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An Africanist Photo-ethno-graphy in the Portuguese New State (1928–1974)

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Photography in Portuguese Colonial Africa, 1860–1975

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies ((CIPCSS))

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Abstract

This chapter examines the trajectory of Charles Estermann (1895–1976), a missionary-turned-ethnographer-turned-photographer. Estermann’s scientific career flourished amidst the prolonged Portuguese New State dictatorship (1928–1974) while he resided in Angola, a colony at the time. I recuperate his long-term extensive use of photography as a scientific record and a tool for science communication, effectively using this medium all while operating from a peripheral region of a Portuguese colony. Through the lens of his published photography, I delve into how Estermann, as a self-taught scientist, prolifically documented the diverse ethnographic aspects of the multiethnic southern region, adeptly adapting to the ever-evolving technological advancements of his time, as well as navigating the evolving policy shifts of a long-lasting colonial regime.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Christopher Morton, “Double Alienation: Evans-Pritchard’s Zande & Nuer Photographs in Comparative Perspective”, in Photography in Africa: Ethnographic Perspectives, ed. Richard Vokes (Suffolk: James Curey, 2012), 33–55; John Comaroff et al., eds., Picturing a Colonial Past: The African Photographs of Isaac Schapera (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).

  2. 2.

    Chris Wingfield, “Photographing ‘the Bridge’: Product & Process in the Analysis of a Social Situation in Non-Modern Zululand”, in Photography in Africa, ed. Vokes (2012), 56–80.

  3. 3.

    Beatrix Heintze, “In Pursuit of a Chameleon: Early Ethnographic Photography from Angola in Context”, History in Africa 17 (1990): 131–156; Jill Dias, “Portuguese Sources for the History of Portuguese-Speaking Africa, 1870–1914”, History in Africa 18 (1991): 67–82.

  4. 4.

    Dorothy Ross, “Changing Contours of the Social Science Disciplines”, in The Cambridge History of Science: The Modern Social Sciences, Vol 7, 2008, 206.

  5. 5.

    Estermann travelled to Europe on several occasions. One of Estermann’s missionary colleagues, in a partially unpublished tribute, mentions that in around 1945 his congregation offered him an ecclesiastical promotion that would mean moving to Brazil. Wanting neither to leave Angola nor to explicitly refuse the honour, Estermann produced a medical report and was relieved when the other proposed candidate accepted the position—see Valente, “P. Carlos Estermann [Espólio Pessoal de P. José Francisco Valente]”, 1991, 27, C575, APPCES/Lisbon; and “P. Carlos Estermann: Grande Missionário e Etnólogo do Sul de Angola”, Revista Espiritana, 1 (2002): 67–74. Estermann’s specific attachment to the region is further evidenced in 1941 when he negotiated with his congregation to remain in Sá da Bandeira, nowadays Lubango city, rather than move to Nova Lisboa, currently Huambo city, in the central plateau. This was a move his ecclesiastical role should have required him to make after a restructuring of the religious districts by the Portuguese state (cf. Pereira, “O Padre Carlos Estermann, Missionário e Etnógrafo’, 1976, 8).

  6. 6.

    Pereira, 17.

  7. 7.

    Divided by ethnic boundaries, each volume has a substantive number of photographic images that he produced (1: 145 images, including a field portrait ascribed to an anonymous photographer; 2: 144 images; 3: 72 images). The drawings, unaccounted for here, are ascribed to others. The Junta de Investigações do Ultramar (JIU), as it became strategically known after 1950 to avoid the term colony due to the increasingly tense political atmosphere caused by other African countries’ independence, resulted from an institutional update of the Junta de Missões Geográficas e de Investigações Coloniais, created in 1936. See Castelo, Cláudia, Passagens para África: o povoamento de Angola e Moçambique com naturais da metrópole (1920–1974) (Lisboa: Afrontamento, 2007), 107–110, for the political discussion taking place in the Portuguese context.

  8. 8.

