aproximou-se do Partido Comunista Português e ainda foi preso pela PIDE em Fevereiro de 1963.
Em 2000, o fotojornalista Adriano Miranda visitou Timor, em reportagem para o PÚBLICO, e encontrou a padaria que pertencera ao avô destruída por acção de milícias, grupos armados pela Indonésia em 1998, que tanto lembram as colunas negras, os grupos armados pelos japoneses em 1942. Já então lhe pareceu que havia uma história que não era só sua, que não era só da sua família, que era uma história de resistência, que merecia ser resgatada e contada.
Este domingo, a revista 2 conta a história do padeiro Mirandacruzando depoimentos com cartas, registos da polícia portuguesa, ficheiros do Exército australiano, jornais, livros. Não é igual à que Adriano Miranda cresceu a ouvir a mãe e os tios a contar, porque o tempo prega muitas partidas à memória.
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