Luso Asians

History

The European continent exploration of the Asian continent after the arrival of D. Vasco Da Gama during the Age of Discovery in the Indian Ocean around 1498, was followed by the establishments of coastal trading bases called feitorias (factories) and forts. Portuguese traders, Catholic missionaries, who were Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and Jesuits, such as Saint Francis Xavier and administrators poured into the vast region. These men often married local residents with the official encouragement of D. Alfonso de Albuquerque by the royals granted approval in the form called Politicos dos casamentos. A resultant mixed race Mestizo population that was Catholic and Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) developed. The work of missionaries produced Catholic communities speaking specific Portuguese-based Creoles who produced religious artifacts, often in ivory, ebony, teak, silver, and gold. Asian women produced distinctive embroideries on velvet, silk, and cotton that were prized in Europe. The movement of Asian wives, Asian and European servants, and African slaves across the Portuguese Empire distributed Luso-Asian recipes throughout Asia and beyond. The people that descent from Luso ancestry and varied Asian ancestry are called Luso-Asian by ethnicity and were mainly nobles of varied types in the hierarchy of the Empire within the Kingdom of Portugal.

Dispersal

Since the first voyages of the Portuguese into the Indian Ocean at the end of the fifteenth century, the Portuguese suffered a labour shortage as their European crew suffered from scurvy, malaria, and tropical diseases. Additionally the Portuguese relied on local mariners of the Indian Ocean World to guide them through the winds, currents and localized reefs. These men came from the maritime peoples of the region and included Swahili from Eastern Africa, Arabs, Indians from the coastal communities of Gujarat, Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Bengal in India, Malays, and Chinese. As Portuguese trade increased in the sixteenth century, more Portuguese vessels arrived in Asia but an increasing number of European crew were leaving the ships to engage in local or "country trade". Some Portuguese even joined forces with local pirates. The Portuguese coined the term Lascarim from the Arab-Persian Lashkari to describe any crew from East of the Cape of Good Hope. Coming from areas of Portuguese influence, these men often spoke their own languages and broken Portuguese, which in time evolved into a creole Portuguese. The Lascarim became invaluable to further Portuguese exploration, defense and trade. The English East India Company employed Luso-Asians who they called Lascars in their very first voyages from London at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and by the eighteenth century, Lascars were common on British East India Company ships in the Atlantic. Luso-Asians arrived at ports in Europe, North America, Brazil and the Atlantic coasts of Africa.

Ethnic legacy

Luso-Asian communities still exist in Asia and includes several diverse communities in parts of Republic of India (Goa, Daman, Diu, Dadra, Nagar Haveli, Korlai, Salsette, Kerala), China (Macau), Pakistan (Karachi), Malaysia (Meleka), Sri Lanka and Timor Leste who are collectively known as Luso-Asians. However, it must be noted that many Anglo-Indians and Eurasians have Luso-Indian ancestors especially on their female side. There is also a distinct Konkani-speaking Catholic community who call themselves East Indians and reside in Mumbai and who were under Portuguese rule prior to Bombay being handed to the British in 1661.

Luso-Indians or Indo-Portuguese

Luso-Indians and are people who have mixed varied Indian subcontinent and Portuguese ancestry and are either citizens of India, Pakistan or Bangladesh today. They may also be people of Portuguese descent born or living in the Republic of India and resident in other parts of the world. Most Luso-Indians live in former Portuguese overseas territories of the Estado da India that are currently part of Republic of India.

India.

Luso-Asians of the Republic of India are primarily from the Indian state of Goa, Daman and Diu, Korlai, parts of Tamil Nadu, parts of Kerala. In the Coromandel Coast, Luso-Indians were generally known as Topasses. They are Catholics and may have spoken or presently speak Portuguese Creole.

India, Damão.

There are currently about 2000 people who speak Creole Portuguese in Damao.

India, Diu.

In the Creole Portuguese language is nearly extinct. However the Catholic community is very much alive.