    Estermann, The Ethnography of Southwestern Angola. Vol. 1. (1976); Vol. 2 (1979); Vol. 3 (1981), all edited by Gordon Gibson, New York: Africana Publ. Co.; Ethnographie du Sud-Ouest de l’Angola, 2 vols. (Paris: Académie des Sciences d’Outre-Mer, 1977).

  9. 9.

    Estermann, “Les Forgerons Kwanyama”, Bulletin de la Societé Neuchâteloise de Geographie, XLIV, no. 2 (1936): 109–116; “Quelques Observations sur les Bochimans !Kung de l’Angola Méridionale”, Anthropos XLI–XLIV, no. 4–6 (1946): 711–722; “Le Betáil Sacré chez quelques Tribus du Sud- Ouest de l’Angola”, Anthropos, XLV, no. 4/6 (1950): 721–732; “Culte des Esprits et Magie chez les Bantous du Sud-Ouest de l’Angola”, Anthropos, XLVIIII, no. 1/2 (1954): 1–26.

  10. 10.

    Florentino Cardoso. “Informação No3L3/427/59, 7.11.1959 [Documento n.86]”. P427. Arquivo do Instituto de Investigações Científicas e Tropicais [Archive of the Institute for Scientific and Tropical Research], Lisbon [IICT/Lisbon].

  11. 11.

    Estermann, Álbum de Penteados do Sudoeste de Angola (Lisbon: JIU, 1960); Penteados, Adornos e Trabalhos das Muílas (Lisbon: JIU, 1970); Etnografia e Turismo na Região do Cunene Inferior (Lisbon: Agência Geral do Ultramar, 1973).

  12. 12.

    From the Portuguese perspective, Spiritans have produced their own historical accounts about the work of their congregation in Angola and of priests who have contributed to spheres other than the priesthood. Pereira, also a Spiritan, edited Estermann’s dispersed writings, gathering many of his previously “obscure pieces” in Portuguese, German and French; see Estermann, Etnografia de Angola, ed. Pereira, 2 vols (Lisbon: IICT, 1983). Estermann’s supervision in 1974, which is mentioned in Pereira, “O Padre Carlos Estermann, Missionário e Etnógrafo”, 1976, 18, resulted in valuable annotations by the author regarding his original intentions at the time of publishing, and his reappreciation in his old age of the work he produced in his youth. In this chapter, I cite either the original publication or Pereira’s published version when relevant.

  13. 13.

    Estermann. “Carta p/ Secretário da Comissão Executiva da Junta de Investigações Coloniais, Luis Silveira [Doc.47], 3.06.1954”. P427. IICT/Lisbon.

  14. 14.

    Estermann. “Carta p/ Centro de Estudos de Etnologia do Ultramar [Doc.54], 23.02.1955”. P427. IICT/Lisbon.

  15. 15.

    Estermann, Etnografia do Sudoeste de Angola. 1, (JIU, 1956): image 77.

  16. 16.

    Estermann, 1956: 12.

  17. 17.

    Theodore Delachaux, “A Notre Camp à Omupanda [Mupanda]: Dr. A. Monard, Le Dr Vanancio [Sic] Da Silva, R.P.C. Estermann, Sup. Princip. Des Missions Catholiques Du Cunène. Juillet 1933, MEN DELT 45.12”, P.1933.1.534, Archive of the Musée d’Ethnographie de Neuchâtel [MEN/Switzerland], accessible online at http://bit.ly/DelachauxP1933_1_534.

  18. 18.

    Estermann, “Lettre p/ T. Delachaux, 5.10.1935”; “Lettre p/ Delachaux, 23.111937”; Delachaux, “Lettre p/ Estermann, 25.12.1937”; “Lettre p/ Estermann, 4.03.1939”; “Lettre p/ Estermann, 10.121939”; “Lettre p/ Estermann, 3.2.1940”. All typewritten; all at the MEN/Switzerland.

  19. 19.

    Grégoire Mayor, “Usage de la photographie dans la 2e Mission Scientifique Suisse en Angola”, in Retour d’Angola, ed. Marc-Olivier Gonseth et al. (Neuchâtel: MEN, 2010), 138–161.

  20. 20.

