Coast to Coast – Late Portuguese Infrastructural Development in Continental África (Angola and Mozambique): Critical and Historical Analysis and Postcolonial Assessment
Based on the survey, cataloguing and contextualization of the infrastructural process of the former Portuguese colonial territory in continental Africa (Angola and Mozambique) in the last century of Portuguese colonization (1875-1975), the research aims at analyzing the influence of colonial strategies on the current developments in these two countries.
The research is based on the thesis that colonial territorial infrastructure processes leave resilient marks in the post-colonial built landscape, whose impact must be analyzed in order to support future actions.
Critical analysis of these infrastructures in the postcolonial period will contribute to cross-readings with the research of the African scientific community.
ISCTE-IUL
FCG (PT)
UEM (MZ)
UTANGA (AO)
(1952) [PT/AHU/OP5202]
Summary
The research is based on the thesis that colonial territorial infrastructure processes leave resilient marks in the post-colonial built landscape, whose impact must be analyzed in order to support future actions.
The project will be undertaken through two phases:
1) analysis of the infrastructure process from the mapping of three specific typologies of colonial public works (described below), which will be approached from the perspective of archival and documentary analysis, cartography and historiographic description;
2) identification and critical analysis of the state of these infrastructures (reuse, reinforcement or abandonment) after independence in 1975.
Three programmatic typologies are considered to be decisive in territorial occupation and are still visible today:
(i) transport networks (highways, ports, railways and airports);
(ii) production of hydroelectric energy (dams and facilities);
(iii) settlements associated with the exploitation of natural resources (mining and agriculture). The three programs are significantly interrelated, reproducing the Portuguese centralizing model of colonial exploration.
The data obtained in the first phase of the project will be used to describe the main investment policies in these three programs, to verify their degree of achievement and the technical means involved (focusing on the areas of Architecture and Engineering).
An in-depth knowledge of the dynamics of colonization from the perspective of Architecture, occupation, exploration and construction of the African territory requires new approaches: the extension of chronological periods analysed (currently dominated only by the study of the Modern Movement), thus including colonial policies resulting from different governments (late constitutional monarchy, first republic and dictatorship); and the analysis of the architectural object within a network (and not as an exceptional work).
Analyzing the pre-independence history of Angola and Mozambique in parallel results from: 1) the historical process of the Pink Map (‘Mapa Cor-de-Rosa’), reflecting the ambition to occupy a territorial strip from the Atlantic to the Indian (Coast to Coast); 2) the centralizing vision of Portuguese colonial management (unlike other European powers). The chronological spectrum of the research was established with the creation of the Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa (SGL) in 1875, demonstrating an important change in Portuguese colonial policies, and updating them in the scientific and physical knowledge of the African territory, along with the other European powers.
The analysis of this fact will break with the current state of the art. The ‘Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino’ has a fundamental part of the documentary nucleus related to the colonial public works of the 19th and 20th centuries. Its archival treatment, cataloguing and description will be undertaken within the project, making the fund accessible to the scientific community (which currently does not happen).
The ‘Projectos e Obras’ fund of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation will also be consulted, which remains unpublished and also requires an appropriate archival description, which this project will also ensure. Both institutions are partners of the project.
The team is made up of Portuguese, Angolan and Mozambican researchers, architects, historians and archivists. External University Institutions – ‘Universidade Técnica de Angola’ and ‘Universidade Eduardo Mondlane’ – assure, in the first phase, support to the consultations to the local archives and part of the fieldwork, playing a fundamental role in the second phase that evaluates the resilience, transformation and adaptation of the existing colonial infrastructures.
The researchers will be assisted by the team of consultants that guarantees a fundamental part of the objectives:
(i) experience of infrastructures project in the colonial period (José Quinhones Levi);
(ii) comparative studies (Johan Lagae, former Belgian Congo, Charles Jenkins, South Africa);
(iii) support for fieldwork and post-colonial analysis (Isabel Martins in Angola, José Forjaz in Mozambique). After the mapping of the three programs, with the support of specialized cartography, documentation will be collected and case studies will be selected, based on specific criteria (strategic relevance, scale, repercussion on the constructed landscape). This is followed by a detailed and historical description with a view to the creation of inventory records in the HPIP of the FCG and to their reference in GIS, accompanied by the verification of the state of conservation and the survey of the post-independence interventions.
