The article aims to discuss the Manuel Maria Sarmento Rodrigues initiatives related to sport when he served as governor of Portuguese Guinea, between March 1945 and January 1949. As sources were used the speeches of Sarmento Rodrigues; the Boletim Cultural da Guiné Portuguesa, dedicated to the dissemination of research and facts of the colony; and O Arauto, the only newspaper of the province at that time. We concluded that Sarmento Rodrigues inaugurated the sports support as government policy, inserted in his concerns about development and respect of local peculiarities, positions that would clearly manifest when he occupying other positions in the Portuguese government, linked to changes in the design of colonial intervention.
Sport history; History of Africa; colonialism
