Bibiana Vaz

Bibiana Vaz de França (c. 1630 – 1694+) was a prominent seventeenth century slave-trader in Cacheu, Guinea-Bissau.

Bibiana Vaz was a Lançados, or Luso-African born to a Kriston mother and Luso-African Cape Verdean father.^[1]

She married Ambrosia Gomez, who at the time was said to be the richest man in Guinea.^[1]

In 1687 Bibiana Vaz was arrested and taken to São Tiago, where she was held as prisoner. Portuguese authorities, unable to her confiscate her property, granted her a pardon in exchange for an indemnity and a promise that she would construct a fort in Bolor on the Cacheu River. She never constructed the fort.^[2]

References

1. Havik, Philip J. (2004). Silences and Soundbites: The Gendered Dynamics of Trade and Brokerage in the Pre-colonial Guinea Bissau Region. Münster: LIT. p. 162. ISBN 978-3825877095.
2. Brooks, George E. (2003). "The Evolution of "Nharaship" in Senegambia". Eurafricans in Western Africa: Commerce, Social Status, Gender, and Religious Observance from the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century (1st ed.). Oxford: James Currey. p. 159. ISBN 978-0-85255-489-0.