Cláudia Castelo
Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Department Member
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A Casa dos Estudantes do Império (1944-1965) tem sido sobretudo «revisitada» por antigos associados, num exercício de rememoração do passado. No período pós-colonial, foi transformada num espaço de memória, apropriado e reconfigurado... more
A Casa dos Estudantes do Império (1944-1965) tem sido sobretudo «revisitada» por antigos associados, num exercício de rememoração do passado. No período pós-colonial, foi transformada num espaço de memória, apropriado e reconfigurado tanto por quem combateu a ditadura como pelos que lutaram pelas independências africanas. «Casa dos Estudantes do Império: Dinâmicas Coloniais, Conexões Transnacionais» oferece um outro olhar baseado no conhecimento resultante dos contributos da história e de outras ciências sociais e humanas, assumindo, portanto, a necessidade de questionar as narrativas lineares e celebratórias da Casa. Enquadrando-a no contexto histórico nacional, colonial e internacional, este livro apresenta estudos inéditos sobre aspetos que ainda não tinham sido alvo de análise, como a caracterização sociodemográfica da massa associativa ou o «zoom in» aos sócios goeses. Aprofunda ainda as articulações entre política e produção literária, por um lado, e entre política e atividade desportiva, por outro. Avalia a participação de alguns dos estudantes africanos que se encontraram em Lisboa na circulação global de ideias, textos e práticas contra o colonialismo. O livro inclui ainda três ensaios que concorrem para dar conta da história de associações de estudantes africanos noutras metrópoles imperiais e numa antiga colónia francesa, alargando ainda mais o referencial geográfico e cronológico em estudo. O posfácio aponta novos caminhos de pesquisa capazes de inserir a Casa numa história transnacional dos movimentos estudantis anticoloniais.
Research Interests: History, Portuguese Studies, Portuguese History, African History, Africa, and 18 moreImperial History, Colonialism, Guinea-Bissau, Post-Colonialism, Mozambique, History of Imperialism, History of the Portuguese Empire, Angola, Empire, Portugal (History), Cape Verde, Imperialism, Cabo Verde, Angolan History, History of Mozambique, História de Portugal, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Colonialism and Imperialism
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This chapter discusses the place, image and experience of the Portuguese settlers sent by the Portuguese Estado Novo dictatorship to colonatos (state-sponsored rural settlements) in Angola (Cela and Cunene) and Mozambique (Limpopo) during... more
This chapter discusses the place, image and experience of the Portuguese settlers sent by the Portuguese Estado Novo dictatorship to colonatos (state-sponsored rural settlements) in Angola (Cela and Cunene) and Mozambique (Limpopo) during the 1950s and 1960s. Trying to contribute to a more comprehensive vision of the white settler societies in “Portuguese Africa”, the research mobilises a wide range of primary sources (archival, printed and oral sources), of different nature and provenience (scientific publications, official discourses, newspapers and propaganda material). The Portuguese settlers came from different places and social classes in the metropole and, in Africa, formed a heterogeneous community with an a priori superior status than the Africans. The rural settlers established in the colonatos were only a tiny portion of the white population and did not corresponded to the expectations that the imperial state put on them – people who were attached to the land and hard-working and were a model of civilisation to the Africans. The majority of the Portuguese settlers, living in the main cities and working in the third sector, did not want to be confused with their rural, poor and illiterate countrymen, sometimes perceived as equal to the natives.
