The Forgotten Diaspora: Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic WorldThis book traces the history of early seventeenth-century Portuguese Sephardic traders who settled in two communities on Senegal's Petite Côte. There, they lived as public Jews, under the spiritual guidance of a rabbi sent by the newly established Portuguese Jewish community in Amsterdam and were protected from agents of the Inquisition by local Muslim rulers. The Petite Côte communities included several Jews of mixed Portuguese-African heritage as well as African wives, offspring, and servants. The blade weapons trade was an important part of their commercial activities. These merchants participated marginally in the slave trade but fully in the arms trade, illegally supplying West African markets with swords. This arms trade depended on artisans and merchants based in Morocco, Lisbon, and northern Europe and affected warfare in the Sahel and along the Upper Guinea Coast. The study discovers previously unknown Jewish communities and by doing so offers a reinterpretation of the dynamics and processes of identity construction throughout the Atlantic world. |
Contents
1 | |
1 Two Sephardic Communities on Senegals Petite Côte | 20 |
2 Jewish Identity in Senegambia | 52 |
3 Religious Interaction | 83 |
4 The Blade Weapons Trade in SeventeenthCentury West Africa | 103 |
5 The LusoAfrican Ivories as Historical Source for the Weapons Trade and for the Jewish Presence in Guinea of Cape Verde | 135 |
6 The Later Years | 159 |
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Common terms and phrases
Almada Amsterdam Angola António Nunes ANTT Atlantic Benin Black Africans blade weapons Cabo Verde Cacheu Cape Verde Islands Casamance Catholic Chapter christãos coastal commercial contratador Costa Crypto-Jews cultural d’Ale diaspora Diogo Vaz documents Dutch Early Modern early seventeenth early seventeenth-century espadas Eurafrican European Gambia Gemeente Archief Guiné do Cabo Guinea of Cape História Horta Inquisição de Lisboa ivory Jacob Peregrino Jewish Jewish community Jewish identity Jewish merchants Jewish traders Joal Joal and Porto Judaism Judeus lançados Leoa Lisbon Inquisition living livro Luís Fernandes Duarte Luso-African Manuel Álvares Marrano Mesquita Morocco Muslim nação Petite Côte Porto d'Ale Portugal Portuguese Jews Portuguese New Christians public Jews religious ritual Rodrigues role Rufisque rulers Schorsch Sebastião Senegal Senegambia Sephardic community Sephardic merchants Sephardim ships Sierra Leone Silva Simão Rodrigues slave trade sources swords synagogue terçados Torah Torrão Upper Guinea Upper Guinea Coast Vaz de Sousa Veiga weapons trade West Africa Wolof