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African Fiscal Systems as Sources for

Demographic History: the Case of Central Angola,
17991920

Linda Heywood and John Thornton

The Journal of African History / Volume 29 / Issue 02 / July 1988, pp 213 - 228
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700023641, Published online: 22 January 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0021853700023641

How to cite this article:

Linda Heywood and John Thornton (1988). African Fiscal Systems as Sources for
Demographic History: the Case of Central Angola, 17991920. The Journal of African
History, 29, pp 213-228 doi:10.1017/S0021853700023641

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Journal of African History, 29 (1988), pp. 213-228 213
Printed in Great Britain

AFRICAN FISCAL SYSTEMS AS SOURCES FOR

DEMOGRAPHIC HISTORY: THE CASE OF CENTRAL
ANGOLA, 1799-1920

BY LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON

MANY researchers have given up hope of finding genuinely quantitative data

about pre-colonial African demography because African societies, being non-
literate, did not leave written records of the kind normally considered
indispensable for demographic research. Likewise, documentation that gives
quantitative data produced by travellers or European residents in Africa is
often dismissed as the traveller could not possibly have actually counted or
investigated demographic phenomena personally. There are a few exceptions,
mostly derived from early colonial settings (such as Portuguese Angola) 1 or
special situations such as the Christian Kingdom of Kongo which produced
baptismal statistics, 2 but in general these areas are fairly small in extent, and
are not necessarily typical of surrounding areas.
However, such research has not taken into consideration that at least some
of the travellers may have been informed by African statistical sources which,
while not written down and preserved for posterity, were nevertheless- an
integral part of on-going administration, and answered to the needs of any
administration for data, often of a numerical kind, in order to function
efficiently. Thus the European traveller might have tapped oral data sources,
which, thanks to his presence on the spot, are preserved for modern research.
As a demonstration of the potentials of one such source, we propose to
examine the extensive demographic notes of the Hungarian traveller Lazlo
Magyar, who visited Angola and other parts of central Africa in the mid-
nineteenth century (i 848-5 7). 3 These demographic notes suggest that Magyar
tapped the fiscal records of a variety of central African kingdoms, but
especially those of the central highlands of Angola, home of the Ovimbundu
people. It is possible, albeit still somewhat speculative, to translate the fiscal
terms of central African administrations into figures that can give us a base line
estimate of the size, density and distribution of population in the highlands of
much of central Angola and parts of Zaire in the middle of the nineteenth
century. In addition to its utility in allowing estimates of population in central
Africa, this exercise may suggest to other researchers working elsewhere in
Africa and on other time periods that the statistical estimates of travellers may
rest on a more solid numerical base than was previously imagined.
Magyar was a Liberal refugee from the Hungarian revolutions of 1848 who
fled first to Brazil, and then crossed to Angola. In Angola he became involved
1
See, for example, John Thornton, 'The slave trade in eighteenth century Angola:
effects on demographic structures', Canadian J. Afr. Studies (1980), 417-27.
2
John Thornton, 'Demography and history in the Kingdom of Kongo, 1550-1750',
J. Afr. Hist, xviii (1977), 507-30 and 'An eighteenth century baptismal register and the
demographic history of Manguenzo' in Christopher Fyfe and David McMaster (eds.),
African Historical Demography, 1 (Edinburgh, 1977), 405-15.
3
Lazlo Magyar, Reisen in Su'd Afrika (Pest, 1859, reprinted New York, 1973), 242-5,
362, 392-400.
214 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON
in commerce, and moved to the state of Viye in 1849, where he established a
village and married a young woman (only fourteen) of the local aristocracy.
Using Viye as a base, he made systematic journeys along all the major
central African trade routes, to the south as far as the Kalahari, to the east as
far as Lunda, and north to the Kwanza, eventually returning to Europe in
1858. An inquisitive traveller, he soon earned the nickname 'Ngana Komo',
meaning roughly 'Mister W h y ? ' (from Portuguese como, meaning why or
how). He gathered geographical, social and linguistic data, much of which
reflects a scientific rigour comparable to that of Heinrich Barth and Gustav
Nachtigal. 4
When Magyar arrived in Angola, the central highlands were dominated by
a series of Ovimbundu kingdoms, of which Viye, Ngalangi and Mbailundu
were the most important. These kingdoms also exercised tributary authority
over a host of smaller states, and in Magyar's day had just begun to become the
centre of a major trading network which connected the coastal ports of
Benguela and Lobito to most of what is now Angola, Zaire and Zambia. 5
Magyar's basic demographic data are counts of villages, divided up according
to higher level political units, some of which were independent states, but most
of which were themselves sub-units of still larger kingdoms. He then arrived at
population estimates by multiplying the numbers of villages by a factor, to
which he then added special estimates of the size of extremely large settlements,
usually political capitals (kombalas), for each of the sub-units, finally producing
overall population estimates.
Magyar provided important insights into his methods in an appendix
devoted to describing the ' Statistical-Topographical' information in the book
and its attached map. 6 In it, he bewailed the difficulties that travellers faced in
obtaining reliable statistical data, and apologized that his own were based
solely on conjectures, though they were supported by 'my several years'
observations'. He noted that his basic method was to locate the villages and
then to arrive at a mean population. Villages, he noted, were 'with some few
exceptions, very small, but their number in a small area is very large'. He
believed that the mean population of a libata (Angolan Portuguese term for an
African village that was not a political capital) was about 80-160, 'if the
children are not considered'.
While he considered the district boundaries, based partly on his own
research and partly on ' information acquired from prominent natives' to be
relatively reliable, he was less confident about the actual numbers of villages,
since he acquired this type of information solely from the local people. His
personal experience led him to doubt that it was possible to know the exact
number of villages: he knew that villages moved and changed names often:
' T h e inhabitants can easily abandon a village and settle in a new place near to
or far from the abandoned one; usually the new place is given a new name.' He
cited an extreme case: the 'Ganguellas' region, where he believed 'after 25

