The Forgotten Diaspora This 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 to them by the newly established Portuguese Jewish commu- nity in Amsterdam. In Senegal, local Muslim rulers protected the Jews from agents of the Inquisition. The Petite Côte communities included sev- eral 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 indirectly in the slave trade, illegally supplying West African markets with swords. This blade weapons trade depended on artisans and merchants based in Morocco, L isbon, and northern Europe and affected warfare in the Sahel and along the Upper Guinea Coast. After moving to the United Provinces around 1620, the members of these communities had a profound infl u- ence on relations between black and white Jews in Amsterdam. The study not only discovers previously unknown Jewish communities but by doing so offers a reinterpretation of the dynamics and processes of identity con- struction throughout the Atlantic world. Peter Mark is Professor of Art History at Wesleyan University. He is the author of several books, including “ Portuguese” Style and Luso-African Identity: Precolonial Senegambia, Sixteenth to Nineteenth Centuries (2002) and T he Wild Bull and the Sacred Forest: Form, Meaning and Change in Senegambian Initiation Masks of the Diola (Cambridge, 1992), as well as multiple scholarly articles. Professor Mark has twice been an Alexander von Humboldt research Fellow at the Frobenius- Institut, Goethe Universität (Frankfurt). He has also held National Endowment for the Humanities and Fulbright Fellowships. José da Silva Horta is Assistant Professor, with tenure, of African History and of Expansion History at the University of Lisbon, where he is also a researcher at the Centre of History. He serves as director of the Faculty of Letters Doctoral Program in African History and of the African Studies Undergraduate Program. He is author of A ‘ Guiné do Cabo Verde’ : produção textual e representações (1578–1684) , Ph.D. dissertation, 2002 (Gulbenkian/FCT, in press). His publications include A representação do Africano na Literatura de Viagens, do Senegal à Serra Leoa (1453–1508 ) (1991) and articles in international journals. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:14:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:14:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 The Forgotten Diaspora Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World PETER MARK Wesleyan University, Connecticut JOSÉ DA SILVA HORTA University of Lisbon Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:14:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 cambridge university press Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, N ew York, ny 10013-2473, usa www.cambridge.org Information on this title: w ww.cambridge.org/9780521192866 © Peter Mark and José da Silva Horta 2 011 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2011 Printed in the United States of America A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication data Mark, Peter (Peter Allen), 1948– The Forgotten Diaspora : Jewish Communities in West Africa and the Making of the Atlantic World / Peter Mark, José da Silva Horta p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-521-19286-6 (hardback) 1. Jews – Senegal – Petite Coast – History – 16th century. 2. Jews – Senegal – Petite Coast – History – 17th century. 3. Sephardim – Senegal – Petite Coast – History – 16th century. 4. Sephardim – Senegal – Petite Coast – History – 17th century. 5. Marranos – Senegal – Petite Coast – History – 16th century. 6. Marranos – Senegal – Petite Coast – History – 17th century. 7. Petite Coast (Senegal) – Ethnic relations. I. Horta, José da Silva. II. Title. ds135.s34m37 2011 305.892′40663–dc22 2010044677 isbn 978-0-521-19286-6 Hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:14:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Our dedication calls to mind a Portuguese drinking toast: “aos presentes e aos ausentes”; “To those who are present and to those who are absent.” In this case, those who are absent will always be present for us: To Odile Goerg To Cristina Amaro In Memoriam: Herbert Mark Maria Eugénia and Jorge Horta Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:14:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Stockholm University Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:14:28, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Contents List of Illustrations page ix Acknowledgments xi Introduction 1 1 Two Sephardic Communities on Senegal’s Petite Côte 20 2 Jewish Identity in Senegambia 52 3 Religious Interaction: Catholics, Jews, and Muslims in Early Seventeenth-Century Upper Guinea 83 4 The Blade Weapons Trade in Seventeenth-Century West Africa 103 5 The Luso-African Ivories as Historical Source for the Weapons Trade and for the Jewish Presence in Guinea of Cape Verde 135 6 The Later Years: Merchant Mobility and the Evolution of Identity 159 Conclusion 199 Appendix I: The Jewish Traders of Porto d’Ale and Joal, Their Relatives, and Some of Their New Christian Partners in Senegambia and in the United Provinces and Portugal: A Comprehensive List (ca. 1606–ca. 1635) 211 Appendix II: A Chronological Outline of the Institutional Proceed ings against the Jews of Porto d’Ale and Joal (1611–1643) 221 Bibliography 225 Index 245 vii Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Liverpool Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:15:17, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Liverpool Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:15:17, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Illustrations Maps i.1 Map of coastal Senegambia (locating the three Sephardic communities and main toponyms and rivers) page 5 i.2 Map of early seventeenth-century polities, Petite Côte to Rio Grande 6 i.3 Map of Greater Senegambia, Guiné do Cabo Verde 7 Figures 1.1 Romeyn de Hooghe, “View of the Burial Ground of the Portuguese Jews in Ouderkerk near Amsterdam” (late seventeenth-century image) 30 2.1 Jewish cemetery, Ouderkerk 71 4.1 Hyacinthe Hecquard, watercolor entitled “Cavalier Peulh” [Peul cavalryman], 1850 107 4.2 Kris, Dagger; blade: sixteenth to seventeenth century; hilt: seventeenth through nineteenth century; Indonesia/Malaysia, steel, wood, silver; blade length 32 centimeters 124 5.1 Ivory salt cellar, Luso-African, Sierra Leone, sixteenth or early seventeenth century 149 5.2 Ivory salt cellar, Copenhagen, Nationalmuseet 151 5.3 Ivory spoon, possibly a y ad or ponteiro 153 6.1 Interior of Amsterdam synagogue 182 ix Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Liverpool Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:16:13, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. University of Liverpool Library, on 01 Nov 2017 at 06:16:13, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511921537