Ayres de Menezes

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Ayres de Sacramento Menezes , Ayres Menezes for short (born August 11, 1889 in Guadalupe on São Tomé ; † April 27, 1946 in Dondo , Portuguese West Africa ) was the first black doctor from São Tomé and well-known political figure in the archipelago that was then part of Portugal . Menezes campaigned in various organizations such as the Junta de Defesa dos Direitos d'África , the Liga Africana and the Liga dos Interesses Indígenas de São Tomé e Príncipe for the interests of the African population colonized by Portugal, primarily in São Tomé and Príncipe.

Life

Youth and education

Ayres de Menezes was born on August 11, 1889 in the Cruz Grande village of Guadalupe municipality on the island of São Tomé. At that time the island, like Príncipe, belonged to the Portuguese colonial empire. He was the son of Manuel Pedro de Menezes, a plantation owner and owner of the Santa Cantarina farm on the island, and Maria Alves da Costa Tingir. After Menezes completed his primary school in São Tomé, he continued his secondary education in Lisbon.

Politicization while studying in Portugal

After finishing school, Menezes began studying medicine at the University of Lisbon . During his studies, Menezes became politicized and began campaigning for the emancipation of the Africans colonized by Portugal. In March 1911 he and fellow campaigners founded the magazine O Negro as the voice of the university's black students. After only three issues, the editors gave up in October of the same year.

In 1912 Menezes and thirteen other students founded the first pan-African organization in Lisbon called Junta de Defesa dos Direitos d'África (JDDA), which campaigned for a “black consciousness” and the emancipation of black Portuguese. In the meantime, the JDDA published a magazine called A Voz d'África , which was later replaced by the Tribuna d'África . Among other things, the organization protested with Menezes as a signatory against a law passed by the Portuguese government in November 1912, which obliged local plantation owners to only employ local workers in the colonies. The employment of workers from other colonies was reserved only for white plantation owners.

In 1916 Menezes completed his medical studies and then served during the First World War in the Portuguese army as a military doctor in the colony of Mozambique. In June 1920, black Portuguese founded the organization Liga Africana , which published the magazine Correio d'África , Menezes was one of the publishers of the magazine. In the same year Menezes returned to his home island and began to work there as a doctor.

Return to São Tomé

He also retained his political commitment on São Tomé and joined the Liga dos Interesses Indígenas de São Tomé e Príncipe (LII), which had been founded in 1910 by the Creole elite of the archipelago to defend their rights against the colonial administration. The LII was associated with the Liga Africana , Menezes was the LII's delegate in the Liga Africana.

The Portuguese colonial administration, which Menezes assessed as much more radical than the other members of the LII, transferred him from the island of São Tomé to Príncipe in order to curb his influence. With the end of the liberal First Portuguese Republic and the rise of Portuguese fascism, the island's governor banned the organization and accused it of inciting unrest in the 1926 Supreme Court of the Colonies. Menezes was then deported to Angola, 43 other members of the organization to Príncipe.

Activity in Angola

After some activities in Angola, Menezes tried to return to São Tomé, but gave up because of reprisals by the colonial administration and moved to Lisbon in 1931. In 1933 he moved back to the Angola colony and took over the post of doctor in the hospital of Vila João de Almeida (today Chibia), near the then city of Sá da Bandeira (today Lubango) in the province of Huíla . Menezes was then transferred to the Dondo hospital in the province of Cuanza Norte . He died in the hospital on April 27, 1946 of pulmonary congestion and was subsequently buried there.

After São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence in 1975, São Tomé's only hospital was named after Menezes.

family

Until his death, Menezes was married to Aida Ramos Azancot (1887–1967), the daughter of Jacob Levy Azancot, a Sephardic Jew from Morocco and owner of the Java farm on São Tomé. The couple had several children: Leah Aida (1920–2000), Aires Henrique (1922–1976), Manuel Pedro (1923–1984), Oscar Jacob (1924–?), Hugo José (1927–1999), Maria Antonieta (? ).

Hugo José Azancot de Menezes was involved in both the São Toméi independence movement Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe and the Angolan independence movement Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola . The son of Manuel Pedro Azancot de Menezes and thus grandson of Ayres Menezes, Manuel Azancot de Menezes , is an East Timorese politician and vice-rector at the Universidade de Díli .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Gerhard Seibert: Menezes, Ayres de . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 4 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 192 f .
  2. ^ Azancot de Menezes, um nacionalista marginalizado. In: VOA em Português. Voice of America, December 6, 2018, accessed January 20, 2019 (Portuguese).
  3. ↑ Sobre mim. In: azancotdemenezes.wordpress.com. December 20, 2014, accessed January 20, 2019 (Portuguese).
personal data
SURNAME Menezes, Ayres de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menezes, Ayres de Sacramento (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION São Tomé doctor and political activist
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Cruz Grande, Guadalupe , Sao Tome
DATE OF DEATH April 27, 1946
Place of death Dondo , Portuguese West Africa