Colonial Project Research Articles

Nomadic responses to rainfall: Nighttime light evidence from wadis in Djibouti

This study examined the association between human activities and precipitation in dry areas, focusing on nomadic people in Djibouti. Nomadic communities often lack access to essential social services, and water resource management is crucial for their survival and social welfare. Understanding how they respond to variations in water availability could contribute to effective policy implementation. Using satellite-derived information, this study found that nighttime light brightness increased in response to precipitation around wadis, with potential water spring locations, and decreased with distance from a wadi. Specifically, we observed no effect when the distance was more than 5 km. Furthermore, no effect of precipitation was found in urban areas, while a positive effect was found in remote areas. These findings suggest that the activity of nomadic people increases around wadis in response to increased water resource availability, indicating that water supply is important for settlement projects because it can reduce water-seeking costs and improve social welfare. This study provides the first empirical evidence using satellite data and statistical analysis to show that water availability is critical for nomadic communities which can inform better resource management and policy decisions in African countries.

Why do they stay? A spatial perspective on settler colonialism, decolonization and the case of Kosovo Serbs

ABSTRACT This study offers a new perspective on settler colonial theory through the case of Serbia/Kosovo. It develops two hypotheses: (1) settler colonial projects in neighboring territories differ markedly from those overseas, necessitating a revised conceptualization called here ‘contiguous settler colonialism,’ and (2) these projects may prompt settlers to remain amid decolonization despite adverse conditions. The empirical analysis identifies three key factors leading to this outcome: the 'Serbianization' of the physical environment, the (im)mobility arrangements of Kosovo Serbs, and Serbia's coercive cooptation system, resulting in a 'settler colonial make-believe space' between the former colonial state and the emerging decolonizing polity.

Going Beyond the Tropes of ‘Friendship’ and ‘Modernization’: Internal Colonialism in Siam and Scandinavia in the Age of Empire

ABSTRACT This article contributes to a reconceptualization of the relationship between Siam and Scandinavia at the turn of the twentieth century. At that time, the relationship was manifested by the presence of a large group of Scandinavian, mainly Danish, entrepreneurs and professionals in Siam and repeated visits between the royal houses in Siam and the Scandinavian countries. The tropes of friendship and modernization dominate the main representation of the relationship. In accordance with this representation the Scandinavians were not perceived as a colonial threat to the Siamese rulers but co-producers of a modern and independent Siam. This narrative, created both by the Scandinavians and Siamese, reproduces a dominant royalist narrative in Thai historical writing that presents the absolute monarchy as a disinterested elite who launched a series of reforms to modernize Siam and safeguard the country against foreign encroachment. With reference to a revisionist tradition in Thai historical writing, we argue that Scandinavian–Siamese relations at the turn of the twentieth century needs to be accentuated in relation to the Siamese royal elite’s project of internal colonialism.

Mapping for connection, a life beyond mapping for control: lessons from ‘mapping-as-performance’ with Empatheatre in South Africa

This paper critically examines the intersections of Science, colonialism, and cartography in shaping perceptions of the ocean and its human-nature relationships. Drawing on Postcolonial Science and Technology Studies (PCSTS) and Decolonial Theory, it scrutinizes historical mapping practices, revealing how they perpetuated ontological hierarchies and controlled narratives of the ocean. Through archival research spanning from the Revolution to colonial exploration, the paper exposes how maps framed the ocean as a controllable entity, obscuring socio-cultural dimensions of biodiversity. Focusing on a case study in Northern Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa, the authors explore an Empatheatre mapping process, that challenges Western ontologies and promotes counter-hegemonic cartographic practices. Situating this within critical cartography and PCSTS literature, the paper reveals how colonial projects molded perceptions of oceanic space and influenced environmental governance. In the South African context, the ocean is haunted by a violent history of racial exclusion and ecological exploitation. Initiatives like Operation Phakisa’s Blue Economy plan underscore the tension between economic growth and ecological sustainability, leading to rapid coastal developments. Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) emerges as a tool to reconcile these interests, yet its implementation raises questions about inclusivity and community participation. Introducing the Empatheatre method, characterized by a ‘Call and Response’ approach, the paper invites local communities to co-create maps reflecting their concerns and relationships with the ocean. Through attentive listening and collaborative storytelling, Empatheatre challenges traditional consultation methods, prioritizing meaningful engagement and collective meaning-making. Mapping in this context is not merely a static representation but a dynamic process of collective thinking and relationality. By foregrounding the social, cultural, and ecological context, Empatheatre’s approach redefines the mapmaker-map relationship and empowers communities as active agents in shaping their narratives. The transformative potential of Empatheatre lies in its ability to shift power dynamics and foster empathy between diverse stakeholders. Through performative storytelling and visual representations, Empatheatre creates space for marginalized voices and alternative modes of knowledge transmission. In conclusion, this paper advocates for a decolonial approach to oceanic cartographies that acknowledges diverse ontologies and fosters inclusive governance structures.

