Umunthu (1)

EDITOR’S NOTE BY JOÃO RICARDO RODRIGUES

This Editor’s Note was published in the first volume (2022).

According to the Portuguese news agency LUSA, a team has mapped the genetic trail of Bantu populations from their region of origin, at the current border between Nigeria and Cameroon, through their process of expansion across Sub-Saharan Africa and their migration to North America. The article “Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America,” published by Science Magazine (a scientific journal from the USA) in May 2017, reveals that almost all populations of Sub-Saharan Africa, below the Equator, descend from this ethnic group, which migrated there five thousand years ago.

Interestingly, in studying a population from Angola for the first time, researchers found that this region played an important role in the dispersal of this large group. They confirmed the “late split” model, meaning that migration first moved toward the region that is now the Republic of Angola, where it split into two waves: one that continued south along the west coast to South Africa, and another that first moved east toward the Great Lakes region, and then southward along the east coast, reaching Mozambique and, eventually, also South Africa. The study’s results revealed that Eastern and Southern Bantu populations have more genetic similarity to Angolan populations than they do with each other or with the original population further north. ⁽²⁾

We recall that at the end of last year (2021), we presented the art exhibition BOBA KANA MUTHU WZELA | Here It Is Forbidden to Speak!, at the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon, where we revealed a Bantu genetic presence in the Portuguese population and strong Angolan roots in the city of Lisbon since the 15th century. Despite the ties that have united them for over five hundred years, Bantu and Portuguese people have not, in our time, created exchanges that could enhance their past or future cultural interactions. Proof of this is the profound lack of knowledge within European societies about these intercultural relations. ⁽³⁾

It is in this context that we publish and present this year (2022), in Angola and Portugal, the first volume of a collection of four books on our Bantu cultural heritage, organised from short articles by a prominent figure in 20th-century Angolan society, Maurício Francisco Caetano (1916-1982) — known as Mafrano, originally published in the old Catholic Church newspaper, O Apostolado.

We take this opportunity to applaud the desire and perseverance of the author’s family in bringing the memory of a man of Culture like Maurício Francisco Caetano to light in our time, allowing for a deeper understanding of Bantu civilisation.

(1) See foreword by Zacarias Kamwenho in this edition
(2) Portuguese news agency Lusa, 5 May 2017
(3) Catalogue of the exhibition BOBA KANA MUTHU WZELA | Here It Is Forbidden to Speak!, p. 14, Perfil Criativo Edition, Lisbon, 2021, ISBN 978-989-53348-1-0