Pamila Gupta takes a unique approach to examining decolonization processes across Lusophone India and Southern Africa, focusing on Goa, Mozambique, Angola and South Africa, weaving together case studies using five interconnected themes.
Gupta considers decolonization through the twined lenses of history and ethnography, accessed through written, oral, visual and eyewitness accounts of how people experienced the transfer of state power. She looks at the materiality of decolonization as a movement of peoples across vast oceanic spaces, demonstrating how it was a process of dispossession for both the Portuguese formerly in power and ordinary colonial citizens and subjects. She then discusses the production of race and class anxieties during decolonization, which took on a variety of forms but were often articulated through material objects. The book aims to move beyond linear histories of colonial independence by connecting its various regions using the theme of decolonization, offering a productive and new approach to writing post-national histories and ethnographies. Finally, Gupta demonstrates the value of using different source materials to access narratives of decolonization, analyzing the work of Mozambican photographer Ricardo Rangel, and including lyrical prose and ethnographical observations.
Portuguese Decolonization in the Indian Ocean World provides a nuanced understanding of Lusophone decolonization, revealing the perspectives of people who experienced it. This book will be highly valuable for historians of the Indian Ocean world and decolonization, but also those interested in ethnography, diaspora studies and material culture.
Author(s): Pamila Gupta
Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 240
City: London
Cover
Half-title
Title
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
Map List
Acknowledgements
1. Studying decolonization
Prelude
Introduction
Writing about decolonization
Portuguese (de)colonization: Three conditions
Textual and visual landscapes
2. Entangling decolonizations: Goa, Mozambique and Angola
Introduction
Goa, Mozambique and Angola: Portuguese decolonization in India and Africa,1961-1975
Goa
Mozambique
Angola
Decolonization of the third empire
3. Emigrating Goans
Introduction
Indian Ocean ethnographies
Imperial connections: Goa and Mozambique
Empire builders, agency and the spirit of the times (1920s)
Goan decolonization, resistance and neocolonialism (1950s–1960s)
Mozambican independence, chaos and dreams (1975)
Conclusion
4. Goans going fishing
Introduction
Indian Ocean fishing
Goans going fishing
Literary and photographic interventions: text and image Couto and Rangel
(Ethnographic) notes on a ritual
Taking the ferry
Waiting for the wind
Performing the Catholic mass
Blessing the boats
Eating prawns
5. Dispossessing things
Introduction
Writing about decolonization
Thinking about things
Ricardo Rangel: ‘The departure of the colonialists’
Carlos Garçaõ: ‘We must take care’
Ryszard Kapuściński: ‘We were imprisoned in a besieged city’
Conclusion: On the postcolony
6. Driving from Angola to South Africa
Introduction
Decolonization as a diasporic port of entry
Exile or saying goodbye
Refugees, toilets and ‘second class citizenship’
Conclusion: Portuguese-ness in post-apartheid South Africa
7. Renovating in Beira
Introduction
On ruination
On Beira
On renovation
(Landscapes of) leisure
The Ferroviário swimming pool
The Novocine movie theatre
The Grande Hotel
The Riviera cafe
An aerial viewpoint
Reflecting: From Mozambique to Goa
Notes
Bibliography
Interviews
Index
