Theodorico de Sacadura Botte

Theodorico César de Sande Pacheco de Sacadura Botte (Quinta da Bica, Portugal, 31 October 1902 - Maputo, Mozambique, 18 November 1987), commonly known as Theodorico de Sacadura Botte, was a Portuguese colonial administrator and entrepreneur.

Born into a Portuguese rural aristocratic family, Sacadura Botte left Lisbon and moved to the Portuguese African Overseas during the Portuguese State's takeover of colonial administration from the British-owned private companies to which it was formerly commissioned. After many years as a colonial officer, and having been administrator of two different districts, as well as Chief of Cabinet of the Governor of Mozambique, he became an entrepreneur and businessman, with interests in international trade, real estate, horticulture and agriculture.

After the fall of the Portuguese Estado Novo regime, Mozambique was granted independence, which was followed by a wave of nationalization of Portuguese-owned properties and businesses, as well as, in many cases, persecution of Portuguese nationals. Although Sacadura Botte saw most of his property confiscated and his family and friends exiled, he remained in Mozambique and acknowledged the new regime, thus earning the respect of the new leaders. This has also been attributed to the fact that he was considered a just and kind governor by the people under his rule during both his tenure as district administrator.

In his final years, he wrote a memoir, titled "Memórias e Autobiografia: 24 anos em Portugal e 60 em Africa" (Memoirs and Autobiography: 24 years in Portugal and 60 in Africa), which told his life story and is considered a great instrument of insight into the final years of the Portuguese Overseas Empire, as well as an interesting account of most of the 20th century through the eyes of a member of the last generation of Portuguese colonialists.

Theodorico de Sacadura Botte died in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, on 18 November 1987, aged 85.

Early life and departure to Africa Sacadura Botte was born on 31 October 1902 at the family manor of Quinta da Bica, in Seia, Portugal, near Serra da Estrela.

The first volume of the memoirs, which deals closely with Sacadura Botte's early recollections on his family and upbringing, is widely quoted in "Do morgadio à divisão igualitária dos bens: extinção do morgadio e estratégias de perpetuação do poder familiar", a reference academic work on the strategies adopted by the Portuguese regional nobility to perpetuate their families' power beyond the end of the Portuguese Absolutist Regime and, subsequently, the Portuguese monarchy itself.

He was also the inspiration for a poem, titled simply T.S.B., written by Portuguese ambassador to Mozambique José Cutileiro, in which he is compared to Prospero, from Shakespeare's The Tempest, and the new Mozambican regime to Caliban, from the same play.

T.S.B.

Today I have met Prospero. Living in an island under Caliban's rule. He opted out but he did not go And treads the ground and breathes the air with no Allegiance of a subject to the fool

Fifty or more years ago He came to settle and has not left since. The lifetime of a Master. Winds that blow Deep-rooted trees away shall never throw Him kneeling in front of the new Prince.

Here he'll die. A vow To keep forever great that smallness whence he came That sold him out and sent me now To honour Caliban. He greets me with a bow The pride of which redeems the shame of a nation. Namacha, 1980

Personal life

On 7 February 1932, at the Missão de São Jerónimo, in the province of Magude, Sacadura Botte married Sheila May Younger (12 April 1912 – 11 July 1998). A scion of the Scottish Younger brewing family, Sheila was a second cousin once removed of Lord Younger of Leckie and Baron Blanesburgh, and a third cousin of Sir William McEwan Younger and Sir James Paton Younger. They had one son, João Pacheco de Sacadura Botte (25 December 1932, Johannesburg - 17 May 2007, Maputo), who married and had issue.