India, Goa

Goa was the capital of a large Portuguese eastern empire. The Luso-Goan ethnicity is considered predominantly South Asian claiming Mughal, Marathi, Goud Saraswat Brahmin, original tribal Kunbi, and Koli origins. Some are of Luso-African-Goan ancestry due to Goa's contacts with the African territories of Portugal and the British African colonies. There are also a small number of people of Portuguese origin who are called "Mistis". Luso-Goans or "Porto-Goesas" as they are known in Portuguese speak Konkani and some speak Portuguese though today most currently speak English and Marathi as well, and write the Konkani language in the Latin alphabet. Portuguese was the language for the governance of overseas province and was never spoken as a mother-tongue by the majority of the population. Today Portuguese is spoken only by a small segment of the upper-class families and about 3 to 5 percent of the people (estimated at 6,000 to 9,000 still speak the former official language of 450 years).

During the period of absolute monarchy in Portugal, some nobles of Goa enjoyed the most privileged status and held the most important offices after the Portuguese nobles, and high positions in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. With the introduction of the constitutional monarchy in 1834, the influence of Portuguese Kingdom and its nobles substantially decreased, although the erosion of their power had begun to accelerate from the time of the prime minister, the Marquis de Pombal, in the mid-18th century. After Portugal became a republic in 1910, some Luso-Goan descendants of the nobility at Goa continued to bear their families' titles according to standards sustained by the Portuguese Institute of Nobility (Instituto da Nobreza Portuguesa), traditionally under the authority of the head of the formerly ruling House of Braganza. The economical decline of Portugal that had begun with the period of Spanish rule and British and Dutch global advancement in the seventeenth century forced Goans to migrate to Bombay and Pune, and by the nineteenth century to Calcutta and Karachi.

The last newspaper in Portuguese ended publication in 1980s. However, the "Fundação do Oriente" and the Indo–Portuguese Friendship Society (Sociedade de Amizade Indo-Portuguesa) are still active. At Panaji many signs in Portuguese are still visible over shops and administrative buildings. After the 20th century Indian annexation of Goa has changed the names of many places. There is a department of Portuguese language at the Goa University and the majority of Luso-Goan students choose Portuguese as their third language in schools. Luso-Goans have a choice to either be fully Portuguese citizens or fully Indian citizens or fully Portuguese citizens with an OCI (Overseas citizenship of India) granted by the Indian nationality law.

Some famous Goan Luso-Asians:

Fernao Vaz Dourado (c.1520 - c.1580). Born in Goa of a Portuguese father and Indian mother he was a cartographer who first drew the more rounder shape of Sri Lanka.

Lazaro Luis Born in Goa, he was a sixteenth century cartographer who first drew the more rounder shape of Sri Lanka.

Jose Custodio Faria (1756-1819) Born in Candolim, Goa of Goan parents. He was known as Abbe Faria and is regarded as the "Father of Hypnotism". He introduced the science of hypnotism to Paris and was involved in the revolution of 1795. Faria served as the subject for Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo

India, Kerela.

Kochi. Portuguese Cochin was the first capital of the Portuguese Eastern Empire. Numerous churches attest to the Portuguese presence. The church of St. Francis which is the oldest European church in India, once contained the body of Vasco da Gama In Kochi, Luso-Indians now number about 2,000.

India, Maharashtra.

Mumbai. When the English East India Company began to rule in India, many former Portuguese settlements and trading posts (called Feitoria in Portuguese) passed to the Company. The mixed Indian-Portuguese and Indian converts began to speak English in place of the Portuguese and some of them also anglicised their names. They are, now, part of the East Indian community of Bombay.

Korlai. About 900 monolingual people currently speak Creole Portuguese in Korlai called Korlai Indo-Portuguese.

India, Tamil Nadu.

Negapatam. In Negapatam, in 1883, there were 20 families that spoke Creole Portuguese.

Myanmar

Yangoon Prior to the Second World War Yangoon had a thriving "portuguese" community. In reality the community was composed of Eurasians of Portuguese-Asian origin and ethnic Goans, as well as some Luso-Sri lankans.

Pakistan.

Pakistan, Sind. In the nineteenth century many Luso-Indians from Goa, Diu, Daman and Bombay migrated to the developing city of Karachi in the province of Sindh. After the partition of India, these Luso-Indians continued to live in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. However, in recent years thousands have left the country for Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka, the Portuguese were followed by the Dutch and the British and the Luso-Sri Lankans are represented today by the Burgher or Eurasian community. However, there is a specific community people of African origin who speak Sri Lankan Portuguese Creole. Additionally, Portuguese names, Catholicism and aspects of Luso-Asian Architecture are found among the fishing communities of the Northwest coast of Sri Lanka.