Agroecological Yards, Food Sovereignty and Production of Ecosystem Services in South Bahia, Brazil

Objective: This study aims to characterize productive backyards, in the identity territory of the Far South of Bahia, highlighting the challenges, potential, characteristics, productive arrangements and ecosystem services perceived by families. Theoretical Framework: In this article, we will discuss the concepts of ecosystem services, productive backyards and agroecosystems. Method: The study was carried out in 18 agrarian reform settlement lots in the municipalities of Teixeira de Freitas and Prado/BA. Data were collected through interviews, semi-structured questionnaires, transversal walks, soil collection for chemical analysis and plant collection for identification. Results and Discussion: Productive backyards stood out for being a biodiverse space, important in generating income, especially non-financial income, promoting food sovereignty, improving soils and promoting quality of life for the families surveyed. The backyards ranged from 0.54 to 3.1 hectares and 94.4% have predominantly agroecological management. 230 special species were found, such as fruit, native, medicinal, horticultural and spiritual, and 15 ecosystem services were evaluated. We conclude that backyards are a powerful tool in promoting food sovereignty, generating income, environmental and biodiversity restoration and promoting of ecosystem services. Research Implications: Assess whether ecosystem services resulting from productive backyards are important for the construction of public policies and socio-biodiverse productive strategies for the family farming segment. Originality/Value: It is unprecedented research on settlement projects, presenting a research method, data and important information for evaluating productive backyards.

Mechanics Institutes in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Victoria: Racial Difference and Liberalism in the Settler Colony

ABSTRACT In the second half of the nineteenth century, mechanics institutes proliferated across the Australian colonies at such a rate that, by 1900, they were more widespread, proportional to population, than in Britain. This article examines the first 30 years of their development in colonial Victoria to offer a new interpretation of their deep entanglement with settler colonial liberalism. As in Britain, the Victoria mechanics institutes largely failed to deliver technical education to working-class men. However, the men who propelled their proliferation had much wider hopes for their pedagogic function in the settler colony. This article examines how the twin forces of political liberalism and settler colonialism underwrote and shaped mechanics institutes in mid-nineteenth-century Victoria. Examining the ideas of colonial liberals who propelled their proliferation and the activities that took place within them, it becomes clear that these institutes were imagined to cultivate certain kinds of settler Britons, capable of bearing the freedoms of an emerging settler modernity. At the same time, moreover, they both legitimated and implemented a settler colonial project of dispossession and demographic replacement. Mechanics institutes, I argue, were thus agents of both settler colonial destruction and liberal cultivation.

Maintaining the Ramesside Empire: Isotopic Evidence for Elite Migration to Upper Nubia under Pharaonic Rule

Abstract Pharaonic Egypt ruled Upper Nubia (now northern Sudan) from around 1450 to 1070 BCE: previous research has demonstrated how co-opted local elites and descendants of earlier immigrants held senior administrative positions following the initial conquest. Strontium isotope data from 39 individuals buried at the colonial centre of Amara West, combined with archaeological and epigraphic evidence, enable us to demonstrate that elites continued to arrive from outside Nubia in the last 150 years of pharaonic rule, settling amongst long-standing communities. Migration to the occupied territory clearly remained a key component of the colonial project, at a time when indigenous Nubian material culture and practice had become more visible within the pharaonic towns. This pattern of immigration seems to have ceased following the pharaonic state losing control of the region.