4
For Magyar's background, see Nicholas de Kun, ' La vie et le voyage de Ladislaus
Magyar dans l'interieur du Congo en 1850-52', Bulletin des Seances, Academie Royale des
Sciences d'Outremer, n.s. vi (1960), 605-36.
5
On the Ovimbundu kingdoms, see Linda Heywood, 'Production, trade and power:
the political economy of central Angola, 1850-1930' (Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University,
1984).
6
Magyar, Reisen, 432-3.
 CENTRAL ANGOLA 1799-192O 215

years most of the villages had disappeared from their original sites and
transplanted somewhere else'. This uncertainty is perhaps best expressed by
the fact that he almost always gave the number of villages in any given district
in round numbers: 50, 60, 90, 100, 120, 200, 250 and so on; only for quite small
districts does he risk to say 1 5 - t h e s e places he may well have known
personally or visited and could check.
We might therefore have a number of very good reasons to have some
serious reservations about Magyar's statistics. On the one hand, he himself
expressed doubts about the quality of statistical data that he received, largely
on his perceptions about how his Ovimbundu informants received it; on the
other hand, he gave such a wide number of numerical options on the average
size of villages not counting children and expressing a range of 80-160 is
not much to inspire confidence.
Nevertheless, we might have some of our confidence restored if we
consider that even if the actual range of village sizes was quite large, their great
number would tend to produce an average of close to 120 people per village.
Moreover, if we compare Magyar's estimated totals against the number of
villages he reports, we see that he used a variable factor to estimate. For Viye,
for example, his number per district and number per village (if the numbers
in the large central settlements are subtracted) varies from 87-5 people per
village to 133 people per village, with 100 being a common estimate. 7 On the
other hand, estimates from Caconda and the Ngalangi vary: in Caconda he
used 229 people per village, while in Ngalangi he used 111 people per
village. 8 Magyar clearly had some ideas about the regional variation of average
village sizes, and he probably used a factor that he had some confidence in from
personal experience. Therefore, we can accept his total numbers, even if they
were rounded, as being based partially on a calculation and not simply on
guesswork.
The statement that children were not considered is more troubling, first
because we do not know exactly what age group is meant by children, and
assigning to them a wide age range, say of under ten years, might yield
25-35 per cent of a population with a 'normal' pyramid of ages. If this were
true the numbers would have to be nearly half again as large - but if Magyar
meant a smaller age range, say of under five, they may have comprised only
12-15 per cent of the population. 8 Colonial population enumerations of the
early twentieth century all show highly skewed age distributions, with large
numbers of adults relative to the numbers of children, which, we believe was

' Ibid. 242-44. Cf. Kanyungo district, with 10,000 people in 60 villages and 2,000 in the
Kombala (central town), averages 133 per village; Dyindyoya with 8,ooo people and 70
villages (adding 2,000 for the central district, though Magyar gave no estimate) averages
875 per village.
8
Ibid. 392-6 (Caconda: 100,000 people, a total of 400 villages and four kombalas with
a total population of 8,500) and 399-400 (Ngalangi: 250,000 people with 2,050 villages
and kombalas totalling 20,500).
9
Our conception of a ' normal' age distribution derives largely from John Thornton's
earlier work on eighteenth-century Kongo populations, in ' Demography and history' and
'Baptismal register', which is partly based on documentary research and suggests that
certain mathematically generated age distribution tables can be used to estimate age-
pyramids for seventeenth- and eighteenth-century central Africa. The degree to which
these can be distorted by such processes as the slave trade can be seen in ' Slave trade in
eighteenth century Angola'.
2l6 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON

due to the steady influx of adult slaves (especially females) in the period
1850-1900 who had not yet had children, thus giving the population the
appearance of having relatively few children.10 Such conditions were clearly
present from at least the mid-eighteenth century as a result of Angola's
participation in the Atlantic slave trade, and therefore it is possible that the
numbers of children might well have been relatively small in Magyar's day as
well, and even in the worst case might not have exceeded 10 per cent of the
total. On the other hand, Magyar's estimates for total population (as opposed
to average numbers per village) could have included children, for when we are
able to match totals in a district against the numbers of villages, we find that
the average village sizes are larger than his original estimate of range: 229
people in Caconda, for example. His smallest average village, with 87-5 in Viye,
is still larger by nearly 20 per cent than the small village in his range.
Furthermore, we might express more optimism than Magyar did about the
quality of his informants' descriptions of the numbers of villages per district.
While Magyar would have had a very hard time finding all the villages and
keeping a village list up to data, his informants, those ' prominent natives' from
whom he derived his information, might have had access to quite detailed local
information. Magyar, as a foreigner and a merchant, had cause to call on and
curry the favour of as many of the political leaders as he could, while being
married into the royal family of Viye and being kin to the rulers of Ngalangi,
from whom his wife's family derived, gave him additional ability to contact
many important personages.11 As someone interested in the geography of
central Africa, he seems to have tried to travel widely and systematically in the
whole region, and must have kept very detailed notes from the start.
Presumably, the 'prominent natives' were the heads of political units or
sub-units, or some of their high status subordinates or officials. Such people
might well be in a position to tap fiscal data kept by the government of the
Ovimbundu kingdoms to project and estimate income. It would have been
their business, on an annual basis, to ensure that revenues were collected and
forwarded to the appropriate treasuries or storehouses, and to do this
promptly, efficiently and accurately they would have to possess good
intelligence about the location of productive (and taxable) units - the villages.
Magyar noted that in Mbailundu, one of the largest and most powerful of the
Ovimbundu kingdoms, each village paid an annual tribute to the district
leader.12 Similarly, Magyar who himself founded a village in Viye, the second
largest kingdom of the area, noted that he was required to forward tribute
annually to the princess of the Viye royal family in whose jurisdiction his
village lay.13
In order to ensure collection, Ovimbundu rulers kept a large number of
officials. Antonio Francisco de Silva Porto, a Portuguese traveller who visited
and described Mbailundu a few years before Magyar, called them 'sargentos,
10
Linda Heywood and John Thornton, 'Demography, production and labor in
Central Angola, 1890-1950', in Dennis Cordell and Joel Gregory (eds.), African
Population and Capitalism: Historical Perspectives (Boulder, Colorado, 1987).
11
Ibid. 236-7; 260 n.26 on Magyar's wife and her background; 445 on the co-
operation her marriage elicited.
12
Ibid. 387. Magyar illustrates the principle by citing the case of the district Onduma
in Mbailundu.
13
Ibid. 245. This princess was named Ina-Kullu-Sake.
 CENTRAL ANGOLA 1799-1920 217