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No pós-II Guerra Mundial e sobretudo ao longo dos anos 60, Mo-çambique conheceu um desenvolvimento económico sem precedentes. Paralelamente ao forte investimento em grandes obras públicas e na mo-dernização da colónia, é finalmente... more
No pós-II Guerra Mundial e sobretudo ao longo dos anos 60, Mo-çambique conheceu um desenvolvimento económico sem precedentes. Paralelamente ao forte investimento em grandes obras públicas e na mo-dernização da colónia, é finalmente concretizado um projecto antigo de colonização agrícola de feição ruralista, tradicionalista e conservadora. O presente capítulo tem como objecto de estudo o projecto de colonização agrícola dirigida levado a cabo pelo Estado Novo português, a partir de meados da década de 1950, no vale do Limpopo, no Sul de Moçambique. Interessa-nos perceber que modelo de colonização se quis instaurar, quem eram os colonos oriundos do continente e ilhas trans-portados para aquele colonato, o que representavam do ponto de vista do Estado colonial, que expectativas foram criadas em torno da sua presença no território, como eram vistos pela comunidade de colonos e pelas populações autóctones. Brancos nascidos na metrópole, cidadãos portugueses, estavam sujeitos ao direito público e privado da república portuguesa. Em Moçambique, a sua condição de cidadãos metropolitanos devia garantir-lhes automaticamente lugar privilegiado no seio da sociedade colonial. Em termos políticos, sociais, culturais e simbólicos, faziam parte do grupo dos civilizados, cuja superioridade relativamente aos indígenas não era sequer questionada. Porém, uma análise mais atenta não deixa de evidenciar que os colonos mobilizados para os colonatos oficiais ocupavam um lugar sui generis no seio dos chamados colonizadores. Apesar de toda a retórica, propaganda e idealização do colono rural, este foi sempre minoritário...
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Portuguese Studies Review, Vol. 25, nº1 (2017), pp. 3-13 (with Cláudia Castelo and Philip J. Havik)
Research Interests: History, African Studies, Portuguese Studies, Portuguese History, African History, and 15 moreAfrica, Imperial History, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, History of Imperialism, History of the Portuguese Empire, Angola, Portugal (History), Portugal, Cape Verde, Imperialism, Angolan History, History of Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Colonialism and Imperialism
This article addresses the inter‐imperial collaboration in the social sciences promoted by the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa South of Sahara (CCTA) and its advisory board, the Scientific Council for Africa South of the... more
This article addresses the inter‐imperial collaboration in the social sciences promoted by the Commission for Technical Cooperation in Africa South of Sahara (CCTA) and its advisory board, the Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara (CSA), at the intersection of diplomatic history and the history of science during late colonialism. It is our purpose to re‐evaluate how the common aim of reinvigorating and re‐legitimating empire in the era of decolonization forged relations between social scientists, colonial officials, and diplomats, and to provide new insights into the ways social science influenced and was influenced by foreign policy in this specific context. Drawing on primary printed sources from the CCTA/CSA and the UNESCO, and on archival sources from the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Board of Overseas Research in the Ministry of Overseas, we argue that it is important to include other international institutions and initiatives—beyond UNESCO—in the account of the surge of social sciences in the post‐war international system. Our case, focusing on the social sciences and the CCTA/CSA, also reveals the political and diplomatic uses of scientific knowledge in the era of decolonization, and the contentious nature of science diplomacy beyond previous straightforward definitions.
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O projecto-piloto de extensão rural do Andulo (Bié, Angola) tem sido apresentado como instrumento ao serviço da contra-subversão portuguesa no contexto da guerra colonial e está sobretudo associado ao engenheiro alemão Hermann Pössinger,... more
O projecto-piloto de extensão rural do Andulo (Bié, Angola) tem sido apresentado como instrumento ao serviço da contra-subversão portuguesa no contexto da guerra colonial e está sobretudo associado ao engenheiro alemão Hermann Pössinger, seu proponente e orientador técnico. Com base numa pesquisa em fontes de arquivo, no método biográfico e na história oral, apresenta-se uma história mais complexa e global dessa experiência, seguindo e conectando percursos profissionais e institucionais. Verifica-se que o projecto se insere numa circulação que envolve a América, a Europa e a África, beneficiou do trabalho prévio da Missão de Inquéritos Agrícolas de Angola, teve subjacente o conhecimento das estruturas sociais e económicas dos Ovimbundu e uma visão de desenvolvimento integral dos camponeses africanos. A dimensão participativa e potencialmente emancipadora do projecto reenvia-nos para a contradição dialéctica da política colonial portuguesa nas vésperas do fim do Império.