Indonesia.

There were many Portuguese communities in the "Spice Islands" prior to the arrival of the Dutch in the Seventeenth Century. Many of these communities included Luso-Malay people who eventually merged with the Dutch to form Eurasian communities.

Malaysia.

Luso-Malays are represented by the speakers of Kristang or Malay Creole Portuguese based at Kampong Ferangi near Melaka in Malaysia. Many Luso-Malays emigrated to Penang and Singapore during the period of the Straits Settlement. Luso-Asians married into the European community of the region and many Eurasians in Malaysia and Singapore have Luso-Asian origins.

Famous Luso-Malays include:

Manuel Godinho Eredia (1563-1623). Born in Melaka of an Aragonese-Portuguese father and a mother from Makassar. Eredia was an author, cartographer and surveyor.

Tony Fernandes (1964-). Born in Kuala Lumpur. Founder of the airline company Air Asia.

Luso-Thai, Thai-Portuguese, or Siamo-Luso

The Portuguese established a trading base in the city of Ayutthaya where they intermarried with the Thai and also brought men and women from other Luso-Asian areas in East Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. The Portuguese also established missions in the area of Bangkok. Luso-Asians from Japan were important in the Japanese trading settlement at Ayutthaya, Thailand and at the Vietnamese trading port of Hoi An.

China

China, Hong Kong SAR. Luso-Asians have long been part of the making of Hong Kong. The first Luso-Asians in the territory of the Hong Kong SAR were probably Luso-Asian sailors on Portuguese ships bound for Macau. In fact Lama Island in the territory was named by the Portuguese. After 1557 Traders and missionaries followed, and from 1841 to 1942 various "Portuguese" families form Macau of mixed Portuguese, Macanese and Goan origin settled in the early British settlement. The early settlement was on Hong Kong island near to the docks, banks, civil service institutions, publishing houses and other workplaces where the men were employed in mid-level positions. Later settlement was in Kowloon. Their role in the British colony as social, economic and political intermediaries between the British and Chinese defined them and limited their outlook and expectations as settlers. As a result they were drawn to institutions that provided family-support, shelter, and cohesion. They were as a result the backbone of the Catholic Church, schools and benevolent societies. During the Second World War almost the entire Macanese community (now known as "Portuguese" fled to neutral Macau as refugees. Since 1942 and especially after 1970 there has been as steady migration of Macanese from Macau and Hong Kong to Australia, Canada, the USA, Portugal, the UK and Brazil.

China, Macau SAR.

The migration of Portuguese and Luso-Asians to Macau was from 1553 to about 1850. Through most of its history as a Portuguese colony, the people of Macau have been predominantly Cantonese-speaking, however, there was and still is a small community of Macanese who speak Creole-Portuguese and are Catholic.

China, Shanghai.

Luso-Japanese or Nipo-Portuguese

Portuguese influence in sixteenth and seventeenth centuries led to communities of Japanese Christians. Following the expulsion of the Portuguese, Japanese Christians fled to Macau, Manilla, Hoi An (Vietnam) and Ayutthaya, others remained in Japan as secret or Crypto-Christians.

Luso-Asians in the nineteenth-century exploration of Africa

Luso-Asians have a long history of presence in Africa. Luso-Asians were brought to Ethiopia in the sixteenth century and were among the builders of the Castle of Gondar. Luso-Asians as soldiers, wives, servants, slaves and concubines and clergy were present at Portuguese bases such as Malindi, Mombasa and Mozambique Island in the seventeenth century. Luso-Asians were important in the story of European exploration in Africa in the nineteenth century. Important individuals of Luso-Asian origin include:

Luso-Asians in Eastern Africa

The Luso-Asian presence in Eastern Africa stretches back to the sixteenth century development of Portuguese trading bases or feitoria (known to the British as factories), guarded by forts. Luso-Asian men came to East Africa as sailors, masons, merchants and clergy while women came as wives, servants and concubines. Goans were present at Fort Jesus and in the Portuguese settlement at Mombasa in the seventeenth century.

