Teresa Albuquerque

Teresa Albuquerque (née Moraes; 1930 – June 2017) was an Indian historian who specialised in the Goan diaspora and the colonial history of Bombay.

Early and personal life Teresa Moraes was born in Poona, Bombay Presidency, in 1930, in a notable Goan family. Her brother was journalist Frank Moraes. She obtained a BA Honours degree in English and French from St Xavier's College, Bombay, which she followed up with an MA and Ph.D. in history from the University of Bombay. She married Matthew Albuquerque. From this research came several books and articles, in particular Anjuna: Profile of a Village in Goa, which was her husband's native village,

With a scholarship from the Heras Institute, she studied the Goan diaspora, publishing a book Goans in Kenya. Until the 1960s, east Africa had been a major centre of Goan migration. This book became an important source book for succeeding researchers. Albuquerque's book on Goan emigres to British India, Goan Pioneers in Bombay (2011) covered their story; a paper The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1878: Its impact on the people of Goa (1990) discussed the broader impact of the treaty on Goan lives.

A popular career taken up by Goans was of music-making, either joining street bands or orchestras in Bombay. Albuquerque reported that there was so much demand for Goan musicians that one entrepreneur named Francisco Menezes sought unemployed men to march in processions, inflating their cheeks without blowing a note. Another career was of bakery, with many such establishments appearing in Bandra, a neighbourhood of Mumbai. According to Albuquerque, this was an early settlement for Goan migrants, from the 1920s. Their skill of making bread translated into a nickname the Goans were given by the other residents of the city - Pao, from the Portuguese word pão for bread.

Another of her works was on the contributions of Christians to the Indian independence movement, The Role of Christians in the National Struggle for Freedom (2006).

Death Albuquerque died in June 2017 in Mumbai, aged 87.

Works Books

Articles