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This paper addresses theoretical and practical questions posed by an oral history project with researchers who did eldwork in the Portuguese colonies as part of scienti c expeditions for the Overseas Research Board (1951–1974) in the... more
This paper addresses theoretical and practical questions posed by an oral history project with researchers who did eldwork in the Portuguese colonies as part of scienti c expeditions for the Overseas Research Board (1951–1974) in the post-war period. I discuss what historians of science and late imperialism can draw from oral history as a methodology, as it is not a form of research used with any regularity in the history of science generally. I argue that oral history can be used as an alternative to ethnographic work, allowing researchers to pay close attention to scienti c practices, processes of local knowledge production, and the racial division of labor that occurred – in my case speci cally – in the colonial setting. Apart from that, the interviews illuminate the Portuguese eld scien- tists’ shared identity in the colonies and their multi-layered interac- tions and political, social, and cultural negotiations; these broaden our knowledge and understanding of Portuguese eld science in the colonial context, presenting a more complex view that does not reinforce either celebratory views of Portuguese colonial science or simplistic views of science in the service of Empire.
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Cet article analyse la situation de femme de colon dans l’Angola portugais entre la Seconde Guerre mondiale et la décolonisation, à travers l’histoire de vie de l’épouse d’un chef de poste administratif. Il se propose de rendre compte du... more
Cet article analyse la situation de femme de colon dans l’Angola portugais entre la Seconde Guerre mondiale et la décolonisation, à travers l’histoire de vie de l’épouse d’un chef de poste administratif. Il se propose de rendre compte du rôle attribué à la femme de colon dans l’espace domestique et de l’importance de sa contribution politique, sociale et culturelle à la portugalisation de l’empire. Il insiste sur la complexité des relations entre populations indigènes et colonisateurs et sur la diversité des situations de ces derniers. Il suscite une réflexion sur l’importance des attitudes personnelles et de certaines stratégies de réciprocité.
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The article discusses the role of barbed wire as a tool and a symbol of the late Portuguese colonial state "repressive developmentalism" in arid and semi-arid areas of southwestern Angola. It is based on literary, technical and scientific... more
The article discusses the role of barbed wire as a tool and a symbol of the late Portuguese colonial state "repressive developmentalism" in arid and semi-arid areas of southwestern Angola. It is based on literary, technical and scientific sources, which at the time reflected on the impact of the commercial livestock system on the landscape, the cattle raising practices (in particular, transhumance) and the way of life of African (agro-)pastoralists, and their resilient response. It concludes that the analysis and proposals of the technicians of the Mission for Angola Agricultural Surveys, based on "vernacular knowledge", pointed out to a distinct model of development, on the path towards the current ideal of sustainable development.
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Established in the second post-war period, in a context of growing opposition to colonialism and as a response of the European colonial powers to the scientific interest of the United Nations and North-American academic circles in Africa,... more
Established in the second post-war period, in a context of growing opposition to colonialism and as a response of
the European colonial powers to the scientific interest of the United Nations and North-American academic circles
in Africa, the Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara (CCTA) paid particular attention
to social studies, establishing a research agenda parallel to that of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Based on the diplomatic and scientific colonial archives, the article analyzes the
activity of the CCTA in that domain and, above all, the Portuguese participation in these dynamics, determining the
relative importance of the country in their promotion and their reflexes in the field of social sciences in Portugal.
the European colonial powers to the scientific interest of the United Nations and North-American academic circles
in Africa, the Commission for Technical Co-operation in Africa South of the Sahara (CCTA) paid particular attention
to social studies, establishing a research agenda parallel to that of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Based on the diplomatic and scientific colonial archives, the article analyzes the
activity of the CCTA in that domain and, above all, the Portuguese participation in these dynamics, determining the
relative importance of the country in their promotion and their reflexes in the field of social sciences in Portugal.