The Nineteenth century saw the rise of a Goan community in Zanzibar, and as the Imperial British East African Company (IBEAC) grew on the mainland the Goan community expanded to the coast at Mombasa, Malindi and Lamu. When the British built the Uganda Railway, Goan communities spread to the Kenya Highlands and into Uganda.

Early Twentieth Century Nairobi, Kisumu, Kampala, Entebbe and Jinja had a strong Goan presence. The German railway development in Tanganyika before World War One also relied on Goans and communities developed in Dar-es-Salaam, Arusha and especially at Tanga.

With the arrival of independence after 1960, the numbers of Goans in all East African countries plummeted due to a process of Africanisation, coupled with the absorption of Goa into the Indian Union in 1961.

Luso-Asians in Kenya

Luso-Asians, mainly from India first came to the area of Kenya in the sixteenth century under the Portuguese. Their presence was initially at the port of Mombasa and the Portuguese settlement by the fort, and possibly at Malindi and the Lamu Islands. The numbers of Luso-Indians was probably never more than a few hundred.

With increasing British influence along the coast in the nineteenth century, the Goans returned as an extension of the Goan migration to Bombay. The Goan population numbered 169 in 1896. The expansion of the British trade and the building of the Uganda Railway. Initially, most Goans were from North Goa and some were connected to older families from Zanzibar. Goan immigration continued in the interwar period when it also came from South Goa and spread along the railway route to Nairobi and Port Florence or Kisumu. By 1931 there were 1080 Goans in the Kenya Colony and Protectorate, there was some lowering of numbers during the Second World War when families were evacuated to neutral Goa. But the numbers stood at 1733 in 1948 as families returned. Goans in Kenya dominated the Civil Service especially the Railways and Customs departments, they were also employed in the banking, industrial and agricultural sectors as administrators and clerks. Some were doctors, teachers and clergy. The largest community was in Kenya where a process of Kenyanisation from 1963 to 1970 resulted in the emigration of 80% of the Goan community. Those with British or British Protectorate passports were admitted to the United Kingdom, others went to India. After 1970 Canada and Australia admitted many Goans and a few emigrated to Brazil.

Famous Luso-Asians from Kenya include:

Seraphino Antao (1937-2011). Born in Mombasa. Runner Kenya's first Olympic Flag bearer and first international medalist.

Pio Gama Pinto (1927-1965). Born in Nairobi. Independence era politician and Kenyan nationalist. Assassinated in Nairobi.

Luso-Asians in Uganda

The majority of Goans in Uganda were employed in the Civil Service. As centres of administration there were concentrations of Goans at Entebbe and at Kampala, with another community in the industrial town of Jinja. The Goans of Uganda built many churches and schools in Uganda and volunteered to serve in the army in World War One against the Germans in Tanganyika. The Ugandan national costume known as the Gomesi was desigend by a Goan. The 1972 Uganda Asian Expulsion by Idi Amin virtually removed the entire Goan community from Uganda. The largest number of these Goans went to Canada.

Luso-Asians in Southern Africa

Luso-Asians have been part of the history of the present states of Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Malawi since the sixteenth century. These Luso-Asians had their origin in India, but also Thailand and Macau. Luso-Asians were important in the role of the Afro-Portuguese prazo landlords. In the seventeenth century Portuguese sources describe the Goans in Mozambique as "Canarans".

Luso-Asians in Malawi

One group of Uganda Goans were contracted to work in Malawi in the 1960s.The Malawi Goan community were expelled in 1974 by the government of Hastings Banda.

Luso-Asians in Mozambique

In early twentieth century Mozambique Luso-Indians or "Portuguese-Indians", both Catholic and Hindu, were considered quite distinct to British Indians. Both groups were part of the "Nao-Indigena" population. The 1928 Census counted 3478 Portuguese-Indians in Mozambique.

