page_title: Pêro de Anaia
section_title: Captain of Sofala
hierarchical_section_title: Pêro de Anaia / Captain of Sofala
caption_attribution_description: English: Cefala - bird's-eye view of the city of Sofala (Mozambique) from Georg Braun and Franz Hogenberg's atlas Civitates orbis terrarum, vol. I, 1572
context_page_description: Pêro de Anaia or Pedro d'Anaya or Anhaya or da Nhaya or da Naia was a Castilian-Portuguese 16th-century knight, who established and became the first captain-major of the Portuguese Fort São Caetano in Sofala, and thus the first colonial governor of Portuguese East Africa.
context_section_description: By November, 1505 the perimeter of the Portuguese Fort São Caetano of Sofala was essentially finished and Pêro de Anaia opened the royal credentials assuming the title of Capitão-Mor (Captain-Major) of the fortress and garrison.
  Fort São Caetano was first permanent Portuguese colony in East Africa, and the kernel of what was to become the Portuguese colonial province of Mozambique.  Consequently, Pêro de Anaia, being the first 'Captain of Sofala', is generally considered the  first Portuguese colonial governor of Mozambique.
  As per his instructions, in late January or early February 1506, Pêro  de Anaia dispatched four of his ships to Portuguese India. He placed the remaining two caravels under his son, Francisco de Anaia, to serve  a local coastal patrol (The younger Anaia had a commission as capitão-mor do mar de Sofala).
  The beginnings of Fort Sofala were difficult. The Portuguese soon found out they had little or no means to procure food and other supplies.  Moreover, being situated on a mangrove swamp, fevers (probably malaria and/or yellow fever) quickly overwhelmed most of the Portuguese garrison. To cap their misfortunes, the hapless younger Anaia crashed both the patrol ships on shoals near Mozambique, leaving Fort Sofala without means of securing external supplies or communication.
  It was precisely at this moment of great weakness, in late February or early March 1506, that a group of Sofalese nobles who had opposed the Portuguese presence, induced a mainland Bantu chieftain Moconde to lead an assault on the weakened Portuguese fort.  Pêro de Anaia defended the fort with his handful of remaining healthy soldiers, bolstered by a number of Swahili auxiliaries.  The besiegers were scattered. In the aftermath, Anaia broke into the royal palace and killed sheikh Isuf of Sofala for conspiring in the treachery (it is said the sheikh Isuf, a blind octogenarian, threw his sword at the sound of footsteps, and managed to wound Anaia, before being himself killed.)
  The next day, a revenge attack on Fort Sofala broke down, when rival Sofalese nobles began to quarrel with each other for succession. Somehow Pêro de Anaia managed to play the role of arbitrator, and secured the installation of Isuf's son, Suleiman, as the new sheikh of Sofala. Suleiman promptly put an end to Sofalese intrigues against the Portuguese.
  Pêro de Anaia, however, did not survive long. In early March 1506, just a few days after the Bantu assault on the fort, Anaia himself fell victim to the malarial fevers and died at Sofala.  The Portuguese factor, Manuel Fernandes de Meireles, apparently the only European man immune to the fevers, was elected by what remained of the sick garrison as acting captain of Sofala.
caption: City of Sofala (Cefala), c. 1572, with Fort São Caetano visible
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