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Este in memoriam revela que num artigo que ficou inédito, enviado em carta a Jorge Dias, António Rita Ferreira criticou a falta de fundamentação sociológica do luso-tropicalismo em Moçambique. Acrescenta densidade à figura do antropólogo... more
Este in memoriam revela que num artigo que ficou inédito, enviado em carta a Jorge Dias, António Rita Ferreira criticou a falta de fundamentação sociológica do luso-tropicalismo em Moçambique. Acrescenta densidade à figura do antropólogo amador que ficou conhecido pela polémica com Marvin Harris, mostra a cumplicidade entre os dois antropólogos portugueses, não obstante os seus diferentes percursos e perspetivas, e confirma as potencialidades da correspondência privada enquanto fonte histórica.
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Neste artigo, seguimos a história de vida de Ruy Cinatti, poeta, agrónomo e (a partir de 1958) etnólogo, que viveu alguns anos em Timor Português e contribuiu para a abertura do território à antropologia moderna. Como naturalista e... more
Neste artigo, seguimos a história de vida de Ruy Cinatti, poeta, agrónomo e (a partir de 1958) etnólogo, que viveu alguns anos em Timor Português e contribuiu para a abertura do território à antropologia moderna. Como naturalista e colector amador, foi tecendo uma rede científica internacional e construindo um estatuto de autoridade, que lhe
permitiria aceder ao campo científico. Para esse facto, também contribuiu a rede de relações privilegiadas que mantinha no campo político. O artigo destaca a influência do antropólogo australiano A. P. Elkin no interesse de Cinatti por uma antropologia aplicada ao desenvolvimento e promoção cultural dos timorenses. A debilidade
da antropologia cultural e social em Portugal (ausência de institucionalização e escassez de profissionais) e o descrédito que lhe merece o trabalho do antropólogo físico António de Almeida levam Cinatti a promover ou favorecer a entrada e o trabalho de campo intensivo de antropólogos franceses e anglo-saxónicos no território, sob uma suposta tutela da Junta de Investigações do Ultramar. O Estado-império português, acossado pela crescente contestação ao colonialismo e pelas guerras de libertação em África, subscreveu a
sua estratégia como forma de garantir a “ocupação científica” de Timor, a prioridade nacional e a credibilidade do país na cena internacional.
In this article we follow the life story of Ruy Cinatti, a poet, agronomist
and (since 1958) ethnologist, who lived a few years in Portuguese Timor
and contributed to the opening of the territory to modern social and
cultural anthropology. As an amateur naturalist and collector, he established an international scientific network and built a statute of authority, which would allow him to access the scientific field. To this fact also contributed the network of privileged relations that he
maintained in the political field. The paper highlights the influence of the
Australian anthropologist A. P. Elkin in Cinatti’s interest for an applied
anthropology to the welfare of the Timorese. The weakness of cultural and social anthropology in Portugal (lack of institutionalization and shortage of professionals) and the discredit that the work of the physical anthropologist António de Almeida deserved led Cinatti to promote or favour the entrance and intensive fieldwork of French and Anglo-
Saxon anthropologists in the territory, under a supposed guardianship of the Board of Portuguese Overseas Research. The Portuguese empire, facing growing opposition to colonialism and the wars of liberation in Africa, endorsed his strategy as a way of guaranteeing Timor’s
“scientific occupation”, national priority and credibility on the international stage.
permitiria aceder ao campo científico. Para esse facto, também contribuiu a rede de relações privilegiadas que mantinha no campo político. O artigo destaca a influência do antropólogo australiano A. P. Elkin no interesse de Cinatti por uma antropologia aplicada ao desenvolvimento e promoção cultural dos timorenses. A debilidade
da antropologia cultural e social em Portugal (ausência de institucionalização e escassez de profissionais) e o descrédito que lhe merece o trabalho do antropólogo físico António de Almeida levam Cinatti a promover ou favorecer a entrada e o trabalho de campo intensivo de antropólogos franceses e anglo-saxónicos no território, sob uma suposta tutela da Junta de Investigações do Ultramar. O Estado-império português, acossado pela crescente contestação ao colonialismo e pelas guerras de libertação em África, subscreveu a
sua estratégia como forma de garantir a “ocupação científica” de Timor, a prioridade nacional e a credibilidade do país na cena internacional.
