Africans in Portuguese Society: Classification Ambiguities and Colonial Realities

Abstract

The presence of Africans in Portugal during the 19th and 20th centuries (marked by the ‘rush’ to Africa and by Europe’s colonial domination) is too complex to be analysed as a migratory phenomenon only. Akin to the installation of nonautochthonous populations in ‘Portuguese Africa’,1 the situation of Africans in the Portuguese territory requires in-depth reflection on their inclusion within classification categories, such as ‘migration,’ ‘community,’ and ‘diaspora.’ If these terms’ etymological uncertainties demand the study of their development and modifications in consideration of their genealogies, they can also only be understood within the context of the various contextual scenarios that produce and uses them, thus ensuring their operability. To do the history of the secular presence of African populations in Portugal is crucial not only to define and analyse the ambiguities surrounding the subject of this study — African women and men located within the Portuguese society during colonial times — but also to deconstruct the representations of the Africans (characterised on the basis of somatic signs — ‘Negro’, ‘black’ and ‘mulatto’) that structure the Portuguese social imaginary. The complexity of these questions, the study of which demands intensive investigations, new theoretical and methodological approaches, and an intellectual availability free of secular stereotypes, is too broad for the nature and scope of this short text.