Team
Ana Canas Delgado Martins
RESEARCHER
António Deus
Researcher
Elisiário Miranda
RESEARCHER
Jéssica Lage
Researcher
João Vieira
Researcher
Jorge Figueira
Researcher
José Luís Saldanha
Researcher
Juliana Guedes
Researcher
Luis Lage
Researcher
Maria Manuela Portugal
Researcher
Paulo Tormenta Pinto
Researcher
Rogério Vieira de Almeida
Researcher
Walter Rossa
Researcher
Idalina Nunes (BI)
Researcher
Results
Livros:
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz, coord. (2018). Optimistic Suburbia 3 – Researchers’ Perspective. Mass-Housing infrastructures (Lisbon, Luanda, Macao). Porto: AMDJAC, AMDJAC (ISBN: 978-989-98494-4-0).
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (2017). Arquitecturas Coloniais Africanas no fim do “Império Português” / ”African Colonial Architecture at the end of the “Portuguese Empire”. Lisboa: Relógio d’Água (ISBN: 978-989-641-645-4). This book was presented by Johan Lagae (University of Ghent), International Congress Politics and Culture in Colonial Periodical Press, Universidade de Lisboa, ISCTE-IUL, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, May 22, 2017. Link: https://congressoimprensacolonialpt.wordpress.com/arquitecturas-coloniaisafricanas/
ARTICLES
PACHECO, Mónica (editor, 2017). “Global Practices, Transnational Pedagogies”, Charrette, Journal of the Association of Architectural Educators, 4(2) autumn 2017 (ISSN 2054-6718).
BOOK CHAPTERS
FIÚZA, Filipa; MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (2019). Colonizing and infrastructuring the Angolan territory through colonist settlements: the case of the Cela Settlement, in Carlos Nunes Silva (ed). Routledge Handbook of Urban Planning in Africa. London/New York: Routledge, p. 90-106.
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (forthcoming 2020). “Luanda: modernization and colonization at the origins of an African mega-city”, Rukumana, Deden, Planning Megacities in the Global South, Routledge. Release: Summer 2020.
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (2019). “África Colonial: Arquitectura e infraestruturas nos últimos anos do Estado Novo”, in J. Brites; L.M. Correia (coord.), Obras Públicas no Estado Novo. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra (ISBN 978-989-26-1824-1 – Impresso / 978-989-26-1894-4 – Digital).
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (2019). “Former “Portuguese” Sub-Saharan colonial Africa: a drawing narrative”. Pedro Antonio Janeiro (ed.) Drawing (…) City (…) Body, Dwelling on Earth, London: CRC Press – Taylor & Francis Group, p. 15-19 (ISBN 9780429398773). Link: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429398773
SERRAZINA, Beatriz; MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (2019). “Diamang’s urban project: between the Peace of Versailles and the Colonial Act” in Carlos Nunes Silva (ed). Routledge Handbook of Urban Planning in Africa. London/New York: Routledge, p. 107-122.
ARTICLES
MARTINS, Ana Canas Delgado (2019). “Nós, os outros e os arquivos na construção de identidades”, in Pesq. Bras. em Ci. da Inf. e Bib., João Pessoa, v. 14, n. 3, p. 42-47 (ISSN: 1981-0695).
