Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal, Oct. 28, 2024 (Lusa) - The island of Terceira, in the Azores, is hosting an international conference on Gungunhana, the last emperor of Gaza, present-day Mozambique, about whom there is still research to be done, according to the president of the island's historical institute.

"We think it's a subject that isn't closed. There are Portuguese, Mozambican, French and English researchers who are still studying this story," José Olívio Rocha, president of the Historical Institute of Terceira Island (IHIT), which is organising the colloquium, told Lusa.

The "1st International Colloquium on Gungunhana - Importance and Current Events", which runs from Thursday to Saturday, brings together writers and academics from various nationalities on the isand of Terceira.

Captured by Mouzinho de Albuquerque in 1895, Gungunhana spent three months imprisoned in Monsanto, but was eventually sent to the São João Baptista Fortress in Angra do Heroísmo, on Terceira Island, where he died 10 years later.

Accompanying him were his son Godide, his uncle and counsellor Molungo and Zixaxa, a chief of a tribe that had attacked Lourenço Marques (now Maputo).

According to José Olívio Rocha, the last emperor of Gaza and his companions are "figures who marked many generations" and "still have an interesting local impact today".

"What the newspapers of the time say is that they were received with affection and pity. Basically, in our own way, they were well received," he said.

Banished to Terceira, the prisoners from Gaza were "forced to be baptised" to integrate, but their godparents were the highest figures in Angrense society at the time.

"The way the people of Terceira received them differed from how they were received in Lisbon. They were integrated in a certain way, in our way, and the authorities, obviously with their vested interests in getting noticed, also went along with it. Promoting their baptism and confirmation is a portrait of this projection," emphasised the IHIT president.

In 2019, the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo marked Gungunhana's arrival on Terceira Island on 27 June 1896 with a cycle of commemorative events.

The Historical Institute of Terceira Island is now reexamining the theme in an international colloquium that aims to bring together different perspectives on the importance of the last emperor of Gaza.

"It's an opportunity to see what other people are saying, what, for example, is currently being said in Mozambique about the figure of Gungunhana and the former empire of Gaza," emphasised José Olívio Rocha.

The IHIT president emphasised the literary perspective as well as the historical perspective, pointing out that authors such as Mia Couto have written novels about Gungunhana's story.

The writer from Terceira, Vitorino Nemésio, also recounts an episode that happened to the Gaza prisoners in his book "Bad Weather on the Canal".

Gungunhana and Zixaxa were ordered to bow to General Pimenta de Castro, but the former tribal chief refused.

"Gungunhana had the personality of the king of Gaza, but he was very fearful and lowered himself. When it came to Zixaxa's turn, he remained haughty and said: I would never bow down to this general because I am a general and I commanded 10,000 men," said the IHIT president.

According to José Olívio Rocha, what is reported in the book "corresponds to known descriptions of Zixaxa's behaviour".

The colloquium, which is being held at the Manuel Coelho Baptista de Lima Military History Centre in Angra do Heroísmo, will be attended by the writer Mia Couto, the researcher from the Institute for Socio-Cultural Research in Mozambique Abel Mazuze and the researcher from the Institute of Contemporary History at the New University of Lisbon Victor Barros.

In addition to several Azorean researchers, Eric Morier-Genoud from Queen's University Belfast, Michel Cahen from the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Andrea Vacha from the University Institute of Lisbon (ISCTE), and Maria-Benedita Bastos from the Faculty of Letters of the Sorbonne are also participating.

The Mozambican ambassador to Portugal, Stella Zeca, and the president of the King Ngungunhane Institute, Eugénio Numayo, will also attend the event.

CYB/ADB // ADB.

Lusa