Medieval Pasts and Eugenicist Futures: Grant Allen, Masculinity and Early English History

ABSTRACT Grant Allen was a Victorian scholar and novelist who published widely on science, literature and history. Embedded within these publications is a fascination with early England, particularly early English masculinity. Allen saw in England's origins a blueprint for the kind of white, hegemonic masculinity he wished to see reproduced not only in contemporary English society and culture but also in the eugenic makeup of the English people as well. By reaching to early English history to legitimise his own visions of imperial white masculinity, Allen weaves a fantasy of medieval male virility into the fabric of his Victorian present. This essay discusses Allen's interest in the social apparatus of gender, contemporary eugenicist discourse and the interpretive potential of an imagined medieval past and argues that Allen uses early English history to justify ongoing colonial projects and to frame white men as the rightful heirs to global power.

Gaza’s Broken Lullaby: Genocidal Unchilding and the Impossibility of Mothering

ABSTRACT This article describes the devastating impact of the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the strategies used to dismantle the social and familial structures of Palestinian people, particularly targeting women and children. It sheds light on the severe conditions and the complex layers of violence that affect these mothers, who struggle to provide a semblance of normalcy and safety for their children amidst such adversity. The focus on women and children is a deliberate tactic by the settler colonial project to ensure there is no future for the Palestinian nation. By disrupting the ability to mother and nurture, the settler colonial forces aim to erase the continuity and resilience of the Palestinian identity, culture, and community, essentially targeting the very reproduction of the nation itself.

(UN) COVERING KARACHI: THE CREATION OF A BRITISH VISUAL LANGUAGE IN SINDH

Karachi, a city of 14000 people, was evolving as an important port for strategic geopolitical reasons and increasing trade at the time of the British conquest in 1843. However, it was not equipped with the infrastructure — such as an all-weather port — required for its continued economic progress. The fort town had a Chabutra (Custom House), shrines, temples, and caravanserais interspersed among the large havelis and houses of Hindu merchants and government functionaries. Neither the fort nor the Chabutra survived British colonial rule in Sindh. In fact, in keeping with their plans for the city, the British demolished these structures fairly early on in their rule of Sindh. The subsequent establishment of British institutions and political infrastructure was reinforced by the construction of buildings and monuments that looked distinctly European in style. This was not only because of the architectural styles employed in these buildings but also in the choice of ornamentation. For example, by patronizing artisans that were well versed in stone engravings and sculpture making, the British shifted attention away from the art of traditional frescoes, painting, and glazed tiles. This paper explores how the Occident imported architectural and visual cultural styles and forms into their colonies to create an entirely new visual language for their colonized subjects in South Asia. It argues that this was done deliberately to ensure political legitimacy in the eyes of their subjects as well as to highlight their own cultural superiority. The lack of native creative expression and the emergence of the modernist movement eventually led to their disappearance from structures built after Independence. This was a colonial project deeply entrenched in discourses of racism and inequality. Keywords: Colonial Architecture, Hegemony, Tradition, Architectural Movements, Colonialism

Embodied Creative Practice as a method for cultural recovery.

We exist in the marriage of physical and spiritual remembrance. It is in these spaces that we identify with our physical and imagined bodies.’” (Saye, 2017, p. 42).” This paper weaves through my artistic journey, and my adoption of an embodied practice, as a methodology of recovering my voice and self, as a creative practitioner. This paper examines the photograph as an immortal object that transcends time and space, and highlights its capabilities in producing non-linear narratives, challenging fixed notions of time which underpinned the western colonial project. Through my analysis of works of the British Gambian Photographer Khadija Saye, and my photo project ‘Orí Inú’, I showcase the ritualistic process of photography, as a liberatory force of sustaining life, as well as its capabilities in carving a space of solidarity for the photographer and viewer. By focusing on Ìṣẹ̀ṣe (Yoruba Spirituality) and Spiritualist Photography, I demonstrate the power of photography in imagining speculative possibilities, that go beyond the normative understandings of marginalized bodies, and the rethinking of our vulnerable world.