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz; FIÚZA, Filipa (submitted 2020). “Women architects in Portugal: working in colonial Africa before the Carnation Revolution (1950-1974)”, Arts (ISSN 2076- 0752). [submitted to peer review] 38
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (submitted 2019). “Late Portuguese colonialism in Africa: the role of the Agência Geral do Ultramar”, RIBA Journal magazine. [submitted to peer review]
MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz (submitted 2019). “Colonial Landscapes: Cities and Infrastructures in former Portuguese Southern African colonies- A brief historiographical analysis based on the colonial transport networks”, Journal African Geographical Review. [submitted to peer review]
PINTO, Paulo Tormenta; MILHEIRO, Ana Vaz; MIRANDA, Elisiário; PINTO, Pedro (submitted 2019). “From Monumentality to Diversity – Lourenço Marques between the urban plans of Aguiar and Azevedo (1950-1970)”, Carola Hein (Ed.), Planning Perspectives. [reviewed and submitted January 2020]
SALDANHA, José Luís Possolo de (2018). “De São Paulo de Luanda a São Paulo de Macau: Fundação e consolidação de duas cidades quinhentistas no Ultramar Português”, Revista Cidades Comunidades e Territórios, n.36, Junho, DINÂMIA-CET’IUL, p. 1-18 (ISSN: 2182- 3030). Link: file:///C:/Users/Utilizador/Downloads/12265-Article%20Text-49231-1-10- 20181008.pdf
SALDANHA, José Luís Possolo de (2018). “Luís Possolo, el estudiante portugués en la edición inaugural del Curso en Arquitectura Tropical de la Architectural Assocation”, in Revista “rita_ redfundamentos”, n.9, May, p. 81-89. (ISSN: 2340-9711 (print); 2386-7027 (online:http://www.redfundamentos.com/rita/es/)).
CONFERENCES
“I Colonial and Postcolonial Landscapes. Architectures, Cities, Infrasctrutures”. Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, January 16-18, 2019. Organized by Ana Vaz Milheiro and Ana Fernandes.
Scientific Committee: Ana Vaz Milheiro (FAUL, Dinâmia’CET-IUL, CEAUP, Portugal), Ana Canas D. Martins (AHU – DGLAB, CH-Ulisboa, Portugal), Isabel Martins (Universidade Agostinho Neto, Angola), João Vieira (Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Portugal), Johan Lagae (Gent University, Belgium), José Forjaz (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique), Luís Lage (Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Mozambique), Paul Jenkins (University of Witwatersrand, South Africa), Walter Rossa (CES-UC, Portugal).
Organizing Committee: Ana Vaz Milheiro (FAUL, Dinâmia’CET-IUL, CEAUP, Portugal), Ana Silva Fernandes (Dinâmia’CET-IUL, CEAU-FAUP, Portugal), Alexandra Areia (Dinâmia’CETIUL ), Beatriz Serrazina (FAUL, CES-UC, Portugal), Filipa Fiúza (CES-UC, Portugal).
Keynote speakers: architect Helder Pereira (atelier Mulemba), and professors Johan Lagae (Ghent University) and Paul Jenkins (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg);
Two plenary sessions dedicated to presentations of the project team; Two Poster sessions; 19 Parallel Sessions; Total of 165 participants from 30 countries.
Link: https://coastocoast2017.wixsite.com/home
Closing Seminar “Infraestruturas em Angola e Moçambique: Legados, Desafios, Futuros”, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, November 14, 2019. Organized by Ana Vaz Milheiro and Ana Silva Fernandes.
Link: https://sigarra.up.pt/faup/pt/noticias_geral.ver_noticia?p_nr=57642
This was the project closing seminar with a reading more focused on the reflexes of infrastructure in the present of these two countries. Included: – Two lectures by Hélder Pereira (Atelier Mulemba, AO), “Contra a Tabula Rasa” (Helder Pereira & Coral Gillett) and Jessica Lage (FAPF-UEM, MZ), “O caminho ao acesso a infraestruturas nos bairros pericentrais de Maputo” – Roundtable moderated by Ana Fernandes, with Elisiário Miranda (EAUM), António Deus (CES-UC/UFP), Joaquim Moreno (FAUP), Rui Mealha (FAUP), Kátia Sousa (FAUP) and Tânia Rosa (FAUP).
“Pluralidade dos Territórios – da sustentabilidade do habitat à qualidade do habitar de Luanda – Portugal a Kinshasa”, Universidade Agostinho Neto, Luanda, July 12, 2019. Organized by Filomena do Espírito Santo.
Link: http://www.ukuma.net/wp/wpcontent/uploads/2019/07/unnamed.jpg
Included five presentations: – Ana Vaz Milheiro (FAUL), O caso do Prenda e o alojamento da classe média (MCMH), Infraestruturas coloniais: contributos historiográficos (Coast to Coast); – Filomena do Espírito Santo (DEIArq FEUANeto), O caso do Bairro dos Correios – CTT (Rangel) e o alojamento de classe média 1950-80; – Isabel Martins and António Gameiro (DEIArq FEUANeto), Africa Habitat; – Jorge Figueira (Darq FCTUC), Coimbra e a Arquitectura Portuguesa; – Johan Lagae (Gent University), Mapping Kinshasa.
