A Crack in the Earth: A Journey Up Israel's Rift Valley° Benin
° Cameroon
° Congo
° Cote d'Ivoire
° Gabon
° Ghana
° Guinea
° Kenya
° Liberia
° Mauritania
° Mozambique
° Nigeria
° Senegal
° Sierra Leone
° Somalia
° Tanzania
° Zanzibar
The nation now called Tanzania is considered one of the oldest known (continuously inhabited) areas on the planet; fossil remains of humans and pre-human hominids have been found here dating back over two million years.
Almost five centuries as a Portuguese colony came to a close with independence in 1975.
From 1894 the region known as Portuguese East Africa had a clearly defined shape on European maps. Its western and southern boundaries are imposed upon Portugal in 1891 in a treaty with the more powerful colonial neighbour, Britain. The northern frontier, with German East Africa, was amicably agreed upon in 1894.
Portugal undertook a succession of military campaigns to try and extend colonial rule inland. But its chief method of exploiting the potential of the region was to award large tracts of land to commercial companies chartered for the purpose - along the lines of Rhodes's companies in the neighbouring Rhodesias. The largest of these was the Mozambique Company, formed in 1891.
Guardian, February 4, 1891
London, United Kingdom
Portugal.—An official denial is given at Lisbon to the statement that the Government had lodged a claim throngh their Minister in London for a rectification of the frontiers of Goa, involving the cession of a certain amount of territory now included in British India.
The Times correspondent at Paris sends to that paper the text of the mnch-discussed charter alleged to have been granted by the King of Portugal to the Mozambique Company. It is without date. By the first clause the Government concedes to the Mozambique Company founded by the Act of March 8, 1888
"The administration and working, under the conditions prescribed by the present decree, of the territories of the Mozambique province bounded on the north and north-west by tho Zambesi from its northernmost mouth, and the district of Tete, on the west by the interior boundary of the province, on the south by the river Sabi to its northernmost mouth, and on the east by the ocean. This concession will only become effective when the company has augmented its capital and modified its statutes in harmony with the terms of the present decree."
Clause 2 permits the company to make treaties on certain questions with native chiefs Bubject to the approval of the Government, and to i t s arbitration (3) if disputes should arise. Clauses 4 and 5 provide that the company shall observe all the treaties present or future made by the Government with any foreign Power, and abstain from any relations with a foreign State disapproved of by the Government. The company may establish (6), with the approval of the Government, sea and land police in its territories; and (7) the judiciary shall be established by t h e Government and paid by the State. The company is to establish (8) schools, and (9) its territories shall be subject to the Portuguese ecclesiastical authorities, and no foreign Mission shall be established there without the leave of the Government. " Nevertheless, liberty of conscience and religious toleration are guaranteed to the inhabitants." The company shall (10) regulate the trade in alcoholic liquors, fire-arms, and powder to prevent their abuse. The company is to aid in colonisation (11) and (12-15) render certain services to the Government in peace and war. By clause 16 —
"The company shall he considered Portuguese in all its effects and shall have its head office at Lisbon. Its personnel, administrative and fiscal, shall always be for tho greater part composed of Portuguese subjects domiciled in Portugal. The chief agent of the company at Lisbon and its principal representative in Africa shall also be of Portuguese nationality and reside respectively on the continental part of the kingdom and the conceded territories. Tho administrators for tho next ton years shall be the present administrators of the company (Colonel Paiva d'Andrade, Lieut.-Col. dos Santos Covreur, and Marquis de Fontes Pereira de Mello)." The company may establish (17) in countries where sufficient capital is subscribed branch offices, and (18) the Government shall nominate a commission to attend the sittings of the board of directors. The administrative or fiscal officials of the company (19) and the commissioned officers of police shall be for the most part Portuguese subjects, and in any case, subject to Portuguese law. Clause 20 provides for the Punge Railway. Certain rights of commerce, trade, and taxation (21) are conferred upon the company, which most (22) use in all its territory the Portuguese flag, which may bear a distinctive sign. The company may cede (23-25) temporarily the rights granted to ii] the recipients being subject to the taxes established under clause 21, and (26) subject to the Portuguese laws and tribunals. The company shall not (27) transfer any of itB rights to a foreign Power. The Government may, after twenty-five years (28), modify the present concession, and enter into possession of part or all the company's property on paying indemnity. The Government shall (29) for twenty-five years levy no taxes on the conceded territories, but Bhall receive 5 per cent, of the net profits of the company (to be increased to 10 per cent, when the dividend reaches 10 per oent.), and in any case a sum not inferior to the net revenue of the State from the said territories in 1889-90. The capital of the company (30) shall be 4,500 eontos of reis in 4,500 reis shares. Clauses 31, 32 and 34, 35 provide for the working of the company, whose concession may be annulled if it fail to comply with the stipulations of the present decree. All trades and professions not expressly reserved to the company may be exercised freely (33) on the conceded territory. Disputed points between the Government and the company Bhall be subject to arbitration (36), and if within sixty days the company do not increase its capital and modify its statutes as required above the present decree Bhall be void (37) .
It has been reported that and understanding between the Government and the company exists by which all co-operation of British capital will be refused. Teh Siecle, however, states that M. Bartissol, who has been negotiating for French capital on behalf of the copany, was was asked by Mr. Cawston, a director of the British South Africa Company, to allow on behalf of Monomotapa all possible privileges in regard to the subscription of the capital of the Mozambique Company, and that one-half the shares should be reserved for England. M. Bartissol, however, considering that this proposal afforded no guarantee for an understanding, expressed a desire that the two companies should assist one another without in any way subordinating their action to any particular mode of initial subscription. Mr. Cawston, however, informed Renter's agent that—
Far from having asked that one-half of the capital should bo reserved for British subscription, ho affirmed to M. Bartissol that, even had the Portuguese Government allowed the British South Africa Company to negotiate with the Mozambique Company, it would have been impossible for them to take a single share in that company, as some of the provisions Of the charter we're so decidedly unfavourable to British interests that they would lead to a repetition of the Delagoa Bay complications."
Major Serpa Finto, who is now staying in Paris, is said to have stated to a reporter :— "The Government told the old Mozambique Company that if they could find sufficient money in France or Belgium—not English money—it would give them a more extensive concession and greater privileges. I am certain the new concession will he signed very shortly if it is not signed already, as the members of the old company have found tho money, and found it in France. There was on Saturday a serious military revolt."
Using the African population as contract labour (in practice differing little from forced labour), the company developed mines and sugar and copra plantations. It also built a railway system to link with the territory of Rhodes's British South Africa Company to the west and with the British Central African Protectorate to the northwest.
