Life of the Venerable Goncalo Da Silveira: Pioneer Missionary and Proto-Martyr of South Africa

Gonçalo da Silveira was a Jesuit Priest born and educated in Portugal. He was a missionary in India, acting as provincial superior for the Jesuits, before he began his work in southern Africa. He first arrived at Sofala (Mozambique) in 1560, and proceeded to Otongwe near Cape Corrientes.During his stay of seven weeks in Cape Corrientes, he instructed and baptized the Makaranga chief, Gamba, and about 450 people of his kraal. Towards the end of the year, he began his expedition up the Zambezi River to the capital of the Monomotapa. This appears to have been the N'Pande kraal, close to the M'Zingesi River, a southern tributary of the Zambezi.He arrived in Monomotapa on 26 December 1560, and remained there until his death. During this period he baptized the chief and a large number of his subjects. However, at the same time, Arabs from Mozambique had begun to defame the missionary - a plot instigated by one of their priests.Due to this slander, da Silveira was strangled to death in his hut, by order of the chief, on 16 March 1561.