Colonial Sustainability: Tracing the Sustainability Industry’s Ecocidal Lineage from the Doctrine of Discovery

The concept of “sustainable development” fuelling today’s sustainability industry may be traced back to the turn of the 14th century. The Holy Roman Empire’s imperialistic expansions into Africa and the Canary Islands eventually morphed into a burgeoning capitalist European colonial project, which then sought to undo the very environmental harms it had wrought through colonial extraction from further colonial domination and social control. Post-World War II “peace” efforts birthed supranational entities that continue to impose white supremacist epistemological systems, frames, and standards on the neocolonised Global South. These impositions led to the creation of the contemporary sustainability industry, enabling the obfuscation of Global North expansionism through the application of white supremacist, Western-centric sustainability rhetoric. The cultural evolution of “sustainability” moves steadily apace as decolonial counternarratives struggle to materialise amid active silencing and stamping out by the mechanisms of coloniality.

Walter Gropius, history of the IV CIAM Congress, the Charter of Athens and some of its results

The history of the emergence of the idea of multi-story housing construction is described, starting with the project of the experimental settlement of Spandau-Haselhorst by Walter Gropius and the subsequent report of Gropius to the third CIAM congress. The conditions under which the IV CIAM Congress met are shown - the world economic crisis, the strengthening of authoritarianism in the world, the absence of German, American and Soviet architects, as well as opponents of Le Corbusier in other delegations. The history of the IV Congress and the appearance, ten years after it, of two versions of the Athens Charter are described. The differences between José Luis Sert's version and Le Corbusier's version are presented, as well as some results of its implementation. The implementation of ideas, both different from the Athens Charter and its followers, in Great Britain and the place that the construction of multi-storey housing eventually took in the country is described. An example of construction regulation in Germany is given, which makes the construction of multi-story housing economically unprofitable.

The Franco-Algerian War: Narrating the Failure of the French Imperialist Project in Norman Lewis’s Darkness Visible (1960)

This article examines the political attitude towards representing French colonialism to Algeria during the Franco-Algerian war (1954-1962) in Darkness Visible (1960) by the Welsh-British Norman Lewis. It probes how Lewis’s novel portrays French colonial project, which was intended to bring civilization to Algerians, as a failure through raising an anti- colonial thought. In the novel, the Mission does not only fail to achieve the goals of its agenda, but also fails in the sense that it exposes more negative consequences of exploitation, oppression, and cultural destruction of the colonized people. The paper also scrutinizes Lewis’s use of immediacy of the narrative and Manicheanism in characterization as literary device to critique French colonial practices against the natives; while, in parallel, Lewis highlights the aspect of nationalist mobilization to unearth the legitimacy of the Algerians fighting for liberty. Therefore, this article ventures thematically into Darkness Visible within anti- colonial discourse parameters. Keywords: Darkness Visible, Franco-Algerian war, immediacy and Manicheanism, nationalist mobilization, Norman Lewis

Personal notes on the art of the African diaspora

In this personal essay, I reflect on the how cultural shifts in the British art world establishment, have enabled black artists who came of age in the Eighties, to enjoy late career success. I’m particularly interested in the careers of black women, who have traditionally been more overlooked by their male counterparts. I start with my own desire to connect to my Nigerian/African heritage when I was a young woman, one who had grown up brainwashed by the colonial project, and talk about the changes I have witnessed since the Eighties. I interrogate the value placed on transnational artists with ancestral ties to Africa by the art establishment then and now, and how those artists who are currently exhibiting in major art galleries and museums are often showing work created decades ago. This begs the question, if not then, why now? The article arises from a British Academy Lecture delivered on 9 November 2023.

An appraisal of the Mozambique types and endemic taxa in the Pires de Lima plant collection at the Porto Herbarium (PO, MHNC-UP)

Putative type specimens of 18 taxa described from Mozambique collected by Américo Pires de Lima at the beginning of the 20th century are kept in the African collections of the Herbarium of Porto (PO) at the MHNC-UP. These specimens were not collected as part of a dedicated scientific mission, but they and the scientific studies carried out by Pires de Lima represent an important contribution to Portuguese colonial projects. During his scientific career, and despite the lack of support and specialised literature, Pires de Lima described 17 species new to science. In this work we analysed part of the material collected by Pires de Lima, kept in PO at MHNC-UP. Today, only two of the 17 taxa described by Pires de Lima remain as accepted taxa, viz. Tephrosia reptans var. microfoliata (Pires de Lima) Brummitt and Crotalaria retusa var. tunguensis (Pires de Lima) Polhill. In addition, information on Polygala limae Exell, named after Pires de Lima, has also been analysed as this is still accepted. Of over 300 specimens collected by Pires de Lima in the early 20th century, some 40% remain unidentified due to lack of expertise. Undoubtedly, this collection contains many other promising specimens in need of revision, taxonomic update, and other novelties that can be found even in the more ancient and inconspicuous materials.

