Assolna (Goa), ? - Lisbon, 25 September 1902. Aleixo Justiniano Sócrates da Costa after finishing his studies at the Goa Medical-Surgical School, served in the Portuguese overseas military medical system, mostly in Cape Verde, but also in Guinea (1874) and Mozambique. In Cape Verde he made some investments and achieved to become a mayor of the municipalities of Sal (1873-1874) and Boavista (1878). When in Guinea (1874) he studied and described for the first time the sleeping sikeness. Confronting Portuguese colonial policies, he distinguished for protesting near the Portuguese parliament and in a print pamphlet (1880) against the discrimination suffered by the doctors gratuated from the Goa Medical-Surgical School in face of those graduated in Portugal. In his youth in Goa, he collaborated with several periodicals, namely the Ilustração Goana, A Índia Portuguesa, Recreio and O recreio. It is possible that he also contributed to African periodicals, namely in Cape Verde (Cordeiro 2015). Sócrates da Costa was a member of the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa (Lisbon Geographic Society) and contributed to its bulletin. After retirement he lived in Lisbon, having contributed to its colonial press. In 1890 he purchased the Boletim Colonial of which he became the editor-in-chief. That same year, he ran unsuccessfully near the different Goan constituencies to the Portuguese parliament.
We thank Dr. Ana Teresa Brito, of Arquivo Histórico do Ministério Público for her help in establishing the date of death of Sócrates da Costa.
References: Ilustração Goana, Boletim Colonial. Costa, Aleixo Manuel da, Dicionário de literatura goesa. Instituto Cultural de Macau: Fundação Oriente, 1997, v. 1, pp. 246-247; Bastos, Cristiana, "The inverted mirrow: dreams of imperial glory and tales of subalternity from the Medical School of Goa" Etnográfica, Vol. VI: 1 (2002), pp. 59-76; Lobo, Sandra Ataíde, O Desassossego goês... Tese de doutoramento. Lisboa: FCSH-NOVA, 2013; Lobo, Sandra Ataíde, Jornais e revistas fundados por goeses ou publicados em Goa (em contrução) - https://liberalismoimprensacolonialpt.wordpress.com/exposicao-gieipc-ip/; Cordeiro, Ana, "Notas para a história do abastecimento de água a Mindelo" in blog ArrozCatum, 24 June 2015 - https://arrozcatum.blogspot.com/2015/06/8248-as-fontes-de-svicente.html. Diário da Câmara dos Senhores Deputados... Monarquia Constitucional 1822-1910 - https://debates.parlamento.pt/catalogo/mc/cd; Arquivo Histórico Ministério Público, Processo em que Filomena Honorina da Costa e Virgínia Perolina da Costa, solteiras, pedem o pagamento dos vencimentos...PT/AHPGR/PGR/06/10/07/345 - Ministério Público - Arquivo Histórico; Diário do Governo, nº 292, 29.10.1902, p. 3432
Form and presentation: Sandra Ataíde Lobo