Theodorico de Sacadura Botte

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

Throughout the 19th century, the colonization of many of Portugal's overseas provinces was concessioned to private companies, due to Portugal's lack of funds to pursue the development of these areas. One of said companies was the Niassa Company, whose concession covered the regions of Niassa and Cabo Delgado, among others in the Portuguese East Africa. On 27 October 1929 the Niassa Company's concession expired, and the Portuguese Government refused to grant an extension. This refusal was due to the Ditadura Nacional regime's belief that the state should head colonization.

He started his studies in Coimbra, and then studied Business and Economical Sciences, at the Instituto Superior de Comércio in Lisbon. After finishing his studies, he considered the diplomatic career, but could not follow this idea due to the republican nature of the Portuguese regime at the time, with which he profoundly disagreed. For the following two years, he ran the agricultural production of his father’s estate. Afterwards, and giving up the idea of joining the diplomatic corps, he was invited by his good friend José de Moura Forjaz de Gusmão, then manager of the “Sociedade Colonial de Tabacos”, the Portuguese Colonial Tobacco Society, to move to Africa on a three-year commission, as a bookkeeper for that same company. Accepting the invitation, and against his family’s wishes, Sacadura Botte left for the Portuguese colony of São Tomé and Príncipe, boarding the Angola steamship, in Lisbon, on 31 May 1926.

After stops in Madeira, the Canary Islands, Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe and Luanda, Sacadura Botte finally arrived in Lourenço Marques, capital of the Portuguese overseas province of Mozambique, in late June 1926. He took over his job as bookkeeper for the Lourenço Marques factory of the Colonial Tobacco Society, and moved into the Cardoso Hotel, where he lived during his first tenure in Mozambique.

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 by many to be 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.

On 7 February 932, at the Missão de São Jerónimo, Province of Magude, Theodorico de Sacadura Botte married Sheila May Younger (12 April 1912 – 11 July 1998). They had one son:

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.

Sacadura Botte was born on 31 October 1902 at the family manor of Quinta da Bica, in Seia, Portugal, near Serra da Estrela. He was the fifth and last son of João Pacheco de Sacadura Botte, 8th Lord of Quinta da Bica, and Maria da Ascenção Mendes de Oliva. His father was a magistrate, landowner and winemaker, as well as a monarchist politician and candidate for the Beira region. As a young boy, Theodorico lived through the fall of the Portuguese Monarchy, much to the dismay of his traditional, Catholic and monarchist family, and helped his father in his campaign as monarchist candidate to the government of the region where they lived in Portugal, albeit unsuccessfully.