Vasco Francisco Martins - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Vasco Francisco Martins

The Journal of African History

The article explores the political uses of the memory of the Popular Movement for the Liberation ... more The article explores the political uses of the memory of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola's (MPLA's) heroic combatant Hoji ya Henda from the independence of Angola in 1975 to recent times. Based on extensive archival work in Luanda, the article maps the historical periods and circumstances during which the ruling regime invoked Henda's memory, noting how changes in the political system directly affected how his memory permeated the public domain, oscillating between presence, silence, replacement, and resurgence. In doing so, the article explores a dilemma in the study of memory, opposing historical continuity and active construction in memory-making. It concludes that even when subjected to political manipulation for several decades, the original memorialisation of national heroes such as Hoji ya Henda, although subject to historical circumstance, always retains its original mnemonic signifier in society. This signals an important nuance in entrenched d...

This thesis is a study about the modern ethnicity of the Ovimbundu of the central highlands of An... more This thesis is a study about the modern ethnicity of the Ovimbundu of the central highlands of Angola. It shows how Ovimbundu conceptions of ethnicity became altered and enhanced by processes of modernisation, usually introduced by foreign agents, and how this modernisation came to play a critical role after independence. Following a contrast in existing literature between either the attribution of vital importance to ethnicity in human agency or the downplay of it in favour of other elements, this work may be positioned in the middle, that is, it finds common ground with both arguments. I follow a constructivist approach, patent throughout the thesis and much used by many academic studies, which enables the analysis of Ovimbundu modern ethnicity by crossing the several influences the people of the central highlands were exposed to with their own agency and capacity to imagine and follow new ideas, mostly associated with modernisation. A paradigm begins emerging, one that recurs to the experiences apprehended during colonialism, influenced by processes of evangelisation and colonisation, which allow a clearer and more complete comprehension of aspects pertaining to the organisation of the political movements, the civil-war and issues related with post-war reconciliation, integration and state-formation. It becomes clear that the construction and imagination of political identities was much dependent upon processes of ethnic modernisation, which are still influential in people’s lives in contemporary Angola.

With this work, it is proposed to study ways to numerically estimate Vibration, Acoustic and Vibr... more With this work, it is proposed to study ways to numerically estimate Vibration, Acoustic and VibroAcoustic (V-A) responses through Transmissibility functions. The author proposes to extend existing methodologies of dynamic displacement transmissibility and acoustic pressure transmissibility to the VA case. So far, only experimental data for scalar V-A Transmissibility has been presented in available literature. The methodology and results of its’ implementation addresses initially the vibrational and acoustic Transmissibility Verification. Then a 3D Finite Element Method (FEM) implementation created with a fluid-structure interface, from which pressure and displacement response are calculated, and estimation method proposed with Single and Multiple degrees of freedom (SDOF and MDOF) Transmissibility functions obtained with Frequency Response Functions (FRFs) extracted from the coupled system. Primarily a scalar Transmissibility is proposed, followed by a matricial one which relates ...

Making a fresh contribution to our understanding of the history of Angola, this book explores the... more Making a fresh contribution to our understanding of the history of Angola, this book explores the impact of social, political, and economic change upon the largest ethnic group of the country, the Ovimbundu. Based on extensive fieldwork conducted in Angola, including oral testimonies and life stories, and participant-observation, this book shifts the viewpoint from the colonial enterprise, international politics and ideological alignments to focus on African experiences and responses. The author analyses the transformations introduced by Christianity and colonialisation and how they contributed to politicised modern notions of ethnic identity, creating communal imaginaries that began manifesting during Angolan's anti-colonial war. He then explains how the weaving of this ethno-political landscape assisted UNITA's mobilisation of significant parts of the Ovimbundu during the civil-war, essentially deepening popular belief in the axiom Ovimbundu-UNITA, and how the latter created a national imaginary that echoed social anxieties and moral discourses. The book then explores the links between ethnicity, politics, and war on the quality of postwar citizenship in Angola, particularly on people's integration in the citizenry or marginalisation from it. Articulating a reading of ethnicity that connects high politics and elitebased explanations with how ordinary people feel and discuss ethnicity, politics, and citizenship, this book will be of interest to scholars of African history and politics, as well as ethnicity and nationalism.

History and Memory, 2021

This article explores the political uses of the memory of the Angolan liberation war. It argues t... more This article explores the political uses of the memory of the Angolan liberation war. It argues that the MPLA's rise to power in post-independence Angola led to the formation of an official state narrative based upon this movement's own memory, which gradually developed a script that follows specific rules. The article explores the politicization of the history of the Angolan liberation struggle by comparing official memories with the countermemories presented by other liberation movements to ascertain narrative boundaries. It then examines the shifts and nuances, or what I term gradations of memory, that can be discerned in the narratives offered by a number of prominent MPLA figures later in their lives, which deviate to a certain extent from the “liberation script” supported by the state.