“Infraestrutura e Nomadismo”. ISCTE-IUL, Lisbon, May 17, 2016. Organized by Ana Vaz Milheiro, Paulo Tormenta Pinto, Filipa Fiúza and Alexandra Areia. – Speakers: Alexandra Areia, Fernando Viegas and Johan Lagae.
SESSIONS IN INTERNATIONAL GATHERINGS
Session “Infrastructural development in the European Portuguese territory in the late colonial period”, I International Congress. Colonial and Postcolonial Landscapes. Lisboa, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, January 16-18, 2019. Coordinated by Paulo Tormenta Pinto and João Paulo Delgado.
Panel “A Question of ´Shared Culture´ or of ´Selective Borrowing(s)´? 20th Century Colonial Public Works Departments seen from a Transnational Perspective”, European 53 Architectural History Network (EAHN): Fourth International Meeting, Dublin, June 2-4, 2016). Organized by Ana Vaz Milheiro and Johan Lagae.
EXHIBITIONS
“Colonizing Africa: Reports on Colonial Public Works in Angola and Mozambique (1875- 1975)”, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lisbon, January 18 – April 18, 2019. Curated by Ana Vaz Milheiro with Beatriz Serrazina and Ana Fernandes. The exhibition had about 650 visitors. Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxunO54DRk8
ROUNDTABLES
“Colonizing Africa: Relatórios das Obras Públicas Coloniais em Angola e Moçambique (1875-1975)”, Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Lisbon, March-April 2019. Coordinated by Ana Canas D. Martins and Ana Vaz Milheiro. The cycle had about 120 participants.
Link:http://ahu.dglab.gov.pt/2019/03/13/proximo-sabado-dia-1603-exposicao-colonizingafrica-ciclo-sessoes-arquivo-historico-ultramarino/
Sessions: – 02/03/2019, Ana Canas D. Martins, Manuela Portugal, Sónia Henrique (AHU); – 09/03/2019, Fernando Pires (CES-UC); – 16/03/2019, Filomena do Espírito Santo (Univ. Agostinho Neto, Luanda); – 23/03/2019, José Luís Saldanha (ISCTE-IUL), Ana Silva Fernandes (FAUP, DINÂMIA’CETIUL); – 30/03/2019, Rita Pedro, Workshop “Histórias que a História não conta” for children from 6 to 12 years old (12 children participated); – 06/04/2019, José Pedro Monteiro (CES-UC), Peter Scriver (University of Adelaide, Australia); – 13/04/2019, Johan Lagae (Ghent University, Belgium).
“Filmes e infraestruturas coloniais. Visualização de material de arquivo da RTP e debate”. Organized by Alexandra Areia and Ana Fernandes with Ana Vaz Milheiro, Palacete dos Viscondes de Balsemão, Câmara Municipal do Porto, Porto, July 24, 2018.
Included: – Public screening of RTP archive films; Debate with Luís Lage (Faculdade de Arquitectura e Planeamento Físico da Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Moçambique), Carlos Maciel Santos (Centro de Estudos Africanos da Universidade do Porto, Portugal) and Ana Vaz Milheiro (Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade de Lisboa, DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, CEAUP). Some members of the research team participated in the session and about 30 people attended the event.
MISSIONS
ANGOLA 10-16 June 2018 – José Luís Saldanha – research in Luanda and fieldwork in Mabubas and Cambambe dams.
ANGOLA 04-14 July 2019 – IR, Filipa Fiúza, Jorge Figueira and consultant Johan Lagae – fieldwork in Luanda (city urban fabric, infrastructures and singular buildings) and Malange, with António Gameiro (railway infrastructures and other relevant public buildings – hospital, schools, etc.), with stops in Dondo, Cambambe, Pungo Andongo and Ndalatando. The trip allowed visiting some case studies, like the Kwanza bridge and the road network from Luanda to Malange. The team also had meetings with the Vice-Governor of the Malange Province and with the Governor of the Cuanza Norte Province. Academic meetings with consultant Filomena do Espírito Santo (Universidade Agostinho Neto), consultant Isabel Martins (Universidade Agostinho Neto), and Maria Alice Correia (Instituto de Planeamento e Gestão Urbana de Luanda). Participation in the conference “Pluralidade dos Territórios – da sustentabilidade do habitat à qualidade do habitar de Luanda – Portugal a Kinshasa” organized by Filomena do Espírito Santo.
