The fields of decolonisation. The (post)colonial African cases and dynamics of the Portuguese empire - INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP
Orgs: Alexander Keese and Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo
Studies on the late colonial dynamics and on the transition from colonial situations into postcolonial societies have remained remarkably few – and astonishingly lifeless – regarding the end of the Portuguese colonial empire. Much of the existing analysis is committed to a political (and diplomatic) historical approach of the classical type, and fares in narratives that offer, at best, precarious empirical foundations. The largest part of this research has so far been uninterested with regard to archival and oral sources; even the handbook standard from early in the first decade of the twenty-first century (Norrie MacQueen’s overview) has never really been updated. Synthesis have more or less flourished, systematic in-depth researches are rarer. For instance, for many regions of sub-Saharan Africa, the question of analyzing the social and labour history of the last years of colonialism and the first years after independence has never really been asked (and the interpretation has barely started); significant methodological discussions and debates on sources have never been properly held. In the Portuguese/Lusophone African case, the deficiencies are particularly notorious, despite the existence of a new generation of innovative studies. The two-day, workshop-format intense conference will attempt to promote new research concerning the Portuguese late colonial and the early independent societies, promoting a multidimensional and multi-layered approach. The workshop aims to: (1) push a colonial-postcolonial analysis forward, questioning clear divides and assumed continuities; (2) move beyond high-politics and include social topics (lato sensu) and social history appraisals; (3) gather and intersect different analytical perspectives and topics related to late colonialism, decolonization and the post-colonial momentum; (4) promote a critical assessment and use of archives and sources of various kinds.
Sponsors: FONDS NATIONAL SUISSE, UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA, INSTITUTE FOR INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH and CENTER FOR SOCIAL STUDIES-UNIVERSITY OF COIMBRA, HERITAGES OF PORTUGUESE INFLUENCE, MEMOIRS-ERC, I-FCT
Participants:
Eric Allina (University of Ottawa), From the Rovuma to the Maputo: The idea of Mozambique and the indivisibility of the state
Leopoldo Amado (INEP Bissau), A Guiné-Bissau, as erráticas transições políticas e o Pós-colonialismo: da independência à reconfiguração político-social como transição emergente
Cláudia Castelo (Universidade Nova da Lisboa), Producing alternative views of colonial development: The Mission for Angola Agricultural Surveys
Ângela Benoliel Coutinho (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), De colonizadas a cidadãs: a questão de género em Cabo Verde, das últimas décadas da colonização aos primeiros anos do pós-independência
Nuno Domingos (Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa), Modernidade futebolística na transição colonial em Moçambique
Hugo Gonçalves Dores (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra), Que educação para o Africano? Debater o ensino indígena na África Portuguesa no colonialismo tardio
José Silva Évora (Arquivo Histórico Nacional de Cabo Verde/Universidade de Cabo Verde), A Terra, a Água e o Poder na Ilha de S. Antão, Cabo Verde (Ca. 1880 – Ca. 1970) – Inquietações de uma Tese de doutoramento em curso
Philip Havik (Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Decolonizing Health in Guinea Bissau? Conflicting models and transition in public health from the end of empire to independence
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra), On how to deal with “inconvenient procedures”: The (in)securities of development in late colonial Angola (1950s-1970s)
Pedro Cerdeira de Jesus (University of Genève), Cacheu, 1974. Um caso de transição de poder local na Guiné-Bissau
Alexander Keese (University of Genève), Beyond the liberation and one-party model: creating social change in Cabo Verde’s Barlavento, 1974–91
José Pedro Monteiro (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra), Os “usos” dos direitos: contestação e mobilização social no colonialismo tardio português (1955-1965)
Malyn Newitt (King’s College London)
Didier Péclard (University of Genève), Reformism, Development and Counter-Insurgency in Late Colonial Angola
Gerhard Seibert (Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira, Unilab), Decolonization and socialist one-party rule in Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. A comparative approach.
Andreas Zeman (University of Bern), “Maybe, the government knows [what changed]”: decolonization in Northern Mozambique from a microhistorical perspective
Programme:
19 October 2017
10.30-10.45: Introductory remarks (Alexander Keese and Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo)
10.45-12.15: Panel 1 A complex modernization with local effects: the Portuguese late colonial empire (1955–1975)
Chair: Malyn Newitt (King’s College London)
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra), On how to deal with “inconvenient procedures”: The (in)securities of development in late colonial Angola (1950s-1970s)
Didier Péclard (University of Genève), Reformism, Development and Counter-Insurgency in Late Colonial Angola
José Pedro Monteiro (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra), Os “usos” dos direitos: contestação e mobilização social no colonialismo tardio português (1955-1965)
12.15-13.45 Lunch
13.45-15.15: Panel 2 Experts and social history at the end of Portuguese colonialism
Chair: Walter Rossa (Instituto de Investigação Interdisciplinar, Universidade de Coimbra)
Philip Havik (Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, Universidade Nova de Lisboa), Decolonizing Health in Guinea Bissau? Conflicting models and transition in public health from the end of empire to independence
Cláudia Castelo (Universidade Nova da Lisboa), Producing alternative views of colonial development: The Mission for Angola Agricultural Surveys
Hugo Gonçalves Dores (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra), Que educação para o Africano? Debater o ensino indígena na África Portuguesa no colonialismo tardio
15.30-17: Panel 3 Studying transitions in politicised processes
Chair: Maria Paula Meneses (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra)
Nuno Domingos (Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa), Modernidade futebolística na transição colonial em Moçambique
Alexander Keese (University of Genève), Beyond the liberation and one-party model: creating social change in Cabo Verde’s Barlavento, 1974–91
Leopoldo Amado (INEP Bissau), A Guiné-Bissau, as erráticas transições políticas e o Pós-colonialismo: da independência à reconfiguração político-social como transição emergente
17-17.30: Coffee-break
17.30-19: Keynote: Eric Allina (University of Ottawa), From the Rovuma to the Maputo: The idea of Mozambique and the indivisibility of the state
20 October 2017
9.30-10.40: Panel 4 From guerrilla into administrative reorganization: a social history of the takeover of power (1961–1985)
Chair: Margarida Calafate Ribeiro (Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra)
Andreas Zeman (University of Bern), “Maybe, the government knows [what changed]”: decolonization in Northern Mozambique from a microhistorical perspective
Pedro Cerdeira de Jesus (University of Genève), Cacheu, 1974. Um caso de transição de poder local na Guiné-Bissau
10.45-12.15: Panel 5 Microcosms as test cases: Cabo Verde and São Tomé e Príncipe (1974–1985)
Chair: Nazaré Torrão (University of Genève)
José Silva Évora (Arquivo Histórico Nacional de Cabo Verde/Universidade de Cabo Verde), A Terra, a Água e o Poder na Ilha de S. Antão, Cabo Verde (Ca. 1880 – Ca. 1970) – Inquietações de uma Tese de doutoramento em curso
Ângela Benoliel Coutinho (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), De colonizadas a cidadãs: a questão de género em Cabo Verde, das últimas décadas da colonização aos primeiros anos do pós-independência
Gerhard Seibert (Universidade da Integração Internacional da Lusofonia Afro-Brasileira, Unilab), Decolonization and socialist one-party rule in Cabo Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. A comparative approach.
12.15-12.30: Coffee-break
12.30-13.30 Concluding Remarks: Malyn Newitt (King’s College London)
Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo (Center for Social Studies, University of Coimbra)
Alexander Keese (University of Geneva)