African Studies Review, 2020

Rehabilitating the legacy of deceased leaders is a phenomenon particularly salient in Southern Af... more Rehabilitating the legacy of deceased leaders is a phenomenon particularly salient in Southern Africa, insofar as memories of liberation wars provoke considerable debate. After a protracted civil war, Angolans remain divided about the contributions of their historical leaders. Jonas Savimbi sits at the center of this division, a binary representation of both heroism and villainy. Martins demonstrates how Savimbi’s memory is invoked both as a moral source of hope for an alternative Angola—one imagined and disseminated by Savimbi and UNITA and appropriated by social protest—and as a technology of fear and control employed by the MPLA to assert political dominance.

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2020

Kronos, 2019

Focusing on the Memorial António Agostinho Neto (MAAN) in Angola as the case study to analyse mat... more Focusing on the Memorial António Agostinho Neto (MAAN) in Angola as the case study to analyse materialisations of memory, the article attempts to read the political representations of this monument by analysing its main narratives, questioning its silences and unpacking its impact on public memory. To do so, the article is divided into three parts. The first section engages with the relevant academic literature on southern African memorialisation and provides a brief description of the MAAN. The second and third sections consider Richard Werbner's notion of elite memorialism to produce a two-dimensional analysis, referencing the absence of MPLA narrative and symbols in the MAAN while noting how it became inaccessible to the ordinary Angolan population, a result of more ample dynamics of state society relations in the country. It concludes that the logics of social hierarchy that have promoted the marginalisation of segments of the population have impacted the MAAN's ability to contribute to the new ways Angolans are imagining the nation.

1968 Antennas and Propagation Society International Symposium

Mon. ... In the case of a general driving function and reflection coefficients, one may handle th... more Mon. ... In the case of a general driving function and reflection coefficients, one may handle the problem e piece at a time in the frequency ... In the step field response it XRS This epproach provides the maximum possible response thet a assumed that the current in the antenna was ...

Bioresource Technology Reports, 2018

Carob pulp syrup (CPS) was used as carbon source to produce carotenoids from Rhodosporidium torul... more Carob pulp syrup (CPS) was used as carbon source to produce carotenoids from Rhodosporidium toruloides. To increase the carbon concentration in the growth medium aiming at the carotenoid production improvement, the CPS was concentrated and two different total sugar (TS) concentrations (195.6 g/L and 548.7 g/L) were studied. CPS 195.6 g/L TS contained 4.1 g/L and 0.7 g/L of hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF) and furfural, respectively. CPS 548.7 g/L TS contained 17.7 g/L of HMF and 1.2 g/L of furfural, respectively. > 42% of metabolically active cells (with intact membrane and enzymatic activity) were detected throughout the course of the yeast cultivation on CPS 195.6 g/L TS. On the contrary, the proportion of metabolically active cells was always below 28% during the yeast cultivation on CPS 548.7 g/L TS. Nevertheless, the maximum carotenoid content and productivity (0.42 mg/g and 0.43 mg/Lh, respectively) were obtained when using CPS 548.7 g/L TS.

Electronic Proceedings in Theoretical Computer Science, 2017

(MPI) framework is widely used in implementing imperative programs that exhibit a high degree of ... more (MPI) framework is widely used in implementing imperative programs that exhibit a high degree of parallelism. The PARTYPES approach proposes a behavioural type discipline for MPI-like programs in which a type describes the communication protocol followed by the entire program. Well-typed programs are guaranteed to be exempt from deadlocks. In this paper we describe a type inference algorithm for a subset of the original system; the algorithm allows to statically extract a type for an MPI program from its source code.

13a. TYPE OF REPORT 13b TIME COVERED 14. DATE OF REPORT (Year, Month, Day 1PAE COUNT technical IF... more 13a. TYPE OF REPORT 13b TIME COVERED 14. DATE OF REPORT (Year, Month, Day 1PAE COUNT technical IFROMAug 92 TONVV3 120

