Reflections on African Union Deputy Commissioner’s Forum with the African Diaspora

IN I44I ANTAO GONCALVES, the young captain of a small vessel dispatched by the infante Dom Henrique of Portugal to take on a cargo of seal skins and oil, put ashore a landing party on the coast of northern Mauretania for the express purpose of capturing blacks. After light skirmishing one black male and one black female were taken prisoner. Shortly afterwards, Goncalves was joined by Nuno Tristao, a knight of the infante's household, who had been commissioned to sail his armed caravel as far as possible down the coast of West Africa and take captives. Russell-Wood, A. J. R. (1978). Iberian Expansion and the Issue of Black Slavery: Changing Portuguese Attitudes, 1440-1770. The American Historical Review, 83(1), p. 16.