quinduras and macotas' (a mixture of Umbundu, Angolan Portuguese and

Kimbundu terms). He was impressed how quickly they collected a substantial
quantity of foodstuffs upon his arrival in Mbailundu in 1852.14 Moreover,
during the course of his visit, Silva Porto heard a long speech from the ruler
on the virtues of his country, the ruler's claims to power and the history of the
kingdom. 15 Silva Porto did not record all the details of the speech, but Magyar
no doubt heard others like it, and if he questioned the ruler or his officials more
closely he may well have elicited more detailed information.
The fiscal obligations of Ovimbundu people did not end with payment of
annual tribute through their village rulers (sekulus). They were also required
to perform military service in the frequent wars that the various Ovimbundu
states waged on each other and against the neighbouring regions. Magyar
observed that the villagers served as a block under command of their sekulu and
with their own colours and joined the professional army for the campaign. 16
They might, moreover, choose to resist the exactions of their superiors as a
group as well, suggesting that states and districts were sufficiently committed
to realizing their obligations to fight for them (and hence to knowing what they
were and where they could be found). 17 According to Silva Porto, when war
was declared, the king sent messengers around to raise the army, presumably
using the same type of officials and methods used to raise other fiscal
obligations. 18
It is unlikely that such a fiscal apparatus would allow a village to escape its
obligations simply because it moved, and if the fiscal officials did allow this to
happen, they would soon find themselves with no revenue at all. Thus we can
imagine that even if the rulers of any given state knew nothing of the names or
even the locations of their subordinate villages, they would be likely to know
how many there were, if for no other reason than as a means to check and
insure that they did not miss any potential revenue.
But it was not just revenue considerations that kept the rulers of states and
districts informed in detail about their subordinates. Ovimbundu rulers also
had judicial functions, and since this included taking of fines, they were anxious
to use them fully. According to Silva Porto, the sons of the rulers regularly
circulated throughout the kingdom to hear cases, probably on at least an annual
basis, and perhaps more often still. 19 These trials were a lucrative source of
revenue and vigorously pursued, at least as far as both Magyar and Silva Porto
saw it.20 Again, missing villages or not keeping track of them when they moved
or changed names was likely to deprive the nobility and other state officials of
revenues and authority, and for that reason they were quite likely to be experts
on the current geography of their domains, even if they might have preserved
no historical records or kept no other documentation.
In summary, we can say that while we must have some doubts and
14
Jose de Miranda and Antonio Brochado (eds.), Viagens e apontamentos de um
portuenese em Africa: Excerptos do 'Diario' de Antonio Francisco da Silva Porto (Lisbon,
1942), 82-3. The original version of the diary in the Biblioteca da Sociedade de
Geografia de Lisboa, Reservados (henceforward: SGL, Res.) 146-C-6, 1 (1846-53),
contains material not in the published version, but in this passage there is nothing of
consequence omitted.
15 10 17
Ibid. 84-7. Magyar, Reisen, 278, 291, 308. Ibid. 308.
18
Silva Porto, in Viagens, Miranda and Brochado (eds.), 192.
10
SGL, Res. 146-C-6, 1 (1846-53), 139 and ibid, vn (1882), 139.
20
Ibid, (both citations) and Magyar, Reisen, 200.
2l8 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON

Chart i. Population density in central Angola, c. Jc?5016

Population
Area Density
District Villages Towns Total (sq. km.) per sq. km

Viye 0
Kanyungo 60 2,000 10,000 3,328 3-0
Dyindyoya-Dele- 70 8,000 5,376 i"5
Luando
Karia-Kaboa- 130 13,000 7,936 16
Kanana Kitai
Dumba-Kiteke 150 2,500 16,000 4,096 i-6
Kangombe-Kikaba 80 1,200 8,000 8,960 09
Tumba-Kambandi- 150 15,000 4,608 33
Kabango
Royal District 610 6,200 50,000 4,864 103

Wambu 120,000 11,008 10-9

Sambu 450 3.7OO 30,000 4,320 6-9

Mbailundu"
Mulemba 120 2,000 16,400 3,328 4-9
Yikoma 150 2,000 20,000 3,328 60
Donde 120 2,000 16,400 2,816 5-3
Kimbolenge 120 2,000 16,400 3.072 5-3
Cipeyo 300 2,500 38,500 3,584 107
Kapitango 150 2,000 20,000 3-O72 6-5
Lomanganda 120 2,500 16,900 2,048 8-3
Kubula 50 3,000 9,000 2,816 32
Kibanda 500 4,000 64,000 6,912 93
Royal Lands 8,500 232,400 39,424 59
Massongo
Kissendi 400 2,500 32,000 7,424 4-3
Poake 300 5,ooo 27,000 6,H4 4'4
Kamesse 500 4,000 41,000 10,752 38

