Behind the Scenes: The ‘Angolan Geological Mission’ (1921–26) and the Geological Mapping of Africa

Between 1922 and 1926, the Geological Mission of Angola, set up by the High Commissioner Norton de Matos and based in the city of Huambo, surveyed over 30,000 km across the former Portuguese colony, while assembling large collections of fossils and rocks. Led by António Sousa Torres, an experienced naturalist at the Mineralogical Museum of the Faculty of Sciences in Lisbon, the expedition was mentored by the Swiss geologist Ernest Fleury, a renowned teacher on the engineering courses in Lisbon. For those purposes he named three of his former students to join the expedition, for each of them destinated to lead a field brigade. The knowledge generated was disseminated through international conferences and scientific publications produced in collaboration with distinguished foreign specialists. Nevertheless, the Mission’s most significant achievement was the Geological Map of Angola (1:2,000,000) published in 1933. This accomplishment not only fulfilled a political objective but also secured Portugal’s full participation in the International Geological Map of Africa, prepared in accordance with the guidelines adopted at the International Geological Congresses in Madrid (1926) and Pretoria (1929). It also established the basis of the modern geological chartography of Angola, followed by an actualised version in 1954.