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| Title: | Heretics, Slaves and Witches - As Seen by Guinea Jesuits c.1610 |
| Author: | Hair, Paul E.H. |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Religion in Africa |
| Volume: | 28 |
| Issue: | 2 |
| Pages: | 131-144 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Sierra Leone Guinea Portugal |
| Subjects: | missions colonial conquest slavery Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft History and Exploration |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/1581709 |
| Abstract: | Of the seventeen Jesuits sent from Portugal to the 'Mission to Cape Verde' in the early 17th century most died in the Cape Verde islands, the missionary base, and just a handful reached the mainland of Guinea. The author examines the views of the only two Jesuit priests who survived for long service there, Father Baltasar Barreira who served between 1604 and 1609 and Father Manuel Álvares who served between 1607 and 1617, on several issues relating to their mission in Africa as stated in their writings. Barreira died in the islands in 1612 and Álvares at Sierra Leone in 1617. Both left extensive writings, dealing with the conquest of Sierra Leone, slavery and slave trading, and witchcraft. In their writings there is no hint that the Jesuits' absolute reliance on the secular power of the Portuguese crown for the furthering of an international religion raised any moral problems. Barreira's analysis of enslavement in Africa, while historically sound with respect to the reality and modes of African enslavement, has one weakness: he concentrates too much on the predatory element in African society. Concerning witches and their evil works, Álvares displays a slightly more questioning attitude than Barreira. Notes, ref. |