Ndulu
Bale 120 2,000 10,200 3,070 33
Kabanda 100 4,000 10,800 4,864 22
Kikala 250 2,000 19,000 6,400 3-o
Ngalangi'
Dumba 300 5,5OO 39,4oo 3.328 n-8
Kindombe 200 1,500 24,100 4,352 5-5
d 5,888
Muschinda 200 24,600 4-2
Manikatoko 500 3,000 59,500 10,752 5-5
Lambo 250 4,5oo 32,750 5.632 5-8
Royal Lands 600 3,000 70,800 5,632 126
0
Kakingi
Moma 300 3,000 33,000 7,68o 4-3
Kangombe 400 4,000 44,000 7,68o 57
 CENTRAL ANGOLA 1799-192O 219

Chart 1. (cont.)
Munkenya 60 4,000 10,000 3,328 30
Kiyengo 300 3,500 33,5O0 8,448 4-0
Mupinda 550 3,5oo 20,000 14,600' 1'4
Sumbi 500 8,800 35,ooo 17,900' 2-0
Ganda 30,000 14,800' 20
Selles 75,000 15,900' 47
Ambuim 700 7,000 75,000 18,400' 41
Libolo 1,500 40,000 10,500' 3-8
Haku 3,5oo 35,000 14,100' 2"5
Kubala 35,ooo 18,200' 1-9
Cisanji 125,000 19,500' 6-8
Ciyaka 75,000 5,600' 133
Caconda 400 8,500 100,000 23,300' 4'3

" Magyar provides figures for district population, except total of royal lands,
which is derived from a residual obtained by subtracting other district totals from
his kingdom-wide total. Areas for districts in Viye and all other regions derived
from map (harmonized for Magyar's estimate of total area, where provided).
b
Magyar provides numbers of villages, but no total populations for districts.
We have created them by using a standard of 120 inhabitants per village, and then
adding the total population of large towns. Since Magyar gives no totals for the
royal lands, these have been inferred by taking a residual from his total population
for the kingdom.
c
Magyar provided only numbers of villages and a kingdom-wide total. We have
supplied district populations by multiplying number of villages by 113 (a figure
arrived at by dividing total population less total population in large towns by
number of villages).
d
Magyar did not give any town population for this district. We have assumed
a town of 2,000 existed.
e
Magyar did not give district totals, only numbers of villages. We have used 109
as a multiplier, using the same method as in note c above.
' Magyar's estimate of the surface area of this region is clearly wrong, even from
comparison with his own map. These areas have been calculated from the base map
on the basis of our reconstructed boundaries.

reservations about the use of a factor to translate numbers of villages into

numbers of people, we can have a certain amount of confidence that Magyar's
informants were competent and capable of giving fairly detailed geographical
detail and statistical information drawn from their fiscal knowledge. As such,
they were quite likely to know the number of villages in their domains and
Magyar's fears and doubts about their information may have been exaggerated.
Having satisfied ourselves that Magyar's data may be much more secure
than would appear at first glance, we can now begin to examine it for what it
can tell us about population density and distribution in the central highlands
By comparing the numerical data with other travellers' accounts and with more
recent data on population, we can also subject Magyar's information to a final
test of plausibility.
Our approach will be to calculate population density by district, plotting
these districts on a map drawn from Magyar's map of the central highlands and
his geographical notes concerning the extent and boundaries of the various
22O LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON
districts, and then producing a density estimate. Chart i on pages 6 and 7
displays the relevant data. 21
The information on this chart is, of course, extremely approximate, and the
exact figures shown in the various columns are in many cases simply the result
of multiplying fairly simple numbers by factors and should in no case be taken
as precise. It is difficult to arrive at a factor of error, but several should be
noted. First, of course, Magyar probably introduced some error by using
rounded numbers in village totals. Secondly, the factor used to multiply
numbers of villages to obtain total population is obviously subject to consider-
able error. Finally, the boundaries of the districts and states, from which the
calculations of area were made are themselves only approximate and could
have actually varied considerably from the real boundaries, perhaps by 10-15
per cent.
These data can be best discussed if they are portrayed on a map, which can
also define the borders used in making area calculations. 22 Map 1 shows the
distribution of population in the central highlands of Angola as represented by
the data in Chart 1.
In general, the distribution of population on this map conforms to that given
by travellers. Magyar noted that the population heartland of the central
Angolan region lay in the southern reaches of Mbailundu, Wambu and
northern Ngalangi. Furthermore, the eastern regions, especially Viye, were
much less densely populated, and included several thickly wooded waste-
lands. 23 T o the south as well, the district of Muschinda in southern Ngalangi
represents the beginning of much more sparsely populated regions that lay
south of the central highlands in the so-called 'Ganguellas'.
The distribution, likewise, shows very high consistency. Adjacent districts
have similar population densities, and rise and fall in a uniform manner when
viewed along an axis where population densities changed. Thus, if one moved
east from Cipeyo, in the high density region towards Viye, the population fell
to 6 5 per square kilometer in Kapitango, 5 3 in Donde, and 3 3 in Tumba.
This type of observation can be made for most such axes.
21
Chart 1 is drawn from material taken from Magyar, Reisen, 73, 123, 158, 242-4,
362-400 and map. Also see map notes. We have followed modern orthography for
kingdoms, and Magyar's German orthography for the lesser units.
22
The Map is drawn from the same sources as Chart 1. We have drawn the base
map onto squared paper using the (U.S.) Army Map Service Series at 1:2,000,000 scale
as a base for hydrography and some physical features (this map also places contours at
100-meter intervals) and have matched these against the map illustrating Magyar's book.
Magyar's map contains several errors: although he calculated the position of a number of
places by astronomical methods, his latitude and longitude grid is off by nearly a degree
in each dimension. Secondly, he made numerous minor errors in the hydrography for the
north of the map, and several serious errors in hydrography for the southern areas (the
rivers that flow north and south are shown flowing northwest to southeast). Thus we have
had to redraw Magyar's map, making use of his hydrography and physical features and
narrative description in the text. In view of the importance of the surface area
calculations, however, we have tried to harmonize Magyar's estimates of area with the
areas in the redrawn map (not a difficult task, in many cases there is a very close
correlation). Magyar attempted to draw kingdom boundaries on the map, and we have
respected these as much as possible, although his boundaries are much changed in our
map in the south and southeast. We have supplied district boundaries, using mountain
ranges and rivers as boundaries where apparently indicated, and have been more arbitrary
23
where such obvious features are lacking. Magyar, Reisen, passim.
 CENTRAL ANGOLA 1799-192O 221

