Abstract
This article draws on my ongoing research into the life and archive of A. F. F. da Silva Porto (1817–1890), a trader-traveler who lived in nineteenth-century West Central Africa. Comprising a series of volumes of notes and various other manuscripts, the archive is currently in two Portuguese institutions. By historicizing this archive, I unravel Silva Porto’s messy writing process and argue that the volumes known as his diaries correspond to distinct literary projects. I then problematize the classification practices related to the traders in Viye and argue that, as a Luso-African archive, it is a privileged observatory of the dynamics of migration and creolization associated with trade in the region.
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 47-67 |
Journal | E-Journal of Portuguese History |
Volume | 20 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2022 |