In this article we follow the life story of Ruy Cinatti, a poet, agronomist
and (since 1958) ethnologist, who lived a few years in Portuguese Timor
and contributed to the opening of the territory to modern social and
cultural anthropology. As an amateur naturalist and collector, he established an international scientific network and built a statute of authority, which would allow him to access the scientific field. To this fact also contributed the network of privileged relations that he
maintained in the political field. The paper highlights the influence of the
Australian anthropologist A. P. Elkin in Cinatti’s interest for an applied
anthropology to the welfare of the Timorese. The weakness of cultural and social anthropology in Portugal (lack of institutionalization and shortage of professionals) and the discredit that the work of the physical anthropologist António de Almeida deserved led Cinatti to promote or favour the entrance and intensive fieldwork of French and Anglo-
Saxon anthropologists in the territory, under a supposed guardianship of the Board of Portuguese Overseas Research. The Portuguese empire, facing growing opposition to colonialism and the wars of liberation in Africa, endorsed his strategy as a way of guaranteeing Timor’s
“scientific occupation”, national priority and credibility on the international stage.
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Tensions between African pastoralists and the European livestock farmers increased in the last decades of Portuguese colonial rule, in proportion to the growth of large ranches owned by Portuguese settlers in southwestern Angola. For a... more
Tensions between African pastoralists and the European livestock farmers increased in the last decades of Portuguese colonial rule, in proportion to the growth of large ranches owned by Portuguese settlers in southwestern Angola. For a long time “traditional” cattle rising system was considered irrational and unproductive, and the pastoralist populations classified as nomads. Mission for Angola Agricultural Surveys (MIAA), created to respond to a request from FAO, did intensive fieldwork among the Angolan rural populations and collected unprecedented data on their ways of living. Called upon by the colonial authorities to give information on the “nomad problem”, it proved the agro-pastoralists’resilience vis-a-vis the natural environment and the ongoing modernisation policies; and exposed the disruptions caused by the ranching system. The paper reveals that from inside the colonial state apparatus emerged alternative development ideas based on “vernacular science” that competed with the “repressive developmentalism” in the colonial war context.
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The editors of the present special issue have aimed to bring to the fore recent, innovative research on a wide variety of territories and topics that explore the imperial archive and memory to bring to life colonial situations in... more
The editors of the present special issue have aimed to bring to the fore recent, innovative research on a wide variety of territories and topics that explore the imperial archive and memory to bring to life colonial situations in different locations. From the outset, it was our intention to demonstrate the geographical, social, economic, political and cultural diversity of empire through a broad thematical prism. The most recurrent topics with regard to the Third Portuguese Empire such as (forced) labour, race, ideology, economic underdevelopment and conflict, have been complemented with studies that take a closer look at the state and colonial administration, colonial accounts, private enterprise, science, public health, violence and gender.The time frame of these contributions,
from the late nineteenth century to the end of empire, and the spatial
focus including Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique and Goa, provide examples of the current state of the art of archival fieldwork and memory related research on the ‘modern’ and ‘late’ Portuguese colonial empire and its populations.
from the late nineteenth century to the end of empire, and the spatial
focus including Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique and Goa, provide examples of the current state of the art of archival fieldwork and memory related research on the ‘modern’ and ‘late’ Portuguese colonial empire and its populations.
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The French–Portuguese Ethnological Mission to Portuguese Timor (1966/1969) financed by French and Portuguese research bodies and initially directed by Louis Berthe was the first mission that conducted lengthy and thorough ethnographic... more
The French–Portuguese Ethnological Mission to Portuguese Timor (1966/1969) financed by French and Portuguese research bodies and initially directed by Louis Berthe was the first mission that conducted lengthy and thorough ethnographic research in East Timor vernaculars and with East Timorese communities. Using personal and scientific archives, printed and oral sources, this article analyses the mission’s background, the role of Ruy Cinatti (a Portuguese poet, former colonial official in Timor and anthropologist trained in Oxford) in its launch, and its political and scientific context. The mission, undertaken during the Portuguese late colonial period and subject to the Portuguese authorities’ approval and surveillance, marked East Timor as a site of anthropological inquiry into the Anthropology of European tradition produced in Southeast Asia, affiliated to post-war structuralism. This case study throws light on individual agency, Portugal’s shortcomings in modern anthropology training, the international competition for Portuguese Timor as part of the Indonesian “field of ethnological study” and the transnational connections in its construction in the era of decolonization.