Population Densities
(people/square kilometer)

I I Less than 5
I I 5 to 10
^ ^ | Greater than 10

KIBA-
NDAl
NQA-

MOMA MUKENYA

Lands| L
of NGA-
LANGIh 0

Modern Angola
no information
kj I KATOKO
MlflSCHI-
kilometers

Map 1.

The one exception to this rule is the relative density of the royal lands of
Viye, which were more densely populated than all their neighbours, and
consistent with the densities found in Mbailundu. This is again confirmed in
documentary sources, which commented on the relative density of the areas
around the capital of Viye.24 The great density of slaves in the area, brought in
from the numerous trading expeditions which merchants of Viye conducted to
24
Ibid, passim; Joaquim Rodrigues Gra?a, ' Derrota em direitura de Loanda...' (1843)
and 'Derrota da viagen da provincia de Bihe'...' (1846) in 'Expedi^ao ao Muatayanvua',
Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia e da Histdria de Lisboa, IX (1890), 371-85 and
402-408.
222 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON
the east, helped support a large and wealthy royal family and the country's
standing army. It is probably only the addition of the fairly sparsely populated
northern lands under royal control in Mbailundu that makes the royal district
there relatively less dense. Had Magyar provided sufficient regional data for
northern Mbailundu, one might well expect those areas in Mbailundu near to
Cipeyo to be equal to or denser than that region.
It will also be helpful to compare these densities with those of more recent
censuses and enumerations of the population of the highlands. It was not until
shortly after the First World War that the Portuguese colonial government
began to conduct systematic censuses that had some chance of being accurate.
Moreover, since the Portuguese intended the central highlands region to be the
centre of European settler colonization, they were more diligent in counting
there than in many other districts. In another study, we examined these early
administrative enumerations and found them to have been carefully conducted;
they included a fairly serious effort to make a registration of the population for
tax purposes by name and by village. While the transparent purpose of these
enumerations and the continuing problems which the new administration
faced probably caused underestimation, these early figures were definitely
based on actual counting.25
These enumerations make the absolute figures provided by our analysis of
Magyar's data seem plausible. For example, an enumeration intended to
calculate the size of the potential labour pool in Lepi, a Portuguese post in the
Kapitango region, found population density in the surrounding areas to be
about 10 per square kilometer,26 while this region had a density of 6-5 per
square kilometer according to Magyar. Other reports of that time are less easy
to use since it is impossible to determine the precise areas from which data
were drawn. However, a general report of 1927 gives the average density in the
heartland of the old kingdom of Mbailundu at 11 -55 per square kilometer,
while Mbailundu's overall density in Magyar's day was supposed to be just
over 6.27 These same reports reveal a density for Ndulu of 5-33, compared to a
density in Magyar's time of just below 3.28
Taken together these reports suggest that the population must have almost
doubled in the next 60-75 years after Magyar's visit, implying an average rate
of increase in the order of 5-7 per thousand. This is a fairly high rate of
increase for a pre-industrial population in central Africa, but not beyond the
bounds of possibility. Some of the difference might, of course, be due to
Magyar omitting children from his estimates: if he did, one might have to
increase the earlier figures by 10-20 per cent. On the other hand, examination
of the returns of Portuguese population counts made in the early 1920s shows
a dearth of infants and children under three years of age which may also derive
25
Hey wood and Thornton, 'Demography'.
26
Centro de Documentacao e Investigacao Historica, Luanda Estante 69, Caixa 1,
Huambo, documento 42, 'Recenseamento de Posto de Poh'cia Civil do Lepi', 1919-20.
27
Ivo de Cerqueira, Relatorio, 1931-32, Direccao dos Servicos e Negocios Indi'genas
(Luanda, 1932), 67.
28
Ibid. 67-9. Cerqueira also gives densities for Bie (Viye), but the administration's
decision to add substantial lands of low population lying east of the old kingdom reduces
the average density sufficiently that a direct comparison is not possible. Cerqueira's
density, for example, is 2-86, Magyar's is 42 (although one should note that the eastern
parts of the kingdom had densities in the 10-1-5 range).
 CENTRAL ANGOLA 1799-IO2O 223
from under-counting; correcting for this would cause some increase in the
later figures and reinforce the picture of high growth. Even making these
allowances, however, the early figures do suggest a fairly substantial growth in
population in the years following Magyar's residence in Angola.
Although we cannot trace the population evolution in the intervening years
in detail, the general trend seems to have been sharply upward. This increase
was due not so much to strong local fertility as to net immigration, largely in
the form of young female slaves. These slaves were already being imported
in Magyar's day, and the years that followed saw the blooming of Ovimbundu
commerce with central Africa, first in slaves, ivory and wax, and then in
rubber. The massive import of rubber, and the gradual settling of the
population, only took place in the early twentieth century.29 It is much less clear
how the population grew and changed in the period that followed the loss of
independence. The age-sex structure of the population in the early 1920s
showed a shortage of children relative to older age brackets, and a certain
degree of female predominance in the adult ages. While these points do not
suggest that the population would have continued to grow, we argued
elsewhere that they were the result of the continued in-migration of childless
female slaves, who might have had large numbers of children later. In any case,
by 1940 population had grown further, and the age distribution had come to
form a more familiar pyramid.30
Once having satisfied ourselves that Magyar's estimates, based on African
fiscal data, stand a chance of being a reasonably close approximation of the real
population, we can turn to another set of data from the same region for an even
earlier period. This data was compiled by Alexandre Jose Botelho de
Vasconcellos and sent to the Viscount de Sa de Bandeira in 1799.31 Like
Magyar's data it breaks down the population into districts and villages, but
in this case the information is less specific. For example, Botelho de
Vasconcellos tells us that Wambu contained 8 sobas and 20 sovetas (greater and
lesser district rulers) who ruled 311 villages between them, but he does not give
a breakdown of how these villages were divided between the lesser officials.
Moreover, and more important, he does not give any geographical information.
But, for all that, it is clear from the way the data is presented that he, like
Magyar at a later time, also drew on fiscal information. The source of this fiscal
information was probably not his own personal research, as was true in
Magyar's case, but the fairly large Portuguese communities that resided in the
area.32 These communities were linked to the Portuguese government by the
institution of the capitao mor, an official chosen by the Portuguese government
to represent the interests of Portugal to the local rulers, to protect the
local Portuguese community from oppression and to ensure they remained at

