Review by Mercedes Lopez Rodriguez (University of South Carolina, EUA) of the book "The Colours of the Empire: racialized representations during Portuguese colonialism", 2013, New York and Oxford, Berghahn Books, 288 pp., Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 21 (4): 931-932, 2015 (original) (raw)
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Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 2019
This article analyses the issue of miscegenation in Portugal, which is directly associated with the context of its colonial empire, from late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. The analysis considers sources from both literary and scientific fields. Subsequently, aspects such as interracial marriage, degeneration and segregation as well as the changes brought about by the end of World War II and the social revolutions of the 1960s are considered. The 1980s brought several changes in the attitude towards Portuguese identity and nationality, which had meanwhile cut loose from its colonial context. Crossbreeding was never actually praised in the Portuguese colonial context, and despite still having strong repercussions in the present day, lusotropicalism was based on a fallacious rhetoric of politically motivated propaganda.
«A minha alma preta». Silences and Possibilities of Black Portugal
Scritture Migranti, 2017
Since the 15th century and at least until the end of its African Empire, writers and intellectuals have always represented Portugal as a separated nation from the rest of Europe. However looking at Portugal through the lens of race allows us to establish unexpected relations with Europe, especially in relation with its “whitened” imaginary. The mass migrations from Africa, started in the decade of 1960s, harshly question this narrative. Moreover the current public debate about institutionalized racism in Portugal is a product of the growing relevance of Portuguese black people, both in the politic and cultural field. Indeed, the African origins of a relevant part of the population and the issue of black identity are relevant topics of hip hop music (hip hop tuga). Nevertheless, by strategically referring to the racial perspective we may question all contemporary cultural production, observing how new unexpected and rhizomatic identities are emerging challenging Portuguese and European societies.
Racism and Ethnic Relations in the Portuguese-Speaking World
2012
How did racism evolve in different parts of the Portuguese-speaking world? How should the impact on ethnic perceptions of colonial societies based on slavery or the slave trade be evaluated? What was the reality of inter-ethnic mixture in different continents? How has the prejudice of white supremacy been confronted in Brazil and Portugal? And how should we assess the impact of recent trends of emigration and immigration? These are some of the major questions that have structured this book. It both contextualises and challenges the visions of Gilberto Freyre and Charles Boxer, which crystallised from the 1930s to the 1960s but which still frame the public history of this topic. The book studies issues including recent affirmative action in Brazil or Afro-Brazilian literature, blackness in Brazil compared with Colombia under the dynamics of identity, recent racist trends in Portugal in comparative perspective, the status of native people in colonial Portuguese Africa, discrimination ...
The Debate on Race Relations in the Portuguese Empire and Charles R. Boxer's Position 1
How do we read Charles Boxer's Race Relations in the Portuguese Colonial Empire (1450-1825)? In order to identify the author's intention, three main analytical contexts should be taken into account. In England, Basil Davidson, among other journalists, took the lead of an anti-colonial discourse. In the US, academics like James Duffy participated in the same kind of debate. Finally, under the pressure of the emerging war in Angola at the beginning of 1961, Portuguese circles of academics and politicians prepared a variety of responses. Boxer arrived late to the debate on race relations and the nature of Portuguese colonialism, and his conservative views prevented him from becoming an anti-colonial intellectual. By the same token, his noble dream of objectivity in using the past also prevented him to accept established myths on Portuguese life in the tropics. Resumo Como ler As Relações Raciais no Império Colonial Português (1450-1825) de Charles B. Boxer? Para colocar a intenção do autor nos seus contextos de pertinência, três exercícios analíticos deverão ser considerados. Em Inglaterra, Basil Davidson, entre outros jornalistas, foi pioneiro na elaboração de um discurso anti-colonial. Nos Estados Unidos, foram universitários, tais como James Duffy, que participaram no mesmo tipo de debate. Finalmente, sob a pressão do início da Guerra em Angola em 1961, os círculos portugueses ligados à academia e à política prepararam uma variedade de respostas. Boxer chegou tarde ao debate sobre as relações raciais e a natureza do colonialismo português. Do mesmo modo, o seu sonho nobre de objectividade nos usos historiográficos do passado impediu-o de aceitar os mitos que se estavam a estabelecer acerca do mundo que os portugueses criaram nos trópicos.
Blackness and Heathenism: Color, Theology, and Race in the Portuguese World, c. 1450-1600
The coexistence of a process of hierarchy and discrimination among human groups alongside dynamics of cultural and social hybridization in the Portuguese world in the early modern age has led to an intense historiographical debate. This article aims to contribute to extending our perspectives, focusing on the circulation of two global categories of classification: negro (Black) and gentio (Heathen) between the mid-fifteenth and late-sixteenth century. In particular, it explores the intersections between the perception of skin color and the reworking of theological concepts in a biologizing direction, which ran parallel to the development of an anti-Jewish theory based on blood purity. The line of enquiry leads from the coasts of West Africa, where it immediately meets the problem of slavery, to Brazil, via South Asia. The intense cross fertilization of the categories of negro and gentio in the Portuguese world provides us with an alternative geography and institutional process of racialization to that of the Spanish Empire.