From beyond the Kwango - Tracing the Linguistic Origins of Slaves Leaving Angola, 1811-1848

Abstract: The Kwango River has long been viewed as the limit of the transatlantic traders' access to the main sources of slaves in the interior of Angola, the principal region of slave embarkation to the Americas. However, no estimates of the size and distribution of this huge migration exist. This article examines records of liberated Africans from Cuba and Sierra Leone available on the African Origins Portal to estimate how many slaves came from that particular region in the nineteenth century as well as their ethnolinguistic distribution. It shows that about 21 percent of the slaves leaving Angola in that period came from beyond the Kwango, with the majority coming from among the Luba, Kanyok, and Swahili speaking peoples. The article also analyzes the causes of this migration, which helped shape the African Diaspora to the Americas, especially to Brazil and Cuba.

摘要：长久以来，宽果河（Kwango River）被认定为跨大西洋奴隶贩子进入安哥拉内陆主要奴隶来源地的地理界限，而安哥拉正是彼时向美洲输送奴隶的核心起航区域。然而，学界迄今尚无针对此次大规模奴隶迁徙的规模与分布的相关估算研究。
本文依托非洲起源门户（African Origins Portal）中可获取的古巴与塞拉利昂解放黑奴档案，对19世纪源自该特定区域的奴隶数量及其族裔语言分布情况进行估算。研究表明，该时期离开安哥拉的奴隶中约21%来自宽果河以远地带，其中多数为卢巴人（Luba）、卡尼奥克人（Kanyok）以及斯瓦西里语族群。
此外，本文还剖析了此次迁徙的成因，该迁徙对前往美洲（尤其是巴西与古巴）的非洲散居社群的形成产生了重要塑造作用。