29
On the overall history of this period, see Heywood, 'Production'. For some
suggestions on the demographic effects of this see Heywood and Thornton, ' Demo-
graphy'.
30
For a discussion of the nature of the age-sex distribution in the 1920s and
subsequent population change, see Heywood and Thornton, 'Demography'.
31
Alexandre Jose Botelho de Vasconcellos,' Descripcao de Captania de Benguella, suas
Provincias, Portos, Rios mais Caudelosos... ' (1 August 1799) in Annaes do Conselho
Ultramarino, Pane nao oficial, series 4, no. 4 (1844), 161 ('Mappa de Capitania de
Benguella'). 32 /fod. , 6 , .
224 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON

Chart 2. Villages in Ovimbundu kingdoms,

Kingdom Towns" Villages" Population0

Wambu 8 33i 72,500

Ngalangi 21 973 210,700
Mbailundu 15 2,122 428,800
Viye 26 918 205,000

" This figure comes from the number of 'sobas' in Botelho de Vasconcellos'
table, assuming each one possessed a town of a size substantially larger than the
ordinary village, and moreover that these were not counted in village totals.
'Sovetas' are very numerous, and probably did not possess settlements much
larger than an average village.
b
This total is the number of 'sovetas' (assuming each has his own village of
approximately average size) and the number of 'povacoes' (villages) in each
kingdom, as per Botelho de Vasconcellos' data.
c
Figures obtained by multiplying the number of towns by 1,000 as an average
size of kombalas, and villages by 195.

least partly under government control.33 It was probably they who collected
this information.
By examining this data we can obtain estimates of the population of most
of the major states as they were in the late eighteenth century. Botelho de
Vasconcellos provides village data for Wambu, Ngalangi, Mbailundu and Viye
as shown in Chart 2.
Although Botelho de Vasconcellos did not make actual population estimates,
he did argue that at least for Wambu, from which he had the most detailed and
best information, each village contained between 50 and 60 houses, each with
34 people in it, thus making the range of village sizes about 150-240, some-
what larger than but overlapping the range suggested by Magyar of 80-160. It
is possible that Botelho de Vasconcellos did consider children while Magyar
did not, and that this factor could account for the different range. We have
supplied estimates of population by multiplying the number of villages by 195,
an average of sizes in the range suggested by Botelho de Vasconcellos. Of
course, as we have already seen from examining Magyar's estimates, village
sizes varied from district to district, and moreover, the only district for which
it is not possible to determine Magyar's average is Wambu, which is the only
one that Botelho de Vasconcellos elaborated. Thus, if village sizes in Viye and
Mbailundu were the same in Botelho de Vasconcellos's time as they were in
Magyar's day, the population totals would be smaller for those districts.
To compare this data with Magyar's, then, it is probably best to use the raw
data, and compare the numbers of villages, and ignore the higher-level
settlements, such as the residences of local rulers, rather than attempt to match
estimates of population. In any case, the data shows a rather strong increase in
population of all the Ovimbundu kingdoms during the period 1800-1850, as
can be seen from Chart 3.
As in the case of the growth between 1850 and 1920, these rates of increase

33
Heywood, 'Production', 103-5.
 CENTRAL ANGOLA I7QQ-IO.2O 225

Chart 3. Population growth in Ovimbundu kingdoms, iygg-1850

No. of villages in:

Kingdom 1799 1850 Increase (%)
Viye 886 1,250 4i
Wambu 311 6ooa 93
Mbailundu 2,056 3,496b 70
Ngalangi 900 2,050 127

a
This is an estimate made by dividing the total population given by Magyar
(120,000) by 195, the mean village size.
b
The number of villages in the royal lands has been estimated by dividing the
total population by 120, the average village size from other areas.