    Estermann, “La Fête de Puberté dans quelques tribus de l’Angola Méridional”. Bulletin de la Societé Neuchâteloise de Geographie XLVIII, (1942) 129–141; Delachaux, “Ethnographie de la Région du Cunène: 2me Mission Scientifique Suisse en Angola 1932–1933”. XLIV, (1936) 5–108. Delachaux had previously published another article by Estermann, accompanied by un-attributed photographs—cf. Note 9 and Fig. 5.2.

  21. 21.

    Estermann, “A Festa de Puberdade em algumas Tribos de Angola Meridional”, Portugal em África I, 6 (1944): 340–351; cf. authorship Estermann, Etnografia de Angola, 1:1:193.

  22. 22.

    Cunha e Costa’s project is approached from the perspective of the history of the photographic collection (see Chap. 4 by Cláudia Castelo and Catarina Mateus, this volume) and the use of a few of its photographs in exhibitions in Lisbon (see Chap. 10, by Inês Gomes, this volume). His collection is accessible online at https://actd.iict.pt.

  23. 23.

    Estermann, “Lettre p/ Delachaux, 5.10.1935”; “Lettre p/ Delachaux, 23.11.1937”.

  24. 24.

    Elmano Cunha Costa and C. Estermann, Os Negros (Lisbon, 1941).

  25. 25.

    Heintze, “In Pursuit of a Chameleon”, 145.

  26. 26.

    Heintze, 153 n.75.

  27. 27.

    Gibson and Estermann. 1973. Interview with C. Estermann. Angola. Smithsonian Institute/USA.

  28. 28.

    Estermann cites this work in ‘Os “Vatwa”’, republished in Etnografia de Angola, vol. 1 (1983[1951]), 71–75; as well in Etnografia do Sudoeste de Angola. 1 (1956).

  29. 29.

    Estermann, ‘Os meus contactos com os Boschimanes do Sudoeste de Angola’, republished in Etnografia de Angola, vol. 1, 1983[1974], 65–70.

  30. 30.

    Estermann, Etnografia do Sudoeste de Angola. 1:10.

  31. 31.

    Heintze, “In Pursuit of a Chameleon”, 153; Gibson and Estermann. 1973. Interview. SI/USA.

  32. 32.

    Estermann, ‘Contribuição dos Missionários Espiritanos para a Ocupação Científica do Sul de Angola’, Boletim Geral das Colónias VII, 196 (1941): 13. The relation between social science and missionary work is also the topic of personal correspondence between Estermann and Delachaux, with only the former’s reply being available—Estermann, ‘Lettre p/ Delachaux, 5.10.1935’.

  33. 33.

    Exposição Bibliográfica da Obra de P. Carlos Estermann (Sá da Bandeira: Serviços Culturais da Câmara Municipal, 1974).

  34. 34.

    Estermann, “Notas Etnográficas sobre os Povos Indígenas do Distrito da Huíla”, Boletim Geral das Colónias, XI, 116 (1935): 41–69. The Boletim Geral das Colónias was created in 1925 as the Boletim da Agência Geral das Colónias. In 1952, it further changed to Boletim Geral do Utramar. The whole collection is accessible online at http://memoria-africa.ua.pt/Library/BGC.aspx.

  35. 35.

    The 1940 Concordata, a diplomatic agreement between the Vatican and the Portuguese state, established a new administrative arrangement for Catholic missions in overseas territories. At the time, the Huíla province included the present-day Kunene province.

  36. 36.

    Adélio Neiva, História da Província Portuguesa, 1867–2004 (Lisboa: Congregação do Espírito Santo e do Imaculado Coração de Maria, 2005); Hugo Dores, A Missão da República: Política, Religião e o Império Colonial Português, 1910–1926 (Lisboa: Edições 70, 2015).

  37. 37.

    Valente, “P. Carlos Estermann: Grande Missionário e Etnólogo”, (2002): 67–74. Estermann’s move to Lubango is linked to the opening of the train station, and its predicted impact on the city’s demographics—cf. Pereira, “O Padre Carlos Estermann, Missionário e Etnógrafo”, (1976): 7.

