A ''prazo'' (or ''prazo da coroa'') in
Portuguese Africa was a large estate leased to colonists,
settler
A settler or a colonist is a person who establishes or joins a permanent presence that is separate to existing communities. The entity that a settler establishes is a Human settlement, settlement. A settler is called a pioneer if they are among ...
s and traders to exploit the continent's resources. ''Prazos'' operated like semi-feudal entities and were most commonly found in the
Zambezi River
The Zambezi (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than half of t ...
valley.
Definition
The ''prazo'' was a land grant/lease given in exchange for an annual fixed fee based on laws promulgated by Portuguese kings, such as
Afonso V and
Manuel I.
History
The leaseholder was required to live on the granted land and could not sell or rent it, although lessees frequently violated that rule. In
Tete Province
Tete is a Provinces of Mozambique, province of Mozambique, located in the northwest of the country. It has an area of 98,417 km2 and a population of 2,648,941 (2017 census).
Tete, Mozambique, Tete is the capital of the province. The Cahora ...
during the 19th century, 32 ''prazeiros'' owned 57 ''prazos''. The land grant was not supposed to exceed 500
leagues in length, although most did.
[Azevedo, Nnadozie & Mbuia, pp. 140–41.] In 1677 a system was adopted to attract Portuguese settlers. Vacant ''prazos'' were to be granted to "deserving orphan girls or the daughters of crown servants", who would pass the ''prazo'' on to her eldest daughter for three generations who married to Portuguese men. At that time the government could retake control or renew the lease.
[Newitt, p. 73.]
The ''prazeiro'' was allowed to employ Africans (''colonos''); to raise a private army (often made up of slaves); trade in all commodities; and maintain law and order. The Portuguese Crown intended the ''prazo'' to guarantee control over the land, stimulate agricultural production, facilitate European settlement, and be a source of revenue for the government, but the system failed in the objectives. Contributions to the failure were rampant absenteeism, violent rivalries between the grantees, the scarcity of Portuguese women, lack of capital, and Africans, of which the latter cause was probably the most important. The ''prazo'' system's concepts of female inheritance, three lives, and individual landownership were alien to African traditions.
The government failed in an attempt to reform the system in the mid-19th century. Another attempt was made in the 1890s without result, but the introduction of the
concessionaire companies about that time, the
1890 British Ultimatum
The 1890 British Ultimatum was an ultimatum by the British government delivered on 11 January 1890 to the Kingdom of Portugal. Portugal had attempted to claim a large area of land between its colonies of Mozambique and Angola including most of pr ...
and the Portuguese Colonial Act of 1930 contributed to the end of the ''prazo''.
References
Sources
*
*{{cite book, last1=Eckert, first1=Andreas, last2=Grau, first2=Ingeborg, last3=Sonderegger, first3=Arno, title=Afrika 1500-1900: Geschichte und Gesellschaft, date=2010, publisher=Promedia, location=Vienna, isbn=978-3-8537-1303-7, name-list-style=amp
*Newitt, Malyn D. D. "The Portuguese on the Zambezi: An Historical Interpretation of the Prazo System". ''The Journal of African History'' 10, 1 (1969): 67–85.
Further reading
*Isaacman, Allen F. ''Mozambique: The Africanization of a European Institution—The Zambesi Prazos, 1750–1902''. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1972.
*Newitt, Malyn D. D. ''Portuguese Settlement on the Zambesi: Exploration, Land Tenure and Colonial Rule in East Africa''. New York: Africana, 1973.
Agriculture in Africa