seem rather high for a pre-industrial population, Viye's rate, the lowest, still
being around 6 per thousand, while Ngalangi was growing at nearly 15 per
thousand. But there are other considerations first of all that at least
Mbailundu underwent territorial growth; and since Botelho de Vasconcellos
does not provide detailed geographical information, we cannot be sure that
territorial expansion does not account for much of the apparent population
growth. But it also seems fairly clear that a good deal of Mbailundu's growth
in this period was through incorporating other kingdoms as tributaries. When
the ruler of Mbailundu told Silva Porto about the expansion of his state, it was
expansion of this type he mentioned.34 Among these acquisitions he mentioned
Wambu, for which we have already found separate figures from Magyar's data,
so we can perhaps discount territorial expansion as a means by which the
apparent population growth might be explained.
Instead, population growth in this period should probably be explained in
much the same way as it was in the following period, through the importation
of slaves, and the pattern of growth displayed by the data seems strongly to
support such a conclusion. In the late-eighteenth century, Ngalangi lay astride
a great southern trade route that connected Benguela and other coastal ports
with the great slave raiding and trading states of Lozi and Lunda.35 Although
Viye and Mbailundu would come, in time, to participate in this slave trade,
too, along more northern routes, in the period before the 1830s or 1840s
neither kingdom was particularly prominent in it.36 This is reflected in the
lower growth rates of the two kingdoms, while Wambu's higher rate, like that
of Ngalangi, can easily be explained by its access to the southern slave trade
route.
A last piece of information from Magyar on the population of the Lunda
empire can provide something of a postscript and commentary on the role of
the slave trade in the growth of population in the central highlands. Magyar
wrote a detailed account of Lunda, equivalent to his account of the Ovimbundu
kingdoms, before his return to Europe, but unfortunately, it was never
published, and was apparently destroyed during the Hungarian uprising of
34
Silva Porto, in M i r a n d a and Brochado (eds), Viagens, 8 2 - 3 .
35 36
Heywood, ' P r o d u c t i o n ' , 113. Ibid., 105-10.
226 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON
37
1956. He did, however, give a description of Lunda in a letter to the
geographer Adolph Petermann in 1858, based on his travels in the region in
1850, 1851 and 1855.38 In this account, probably based on his much more
detailed notes and description, Magyar gave a brief summary of Lunda's
borders and ventured that its total population was 'hardly more than one
million \ 3 9 He provided some information on the provincial structure and gave
estimates of the size of the ruler's town for each province, but provided no
detailed data on numbers of villages or other fiscal data. One would hardly
expect more in such a summary communication, and one should not therefore
preclude the possibility that Magyar had conducted research on the population
of Lunda not unlike the research he had done in the Ovimbundu kingdoms.
Our confidence that Lunda also had a carefully controlled fiscal system
similar to those of the Ovimbundu kingdoms which could serve as a base for
demographic calculations is bolstered by a remarkable document left a few
years before by another traveller, the Portuguese officer Joaquim Rodrigues
Graca. Graca went to visit Lunda in 1846, and as an appendix to his long report
provided a list of the revenues that the Lunda emperor derived from each of
his provinces.40 These revenues are expressed in Portuguese currency {reis),
although that was surely not the basis on which tax was collected. In all
probability, however, the tax assessors of the kingdom did base revenue
demands on some sort of schedule of money (which Graca converted to reis
according to an exchange rate that would be known to merchants), perhaps to
accommodate a uniform taxation when taxes were in fact rendered in a variety
of natural products.41 If tax assessments were a factor of population estimates
made by the administration, whether on village counts or some other means of
calculating, then the Lunda officials probably had a good idea of how many
people there were in their empire. If Magyar was able to tap this data, as Graca
had done, and convert it to numerical data on population, then his remark
about Lunda's total population being 'scarcely over one million' has much
more force.
If we consider this, and make a rough estimate that Lunda controlled some
275,000 square kilometres in the 1850s,42 then the overall density of the
37
For a useful introduction to Magyar's unpublished work, see de Kun, 'Vie et
voyage'.
38
Petermann published the letter, dated Lueira, 16 November 1858, as 'Ladislaus
Magyar's Erforschung von Inner-Afrika. Nachrichten iiber die von ihm in den Jahren
1850, 1851 and 1855 bereisten Lander Moluwa, Moropu und Lobal', Petermann's
Geographische Mitheilungen, v (i860) 227-37. A Hungarian version was published from
a lecture Magyar gave to the Hungarian Academy of Sciences on 10 Oct. 1859 which is
practically identical, published in Acade'mai Ertesito, xix (1859) and translated into
English in Laslo Krizsan, '"Homo Regius" in Africa (in commemoration of the
centenary of David Livingstone's death)', Studies on Developing Studies (Institute for
World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, no. 78, Budapest, 1975),
Appendix I, Lazlo Magyar, 'A brief account of the Moluva or Moropuu and Lobal
39
countries', 17-30. Ibid. 24 (German version, 231).
40
Joaquim Rodrigues Graca, 'Expedicao ao Muatayanvo. Diario de Joaquim
Rodrigues Graca', Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Historia de Lisboa, ix (1890),
468.
41
Ibid. 468, states tribute was taken in 'ivory, slaves and money (Jazenda)'. See also
Magyar, ' Brief account' (tr. Krizan), 24 (German version, 231).
42
We have accepted the boundaries of Lunda c. 1850 as they appear on the map in Jan
Vansina, Kingdoms of the Savanna (Madison, 1966), 217. Total area estimated by
redrawing the map on squared paper and counting squares.
 CENTRAL ANGOLA 1799-I92O 227

