The connections between Portugal and South Africa are older than those of any other European country, yet for most South Africans Portugal is but an insignificant small country somewhere near Spain. Very few South Africans are aware that there were up to an estimated 800 000 souls in the Portuguese community of South Africa by the end of the seventies of the 20th century, making them the largest grouping of immigrants in the country. Despite this fact we know precious little of the folk character and culture of the Portuguese, of their adaptations to their adopted second fatherland and of their contributions in various fields to the progress of South Africa. As the isolation of South Africa intensified under the policy of apartheid so the bonds between Portugal, the other skunk of the world and our close neighbours in Africa, grew tighter and with that attitudes towards the Portuguese changed and they considered soldiers-in-arms against communism.

This book is an attempt to chart all points of contact between Portugal and South Africa up 1975, the year in which Portugal withdrew from Africa. In a hundred encyclopaedic articles are, amongst others, the following entries: visits of early Portuguese navigators; shipwrecks along a treacherous coast; Portuguese speaking slaves at the Cape and their influences on the demographics of the population there, cuisine, architecture and musical riches; the relations between the Portuguese in Mozambique and the Voortrekkers; the needs of the Transvalers for a route to Delagoa Bay; Portuguese travelers and negotiators who paid visit to the ZAR; the relations between the Thirstland Trekkers and the Portuguese in Angola; the involvement of the Portuguese in the Anglo-Boer War; South Africa’s engagement in the independence struggles in Mozambique and Angola; diplomatic relations; the influence of Portuguese on the Afrikaans language and the residue of Portugal and the Portuguese in South African literature, place names, architecture and performing and fine arts; the Portuguese in South African community life, religion and organizations; Portuguese and South African historians who have researched and published writings which record aspects of contact between these countries; and memorials, medals and stamp issues which link the countries. An epilogue describes the relationships between South Africa and Portugal after 1975.