Luso-Asians in Angola

As part of the Portuguese Empire Luso-Asians were encouraged to settle in Angola before the 1960's, some who held posts in government in Mozambique and Portugal, particularly after the inclusion of Goa into the India in 1961 were designated jobs there by the Salazar regime until the overthrow of the dictatorship. After the revolution in Portugal, multiple socialist and communist factions broke into open warfare and most Luso-Asians fled to Portugal. Some however were part of the post-independence movements and subsequent government.

Famous Luso-Asians from Angola include:

Sita Valles (1951-1977). Born in Luanda. Political activist who was executed in Angola.

Luso-Asians in Western Asia (including the Persian Gulf)

Famous Gulf Luso-Asians include:

Jacqueline Fernandez. (1985-) Born in Bahrain of Luso-Sri Lankan parents. Actress. .

Luso-Asians in Portugal

A large part of Portugal's Asian community is composed of people of Luso-Asian origin from Goa, Daman and Diu, Macau and Timor Leste as well as Asian migrants of no Luso connection such as the Ismailis. The Luso-Asian community dates back to the sixteenth century age of discovery. The Indian annexation of Goa, Damman, and Diu and the independence of Mozambique and Angola resulted in an increased number of people of Luso-Asian origin in Portugal. There was also some emigration from Macau and Timor Leste.

Famous Luso-Asians in Portugal include:

António Costa (1961-) Born in Lisbon of Goan and French-Portuguese parents. Mayor of Lisbon (2007-2015) and Prime Minister of Portugal (2015-).

Luso-Asians in United Kingdom

Luso-Asian and Lusitania people have existed in the United Kingdom since the sixteenth century, when seamen, servants, and slaves arrived through the Portuguese trade network. A few Luso-Asians were members of the first English East India Company ships sailing out of London to Asia. Over the following two centuries the British East India Company took on many Luso-Asian Lascars and in the nineteenth century Luso-Asians from British India and Portuguese India were important crew on British steam ship lines including the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and British India Steam Navigation Company. Today the majority of the people of Luso-Asian origin in Britain are of Goan origin, who arrived in the period from 1964 to 1990 and part of a larger British Asian minority. Goans in the United Kingdom came from Aden, East Africa, the Persian Gulf, and from India. The Konkani-speaking Goan community in the English town of Swindon, were contracted directly from Goa specifically for the nearby motor-manufacturing industry in the 1990's.

Famous Luso-Asians in the United Kingdom include:

Keith Vaz. (1965-) Born in Aden (Yemen) of Goan parents. British Politician.

Luso-Asians in Canada

Luso-Asian sailors as Lascars first probably arrived in Canada in the sixteenth century on Portuguese vessels and in the seventeenth century on British vessels in the Maritime Provinces. Research in British Columbia suggests that Luso-Asian and Hispano-Asian (i.e. Filipino) Lascars arrived on the Pacific coast of Canada in the late eighteenth century.

During the First World War Goan crewmen served as volunteers on the ships of the Canadian Pacific Railway that were seconded by the British Admiralty as Armed Merchant Vessels and performed troop transport duties in the Indian Ocean. There are Luso-Asian communities in Canada today in the form of Catholic and Hindu Goans. The Goans are considered part of the Indo-Canadian population and the majority hail from East Africa. Though there are older communities from Pakistan. Most Goans live in the Greater Toronto Area, with smaller communities in Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. There are some Goans from Pakistan and a few from Britain and oil-rich states of Western Asia. There is also a small Macanese community in the Vancouver area.

Luso-Asians in United States

Luso-Asians in the United States are part of a larger Indian-American community. Despite their Portuguese, British French or Dutch passports, Luso-Asians, like other Asians were excluded from entry to the continental USA by the Immigration Act of 1924. The act also banned the entrance of Arabs. The Naturalization Act of 1790 and 1890 also made it impossible for Asians, including Eurasians from becoming US Citizens. These laws remained in place until the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. As a result the majority of Luso-Asians migrated to the United States in the later half of the 20th century.

Luso-Asians in Australia

Research suggests that Luso-Asians were leaders in the creation of the Indian and Indonesian Union of Seamen in Australia. Today there are Luso-Asian communities in many Australian cities, including people of Goan, Sri Lankan, Macanese, Timorese and Kristang origin. There is a large Timorese community in Darwin. Many of the Anglo-Indians of Melbourne also have Luso-Asian ancestry.