African Built Environment: Mapping Practices of Exploration and Control before the Scramble for Africa (CHAM Conference 2021)

African Built Environment: Mapping Practices of Exploration and Control before the Scramble for Africa (CHAM Conference 2021)

Organizer
Mafalda Pacheco and Alice Santiago Faria, Centre for the Humanities NOVA FCSH, Lisbon
ZIP
00000
Location
Lisbon
Country
Portugal
From - Until
21.07.2021 - 23.07.2021
Deadline
28.02.2021
By
Connections Redaktion, Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics, Universität Leipzig

This panel aims to bring together different perspectives on the construction and transformation of the built environment before the scramble for Africa and contribute to a critical understanding of the legacy of colonial borders today. The panel will privilege the works on territories where the Portuguese presence was institutionally organized, such as Angola, Guinea Coast, Cape Verde, São Tome and Principe, and Mozambique.

African Built Environment: Mapping Practices of Exploration and Control before the Scramble for Africa (CHAM Conference 2021)

Before the scramble for Africa, this large territory was considered, by the Europeans, a land without frontiers. For almost four centuries - mid 15th century, when the Portuguese established firsts outposts, to mid-19th century, when the era of New Imperialism started - European presence in Africa was restricted to ports along the African coasts. Nevertheless, these outposts left physical marks in the landscape and started a transformation of the African built environment of alien initiative. A slow transformation at first that escalated in the 19th century terminating in the partition of Africa between European powers. This panel aims to bring together different perspectives on the construction and transformation of the built environment before the scramble for Africa and contribute to a critical understanding of the legacy of colonial borders today. The panel will privilege the works on territories where the Portuguese presence was institutionally organized, such as Angola, Guinea Coast, Cape Verde, São Tome and Principe, and Mozambique. Nevertheless, works that explore connections, between these territories and other European or indigenous powers and narratives of resistance and negotiation between power, will be very welcome. The relations with the Slave Coast (Costa da Mina) are welcome, due to the political-commercial importance of this extensive territory that had the Portuguese presence in different phases. Works that explore connections, between these territories and other European or indigenous powers and narratives of resistance and negotiation between power, will be especially welcome. It is intended to explore and develop cross-checking approaches on topics such as city governance, urban development, public works and territorial infrastructure, plantations, arborisations and other soil exploitations, sanitation and public health concerns, inland research and exploration, among other relevant topics. Studies on institutional networks and individual paths supported on digital humanities tools are encouraged, for the emergence of matchmaking and new narratives, overpassing disciplinary frontiers.

Programm

Mafalda Pacheco and Alice Santiago Faria, Centre for the Humanities NOVA FCSH, Lisbon

mafaldapacheco@fcsh.unl.pt
alicesantiagofaria@fcsh.unl.pt

Contact (announcement)

Mafalda Pacheco
mafaldapacheco@fcsh.unl.pt

Alice Santiago Faria
alicesantiagofaria@fcsh.unl.pt

Editors Information
Published on
05.02.2021