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Este artigo analisa a situação da mulher colona na Angola portuguesa no período do pós-II Guerra Mundial até à descolonização, através da história de vida da esposa dum chefe de posto administrativo. Pretende-se reflectir sobre o papel... more
Este artigo analisa a situação da mulher colona na Angola portuguesa no período do pós-II Guerra Mundial até à descolonização, através da história de vida da esposa dum chefe de posto administrativo. Pretende-se reflectir sobre o papel atribuído à mulher colona na disseminação das relações de poder no espaço doméstico e sobre a relevância política, social e cultural do seu contributo para a portugalização do Império. A complexidade das relações entre os colonizadores e as populações indígenas suscita uma reflexão sobre a importância da postura pessoal e de certas estratégias de reciprocidade ou de contrapartidas simbólicas.
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This article examines the political and ideological uses of agronomic research, focusing on state-directed rural white settlements in Angola. Implemented ‘against the tide’, in the mid-1950s, with Angola’s African anti-colonial movement... more
This article examines the political and ideological uses of agronomic research, focusing on state-directed rural white settlements in Angola. Implemented ‘against the tide’, in the mid-1950s, with Angola’s African anti-colonial movement already under way, these schemes contained numerous contradictions. Under a modernising agenda, the Estado Novo dictatorship created the colonatos of Cela and Cunene, with the expressed purpose of reproducing Portuguese rural villages in Africa, settling poor Portuguese peasants and perpetuating colonial rule. Drawing on a range of primary sources from Portuguese colonial and scientific archives and the literature on Angola, I analyse the relationship between policymakers and the agricultural engineers mobilised to study the soils and its agricultural suitability in the regions chosen for the colonatos. I show that several experts criticised state-sponsored development of white rural settlements and exposed the policy’s drawbacks. I also place this particular example within the context of the existing literature on the history of science and development in post-war Africa. I will argue that the Portuguese version of the ‘developmentalist’ colonial state was burdened with an anti-progressive ideology that criticised industrialisation, urbanisation and proletarianisation, ignored technical and scientific conclusions, and despised settlers’ aspirations of upward mobility, seeing such aspirations as potentially politically disruptive. According to this model, the ideal type of white settler – modest, rooted in the land, earning only enough to get by – would be emulated by the African peasant, ensuring both social peace and colonial order. The failure of this experiment illustrates the (dis)connection between science and ideology in the last years of the Portuguese Empire, and the social and economic cost of their disengagement.
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This article analyses the evolution of the Portuguese State’s discourses and policies regarding colonial development of Portuguese Africa, between the 1930s and 1974. Until the 1960s, the modernization effort of the Estado Novo regime in... more
This article analyses the evolution of the Portuguese State’s discourses and policies regarding colonial development of Portuguese Africa, between the 1930s and 1974. Until the 1960s, the modernization effort of the Estado Novo regime in the colonies was centred in the improvement of the infrastructures. Portugal tried to develop in there an economy that would benefit the metropole and the white settlers, based on the economic exploitation of natural resources and natives forced labour. After the beginning of the colonial war (1961), the emphasis was put in the creation of multiracial societies, through a massive white settlement. Social development (education, public health, communitarian programmes, etc.) and the welfare of the African
population would be a very late concern of the Portuguese government (if compared to what happened in the English or French Empire). That change was determined by the international context, the recommendations of the international and inter-colonial technical and scientific cooperation bodies and some studies of Portuguese social scientists and agricultural experts.
population would be a very late concern of the Portuguese government (if compared to what happened in the English or French Empire). That change was determined by the international context, the recommendations of the international and inter-colonial technical and scientific cooperation bodies and some studies of Portuguese social scientists and agricultural experts.