empire would have been around 3-4 persons per square kilometre. This
number is sufficiently low to justify Magyar's statement that 'As compared
with the immense dimensions of the empire, its population is low' 43 ; many of
the Ovimbundu regions had at least double that density. Yet the number is
quite high considering that the density in the area in the twentieth century
scarcely exceeded 2 per sq. km., although we have not examined all the
unpublished data on this thoroughly.44 Even allowing for undercounting in the
modern population, it would appear that Lunda had perhaps twice as many
people in the mid-nineteenth century as it did in 1900. Such a number might
be increased if one allows that Lunda's peripheral regions could also be under-
enumerated by its own officials.
This is hardly surprising, for it was from Lunda that the vast quantities of
slaves that went to bolster the highlands population came. Magyar believed
that fully one-third of all the exports from the Angolan coast in the Atlantic
slave trade period derived from Lunda,45 and accounts of other travellers show
that many of the slaves that came to the Ovimbundu highlands region
ultimately derived from Lunda and its neighbours.46 If these slaves were
overwhelmingly female, as was probably the case once the Atlantic slave trade
with its high demand for males began to die out after 1840, then the
demographic drain would be tremendous. Not only would the loss of females
reduce the total population; the absence of females in the resulting population
would necessarily depress the birth rate and continue the population loss into
the next generation. If African population could stand the loss of males during
the Atlantic slave trade period precisely because they retained females, and the
females continued with normal fertility,47 this could not be true of the Lunda
region where females were being lost. It is therefore quite possible that the
population of eastern Angola and southern Zaire was indeed halved between
1850 and 1900, largely through transfer of the females to the Ovimbundu
highlands (among other places).
Thus, in conclusion, it seems apparent that at least in the case of Lazlo
Magyar, the detailed statistics from one traveller turn out to have more value
than we might have otherwise expected, and the likely source of that value is
not simply Magyar's astuteness, diligence or skill as an observer, but rather his
ability to tap the statistical resources of the administration of African countries.
This, in turn, reinforces our faith in some other estimates for the same region,
and allows us to sketch, in surprising detail, the population history of the
central highlands of Angola from the last years of the eighteenth century to
13
Magyar, 'Brief account' (tr. Krizan), 24, (German version, 231).
44
The i960 census of Angola gives the population of Moxico province as 1-3 per square
kilometre, and shrinking, since the 1970 census showed only 11 per square kilometre.
Lunda Province, on the other hand, had about 15 people per square kilometre and was
rising to 18 by 1970. See Irvin Kaplan (ed.), Angola: A Country Study (Washington,
1979), 66. Population enumeration in this part of Angola was very lax in the preceding
period and the numbers should probably not be taken too seriously. In Zaire, where the
heart of the Lunda empire lay, densities were higher, running generally around 3-4 in
1930, though lower in places; see the map in Bogumil Jewsiewicki, 'Rural society and the
Belgian colonial economy', in David Birmingham and Phyllis Martin (eds.), History of
Central Africa (London and New York, 1983), 11, 102. Here again, further research will
clarify the evolution of the population in the colonial period.
45
M a g y a r , ' Brief a c c o u n t ' (tr. K r i z a n ) , 2 4 ( G e r m a n v e r s i o n , 231).
46
Heywood, 'Production', 102, 109.
47
Thornton, 'Effect of slave trade', 424-5.
228 LINDA HEYWOOD AND JOHN THORNTON

1920, and to make at least some educated guesses about the evolution of
population for a fairly wide region of Angola and Zaire. Fuller investigation of
similar material in Angola will certainly help to add clarity to this analysis.
Undoubtedly other African states employed reliable and reasonably accurate
methods of accounting for population in order to assess taxes, military service
or other state demands. Furthermore, although these states did not keep
written records of such assessment, some state officials would have been
familiar with this data at any given time. If other travellers in Africa followed
Magyar's approach and tapped such sources of information, their accounts of
population and numbers of villages (or other fiscal units) might have a much
stronger numerical base than historians have previously assumed. For example,
Gustav Nachtigal, in Darfur, noted that he built up his estimates through
'noting down and adding together' the numbers of hamlets that he 'could get
information about'.48 Thus historians should be more concerned than they
have been about the possible sources of information gathered by travellers, so
that they may assess the accuracy and utility of such statistical information as
they provide.49
SUMMARY
In evaluating statistical information found in reports of European travellers,
historians have not paid sufficient attention to the possibility that African states
possessed reasonably competent fiscal systems. This is demonstrated by a study of
the demographic information about the central highlands of Angola collected in
the 1850s by the Hungarian traveller Lazlo Magyar, who probably used oral fiscal
records about the numbers of villages in the area to make a detailed series of
population estimates.
Our study of the population data left by Magyar suggests that it is reliable
and can be used to show population trends in central Africa from 1800 to 1900.
Population appears to have increased rapidly in the central highlands during this
period, probably because of the importation of slaves, while it decreased
dramatically after 1850 in the lands of the Lunda empire to the east.
48
Gustav Nachtigal (tr. Allan B. and Humphrey J. Fisher), Sahara and Sudan, iv
(London, 1971), 358.
49
Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the International Conference on the
Demography of Colonial Central Africa, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 1986 and at the
conference "Peuplement du Monde" in Paris in June 1987. The authors would like to
thank the conference participants, and especially Dr. Bruce Fetter, for their comments on
this paper. We would also like to thank Dr. Joseph C. Miller and Dr. Andrew Roberts for
their criticism and comments. Finally, we wish to thank Dr. Charles Geiger of the
Geography Department of Millersville University (Pennsylvania) for drawing the
map.