MOÇAMBIQUE 12-17 September 2016 – IR and Jorge Figueira – fieldwork in Maputo (possible case studies, city urban fabric and singular buildings) and Ressano Garcia, Namaacha, Matola with a stop by the Pequenos Libombos dam. Meetings with the consultant José Forjaz and with the researchers Luís Lage and Jéssica Lage to present the project, adjust the methodology and the initial bibliographic references. Presence at the Eduardo Souto Moura exhibition “Oscilações” to establish contact with professor and researchers of the Eduardo Mondlane University.
MOÇAMBIQUE 15-17 July 2017 – Walter Rossa – partial reconnaissance trip along the railway of the North Development Corridor (Nampula-Cuamba).
MOÇAMBIQUE 01 January-08 April 2018 and June 2019 – Ana Fernandes, with Luís Lage support – documental and cartographic survey in Arquivo do Conselho Municipal de Maputo. Visit to Beira port, Cornelder headquarters (concessionaire company), Coal and Fuel Terminals, Cargo Containers Terminal and the General Terminal; research in Arquivo dos Caminhos de Ferro de Moçambique (Beira). Consultation of files and technical drawings about railway infrastructures, namely Sena and Machipanda lines, and related buildings (stops, warehouses, housing, facilities, etc.). Survey of design and construction files about D. Ana bridge. Research in Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique. Future mission preparation to Maputo and Matola ports, to Arquivo do Ministério das Obras Públicas, to Fundo Permanente do Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique and to Fundo Documental da Frelimo (awaiting authorization).
MOÇAMBIQUE March 2018 and April 2019 – Elisiário Miranda, with Luís Lage support – survey of five airport infrastructures: Inhambane, Vilankulo, Beira, Tete and Songo. Research in ANA archives (Maputo and Beira). Fieldwork in Maputo, visit to Matola port (Oil Terminal) and Maputo port (Ore Pier); archive research.
GUINÉ-BISSAU 28 February – 5 March 2019 – Mission to Guinea-Bissau – Ana Vaz Milheiro – to develop comparative studies. Visits to regions and localities of Oio (Binar, Encheia, Bissorá, Farim, Mansabá, Mansoa), Bafatá (Saltinho), Bissau (National Etnographic Museum, Luanda neighbourhood, Ajuda neighbourhood, historic center, Antula Bono neighbourhood, Santa Luzia neighbourhood), Cacheu (Pelundo, Safim, Cacheu and Canchungo); infrastructure survey from the colonial and post-independence times.
ISRAEL 10 September – 04 October 2019. Mission to Israel – Ana Vaz Milheiro – to develop comparative studies and research colaborations. Research and meetings in IIAS. Visits and oral presentation at Hebrew, University of Jerusalem, Israel Institute of Technology. Fieldtrips to several kibbutz.
ISRAEL 27 November – 6 December 2019 – Mission to Israel – Filipa Fiúza, with Ana Vaz Milheiro – to develop comparative studies. Survey in the Zionist Archive in Israel, concerning the Israeli settlements commonly known as Mochav and Kibbutz, ranging from the late 19th century until the 1960s, and connections between Angola and Israel.
PhD THESIS
HENRIQUE, Sónia (2019). “Informar, administrar, conservar prova: circuitos e significados da correspondência no Arquivo Colonial (Direção-Geral do Ultramar, 1835- 1910)”, Doutoramento em História, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. [January 23, 2020]
MASTERS THESIS
FONSECA, Madalena Vieira da (2019). “Interesses Penitenciários e Práticas Coloniais: o Projeto Prisional em Angola no 3º Quartel do Século XX”, Dissertação de Mestrado em Estudos Africanos, ISCTE-IUL [supervised by José Luís Possolo de Saldanha].
SOUSA, Kátia Lemos de (2018). “Maputo: densificação autoproduzida. O sonho do primeiro andar sobre a casa existente”, Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Arquitectura, FAUP – Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto [supervised by Ana Fernandes].