  38. 38.

    Pereira, “Carlos Estermann”, typewritten. 1972, C576, APPCES/Lisbon.

  39. 39.

    A manuscript by father Ernest Lecomte (1862–1908), cf. Valente, ‘P. Carlos Estermann: Grande Missionário e Etnólogo’, 74.

  40. 40.

    Gibson and Estermann. 1973. Interview. SI/USA. He nevertheless conducted regular masses and catechism in Olunyaneka when settled in Lubango; see Estermann, “Carta p/ Rev. P. Miranda Santos, 17.02.1960”. Typewritten, C384. APPCES/Lisbon.

  41. 41.

    Estermann, “Notas Etnográficas”, 42.

  42. 42.

    Estermann, 50.

  43. 43.

    Heintze, “In Pursuit of a Chameleon”.

  44. 44.

    Estermann, “Notas Etnográficas”, 59.

  45. 45.

    Alphonse Lang and Constantin Tastevin, La Tribu Va-Nianeka: Mission Rohan-Chabot (Paris: Ministère de l’Instruction Publique, Société de Géographie, 1937); besides the book’s introduction, see also Estermann, ‘Contribuição dos Missionários’, 14, for the related history of notes from deceased missionary Dekindt (1865–1905) passing to Lang after 1890, passing in turn to Tastevin in 1930 (1880–1962), who appears in 2 of the 41 images displayed in 16 plates.

  46. 46.

    Estermann, “Notas Etnográficas”, 52, 63, 66.

  47. 47.

    João de Almeida, Sul de Angola: Relatório de um Governo de Distrito (1908–1910) (Lisboa: Tipografia Anuário Comercial, 1912).

  48. 48.

    Gibson and Estermann. 1973. Interview. SI/USA.

  49. 49.

    Valente, “P. Carlos Estermann: Grande Missionário e Etnólogo”, 67.

  50. 50.

    Estermann, “Notas Etnográficas”, 68.

  51. 51.

    Delachaux, “Jeunes Filles Alignées Côte à Côte”, 1933, P.1933.1.535, MNE/Switzerland, http://bit.ly/DelachauxP1933_1_535.

  52. 52.

    Estermann, “O Dr. Alberto Monard”, O Apostolado, n°924 (1953).

  53. 53.

    Estermann, “Recordando Herman Baumann”, Portugal em África, 29,173 (1972): 306–311 and “In Memorian: Herman Baumann”, Boletim da Câmara Municipal de Sá da Bandeira, 33 (1972): 85–90.

  54. 54.

    Hermann Baumann and D. Westermann, Les Peuples et Les Civilization de l’Afrique Suivi de Les Langues et L’Education (Paris: Payot, 1948).

  55. 55.

    Estermann, “Dr. Theodore Delachaux’” O Apostolado, 716 (1949).

  56. 56.

    Estermann, “Contribuição”.

  57. 57.

    Tiago Brandão, Da Organização da Ciência à Política Científica em Portugal, 1910–1974 (Casal de Cambra: Caleidoscópio, 2017). See also note 38.

  58. 58.

    Importantly, Estermann’s move to Huíla village in 1933 was a consequence of the small number of Portuguese Spiritans in faraway Mupa, leading to his superior’s request to avoid this situation by moving to a mission with a fixed number of Portuguese priests, a legal constraint established since the republican period (1910–1926). When giving a lecture about missionary work at the Lisbon Geography Society in 1935 (see “Conferência SGL”—Fig. 5.1), attended by important political figures, Estermann stated that his delay in accepting the invitation was due to his still-fragile Portuguese—particularly his accent. In Portuguese-controlled territories, local languages could be used for evangelisation purposes, Portuguese had to be used in teaching and other European languages were forbidden in daily affairs, while being taught in high schools (see Rui Martins Santos, Cultura, Educação e Ensino em Angola, 1998, 345, online at http://bit.ly/2G3Yt8t). Foreign priests received training in Portuguese to be able to teach it. When feasible, foreign Spiritans appear to have strategically adjusted their proper names to Portuguese versions. For example, while in many publications over his career Estermann appears as C. Estermann, his authorship of books published in metropolitan Portugal turned him from Charles, his birth name, into becoming widely known as Carlos.