Citizenship Studies, 2016

This article discusses citizenship and belonging with reference to processes of postwar state for... more This article discusses citizenship and belonging with reference to processes of postwar state formation, namely: the MPLA's political hegemony and the centralisation of power in the presidency. It argues this political arrangement imposes upon individuals an oscillation between different 'levels' or hierarchies of citizenship with a tendency towards marginalisation, formally allowing them to access both but under the specific circumstances dictated by the MPLA party state. Without a strong political opposition with a plausible alternative citizenship doctrine and with little incentives to improve the terms of citizenship it provides to the population, the Angolan government constructed a system of interests whereby the MPLA functions as a gatekeeper. Both in control of the state and of the distribution of citizenship, the regime regulates the flow of resources to the bottom through strategies of poverty and dependency, which increase the distance between the state and the population and sponsors the marginalisation of the majority. When David Mendes, Angola's well-known human rights lawyer, asked 'why are we only talking about the police and not the others? Aren't all [police and civilians] lives that were lost?' (DW África, February 12, 2016), aware of it or not, he was invoking an uncomfortable truth in Angola: some enjoy full citizenship rights while others remain marginalised from them. Mendes was referring to the scarcely mediatised trial of the Igreja a Luz do Mundo-Church Light of the World-where José Julino Kalupeteka and several other members were sentenced to 28 and 24 years in prison, respectively, for the murder of several police officers at Mount Sumi (São Pedro Sumé), near Caalá, Huambo, on the 16 of April 2015. 1 Citizenship studies have for the last two decades been developing the categories of citizen, stranger, outsider and alien. Drawing from the experiences of liberal and social democracies and corporatists states, many typologies of post-Marshallian citizenship have been created, presenting prefixes that announce both categorisation and specificity, yet acknowledging that not all cases fit neatly into these frameworks (Isin and Turner 2002, 4). But citizenship studies have rarely been engaged in empirical debates, seldom coalescing with area studies (especially African studies), even though they do provide the instruments to allow specific interpretations in this field. Additionally, the particular power dynamics of illiberal democracies, where elites have at their disposal mechanisms that challenge equal universal

Tendo como base de trabalho, listagens de facturas de fornecedores com os valores originais e com... more Tendo como base de trabalho, listagens de facturas de fornecedores com os valores originais e com os valores adulterados, verificar se a utilização da Lei de Benford permitiria distinguir entre ambas e em que circunstancias tal ocorreria, de forma a validar a sua aplicabilidade como ferramenta na seleção de fornecedores a fiscalizar mais detalhadamente.

Relatório de estágio realizado no âmbito do mestrado em Ensino de Artes Visuais no 3.º Ciclo do E... more Relatório de estágio realizado no âmbito do mestrado em Ensino de Artes Visuais no 3.º Ciclo do Ensino Básico e no Ensino Secundário, Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, 2014Exame público realizado em 7 de Abril de 2014A presente investigação insere-se no estudo metodológico do ensino, concretamente na relação entre o sujeito/aluno e o professor de ensino artístico, tendo como objeto disciplinar a linguagem visual. Pretende-se responder ao problema geral da desvalorização do ensino das artes visuais, transversal em toda a comunidade escolar, através de uma metodologia de ensino individualizada. A individualização dos percursos educativos é essencial no ensino artístico de modo a permitir o desenvolvimento das componentes intelectuais do domínio da linguagem visual: o pensamento visual, e o processo criativo. Estes processos mentais são construídos de acordo com a experiência pessoal, e não podem ser orientados e desenvolvidos num ensino clássico onde um professor se dirige a uma turma. É necessário o conhecimento profundo do aluno, e uma orientação individual dos trabalhos, e uma planificação ajustada às especificidades de cada aluno. O trabalho é composto por três casos de estudo, que são comparados através de uma investigação qualitativa. Os três contextos de aplicação da metodologia são semelhantes no enquadramento social, mas distintos na estrutura educativa e nível de conhecimento dos alunos, de modo a avaliar a metodologia proposta apenas nos aspetos metodológicos em estudo. Os resultados são muito díspares nos vários casos de estudo, pelo que se recomenda a continuidade do estudo com uma base de análise maior, de modo a determinar quais os elementos não metodológicos que determinam essas disparidades

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2015

This article explores the attribution of political identity to the Ovimbundu ethnic group of Ango... more This article explores the attribution of political identity to the Ovimbundu ethnic group of Angola during the post-war period. It examines specific historical periods and political debates to reveal negative stereotypes popularly used to associate this ethnic group with the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA), a practice still present today. Academic scholarship concerning the ethnic debate about Angola is still embryonic. This paper negotiates a new approach by looking at ethnic stereotypes as enduring means of attributing political identity to a specific ethnic group, while taking into account the views of those targeted by such identity attributions. Having explored how UNITA mobilised the Ovimbundu for political gains, the paper uses interview data collected in the central highlands to demonstrate not only the attribution of stereotypes but also the Ovimbundu's own perception of themselves as a ‘marginal other’. It is in the group's interaction with wider Angolan society that such stereotypes are summoned and shaped in the pejorative epithets ‘bailundo’, ‘kwacha’ and ‘sulano’. The article concludes that decades of ethnic manipulation provided various identity connotations, based on ethno-regional and socio-political criteria. These were often contrary to actual Ovimbundu outlooks, but still served as limiting factors to their social, political and economic integration. Thus the Ovimbundu's own perception of their marginalisation has been reinforced.

Research was performed in a combined theoretical and experimental effort to investigate the perfo... more Research was performed in a combined theoretical and experimental effort to investigate the performance of a number of classes of reflector-feed antenna systems to picosecond duration video like signals. The overall objective was to develop and employ time domain concepts ...