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O artigo reflete sobre a metodologia da história oral e as suas virtualidades para o avanço do conhecimento no domínio da história da ciência e da história do imperialismo. Dá-se conta de um projeto de história oral que visa reconstituir... more
O artigo reflete sobre a metodologia da história oral e as suas virtualidades para o avanço do conhecimento no domínio da história da ciência e da história do imperialismo. Dá-se conta de um projeto de história oral que visa reconstituir histórias de vida de 30 cientistas que, nas décadas que antecederam a descolonização (1975), estiveram envolvidos em missões científicas às colónias portuguesas e na recolha das coleções científicas que constituem hoje o património do Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical (Lisboa, Portugal). Fazendo uso do método da entrevista (semi-diretiva e em profundidade) e da análise de conteúdo, o artigo reflecte sobre a trajetória de vida de um dos entrevistados, ligado à cartografia de solos em Angola. A partir desse testemunho oral e de um tema que surgiu inesperadamente no decurso da entrevista – o imperialismo norte-americano na ciência do pós-guerra –, reequacionam-se o labor historiográfico, as escalas de observação e análise, novas possibilidades de interpretação no cruzamento de perspetivas individuais e globais. Confirma-se que o ponto de vista subjetivo dos entrevistados, longe de ser uma fragilidade da história oral, é uma das suas mais-valias. Neste caso, funcionou como um ‘rastilho’ indutor da superação da escala nacional e da apreensão do duplo papel de Portugal como centro de um império colonial (a conhecer e ocupar em termos científicos) e como periferia da Europa (também ela subordinada ao império informal da ciência norte-americana).
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"The development of a colonial scientific policy by the Portuguese state in the twentieth century is investigated by studying the Junta de Investigações do Ultramar. Directly subordinated to the Ministério das Colônias/do Ultramar... more
"The development of a colonial scientific
policy by the Portuguese state in the
twentieth century is investigated by
studying the Junta de Investigações do
Ultramar. Directly subordinated to the
Ministério das Colônias/do Ultramar and
based in Lisbon, this entity’s main attribute
was to coordinate the scientific studies to be
undertaken in colonial territories under
Portuguese rule. The aim is to identify the
institution’s origins and objectives, to
understand how its activities tied in with
colonial policies, to detect what impacts the
international scenario had on its trajectory
and its strategic options. Special attention is
given to the period that started after the
Second World War, which was aligned with
the mirage of development and reacted
against the progress of the anti-colonial
movement."
policy by the Portuguese state in the
twentieth century is investigated by
studying the Junta de Investigações do
Ultramar. Directly subordinated to the
Ministério das Colônias/do Ultramar and
based in Lisbon, this entity’s main attribute
was to coordinate the scientific studies to be
undertaken in colonial territories under
Portuguese rule. The aim is to identify the
institution’s origins and objectives, to
understand how its activities tied in with
colonial policies, to detect what impacts the
international scenario had on its trajectory
and its strategic options. Special attention is
given to the period that started after the
Second World War, which was aligned with
the mirage of development and reacted
against the progress of the anti-colonial
movement."
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Research Interests:
A Casa dos Estudantes do Império (1944-1965), criada no contexto da política imperial do Estado Novo, cedo se revelou um espaço de fermentação de uma consciência anticolonial entre jovens oriundos das colónias a estudar em Lisboa. A CEI é... more
A Casa dos Estudantes do Império (1944-1965), criada no contexto da política imperial do Estado Novo, cedo se revelou um espaço de fermentação de uma consciência anticolonial entre jovens oriundos das colónias a estudar em Lisboa. A CEI é um “lugar de memória” (na acepção cunhada por Pierre Nora), um espaço material, simbólico e funcional, onde se cruzam reminiscências pessoais e de grupo. Património comum de vivências culturais e políticas, de contestação do colonialismo e de emergência do sentimento nacional, continua a ser um lugar evocado e reivindicado pelas narrativas sobre a luta anticolonial e sobre os principais movimentos independentistas das colónias portuguesas (MPLA, PAIGC e FRELIMO). Nesta comunicação propomo-nos tratar as memórias da CEI veiculadas e reconstruídas pelos seus «antigos».