An Overview of the Role of Interpreters during the Portuguese Expansion through Africa (1415-1600)

Abstract

Portugal’s great breakthrough between 1415 and 1499 during the Age of Discovery was rounding the African coastline, from Ceuta in the Strait of Gibraltar to Mogadishu in the Horn of Africa. The current chapter, founded on prior research, advances an overview of the strategies adopted by the Portuguese to obtain linguistic mediators as well as the patterns of mediation they applied throughout the successive zones of contact. After a brief presentation of the different historical contexts, the study delves into the types of scenarios that required interpreters, as well as their status and compensation throughout both the initial explorations and the subsequent stages extending to the final years of the 16th century.