  59. 59.

    Neiva, História da Província Portuguesa, 1867–2004.

  60. 60.

    Valente, “P. Carlos Estermann: Grande Missionário e Etnólogo”, 69; see also Estermann, “O Padre José Maria Antunes e as Ciências Naturais”, O Apostolado, XX, 1190 (1956): 1, 4.

  61. 61.

    Catholic missionaries played important roles in establishing both Africa and Anthropos. For Africa, see Karin Barber, “Editorial”, Africa 78, 03 (2008): 327–333, for an overview of 80 years of the journal’s activity.

  62. 62.

    Estermann recalls an unfulfilled research opportunity in the late 1920s coming from the Africa’s editor, since it demanded a dedication that his recent missionary activity at the time could not bear. He mentions as interlocutor Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954), a catholic priest founder of Anthropos—“Os meus contactos com os Bochimanes”, (1983)[1974], 1:69. Pereira mentions Diedrich Westermann (1875–1956), a missionary who was the Africa’s editor at the time, misnaming however Anthropos for “Afrika” as the first international journal in which Estermann published—‘O Padre Carlos Estermann, Missionário e Etnógrafo’, 5.

  63. 63.

    Silveira, “Carta p/ Ministro das Colónias [Doc. 5], 12.2.1951”. JIU’s proposal was mediated by Manuel Viegas Guerreiro (1912–1997), who had been teaching in Lubango, and on returning to Portugal was willing to become Estermann’s research assistant, see Estermann, “Carta p/ Secretário da Junta de Investigações Coloniais [Doc. 4], 8.1.1951”. Both typewritten. P427. IICT/Lisbon.

  64. 64.

    Gibson, and Estermann. 1973. Interview. SI/USA; see also Estermann, ‘Os meus Contactos’.

  65. 65.

    Carvalho, José Agapito da Silva. “Oficio p/ Ministro do Ultramar [Doc.54], 1954”. P427. IICT/Lisbon. António de Almeida (1900–1984) and Mendes Correia (1888–1960) are the metropolitan institutionalised scientific authorities supervising Estermann’s work plan and his later requests; after 1959 it is Jorge Dias (1907–1973) (P427, IICT/Lisbon).

  66. 66.

    See Carlos Medeiros, A Colonização das Terras Altas da Huíla (Angola): Estudo de Geografia Humana (Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Geográficos, 1976).

  67. 67.

    Motivos do Sul de Angola (Sá da Bandeira: Museu da Huíla, 1960). In 1957, Estermann also organised a photography exhibition to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Father José Maria Antunes, n.a. “Comemorações do 1° centenário do nascimento do Padre José Maria Antunes em Sá da Bandeira”, Boletim Geral do Ultramar, 33, 384 (1957): 179–186.

  68. 68.

    “Apenas boatos? … Não”, O Apostolado, 1699 (1961): 4.

Acknowledgements

This chapter is based on research funded by a Marie Curie Fellowship 747508, from the European Commission; SFRH/BPD/115706/2006, by FCT, Portugal, funded part of its writing up. I appreciate all the attention and help provided by P. João Mónico and Branca Mories, the archivists at APPCES/Lisbon and IICT/ULisboa, respectively. Gregóire Mayor and Julien Glauser have always provided enlightening information about the Musée de Ethnographie de Neuchatel collections. I thank JP, Ricardo Roque, Filipa Vicente, Afonso Dias Ramos and Maria José Lobo Antunes for the support and challenging feedback.

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  1. Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal

    Inês Ponte

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  1. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal

    Filipa Lowndes Vicente

  2. Art History Institute (NOVA FCSH / IN2PAST), Lisbon, Portugal

    Afonso Dias Ramos

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Ponte, I. (2023). An Africanist Photo-ethno-graphy in the Portuguese New State (1928–1974). In: Vicente, F.L., Ramos, A.D. (eds) Photography in Portuguese Colonial Africa, 1860–1975. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27795-5_5

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