Working around exclusive infrastructure – African workers and their families navigating race and gender on Rhodesia Railways, 1945–1964

This paper explores the myriad ways African railwaymen and their families negotiated their existence on the Rhodesia Railways. Through racial and gendered differentiation of its labour force, the Rhodesia Railways fostered an exclusive work and home environment that resulted in restricted and regulated access to certain jobs, benefits and accommodation. However, Africans worked around these limitations through strikes and other more creative, sometimes illegal ways. The paper shifts away from histories of imperial railways and their significance in colonial projects and adds to studies that examine their effects on the colonised. By focusing on African railwaymen and their families, we argue that the various grievances and demands presented to the Rhodesia Railways had to do with issues of gender and social reproduction. Due to the inextricable link between the workplace and the home created by Rhodesia Railways, grievances in railway accommodation at times directly affected railway operations.

Information management and optimization methods in architectural construction drawings: A case study of the "Coconut forest settlement" in Hainan

This paper investigates information management and optimization methods within architectural construction drawings, using the Coconut Forest Settlement project in Hainan as a case study. Five key categories of methods are explored: clarification, structuring, standardization, precision, and lightweight. These methods address issues such as the lack of case-based analysis, the need for better information management, and the reduction of information redundancy. By classifying and discussing these strategies, the study highlights the enduring relevance of construction drawings in the digital age. Furthermore, it envisions the transferability of these methods to different contexts due to their emphasis on logical commonalities and the ever-present need for efficient information management. Practical examples from other fields, such as Revit, Rhino, and Grasshopper, are cited to demonstrate the potential applicability of these methods beyond traditional construction drawings. This paper contributes to the enhancement of information management in architectural design, fostering innovation and improved efficiency across various applications.

Princely prisons, state exhibitions, and Muslim industrial authority in colonial India

Abstract This article analyses the prison industries and state industrial exhibitions of three Indian princely states in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, tracing how princely elites sought to develop distinct labouring and industrial cultures. Drawing on examples from three Muslim-led princely states, namely Rampur, Bhopal, and Hyderabad, the article argues that state elites distinguished their forms of cultural and religious authority from that of the British Raj by coercing and displaying new industrial practices. They aimed to cultivate an industrial modernity that could compete with colonial projects while also promoting what they characterised as Indian Muslim characteristics and courtly traditions for artisan labourers and their work. The article asks how princely elites worked to conscript their subjects—including marginalised subjects such as convict labourers—into visions of regional industrial authority. Princely visions of Muslim and courtly industrial futures in Rampur, Bhopal, and Hyderabad were rooted in the attempts of state administrators to fashion distinctive regional identities and assert authority in a context of circumscribed, quasi-colonial rulership. Industrial cultures associated with princely prisons and exhibitions ultimately exceeded the bounds of these projects, placing pressure on other state subjects to adopt new material practices and engage with state-defined regional craft traditions.

Characterizing Future Authoritarian Governance in the Space Domain

Traditionally, discussions of governance beyond Earth have largely been held to the purview of debates about space law and global governance regimes. Yet, the priority of space exploration among ambitious, tech-industry associated billionaires and its continued potential for militarization suggest that a more dynamic approach may be needed, given that state-sponsorship of extraterrestrial colonial projects may be more akin to partnerships between private and public actors rather than nation-states assuming traditional roles as sole sources of decision-making. Permanent settlements in space will require forms of localized government that may look distinct from contemporary models of political order. This article thus asks a provocative question associated with the empirical record of human colonization and settlement in prior eras: What sort of authoritarian governance is most likely to form in human space settlements during the medium term? Reviewing variations on political order in small-scale colonial settlements in light of recent conceptual work on authoritarian rule, the article identifies three theoretical models of governance that may emerge once beyond Earth settlements become permanent fixtures of human society.