This one-day in-person gathering [download all information - PDF file] in Lisbon is the first of two events intended to discuss the results of the exploratory research project “Regulating the Colonial Rural: Wartime Villagization in Late Portuguese Colonialism,” funded by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT). This project focuses on understanding the spatial history of wartime villagization schemes in colonial Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau from 1961 to 1975, as well as the present-day rural landscapes that have their provenance in villagization.

This event on November 3 foregrounds the  presentation and discussion of the results of archival research in Portugal and of exploratory fieldwork in Guinea-Bissau and Angola, by architects, geographers, and a historian. In the morning, two of the project’s consultants will discuss frameworks for research on wartime villagization, from the disciplinary perspectives of geography and architectural history. Afterwards, we will have a roundtable to converse about the role of Portugal’s military archives for research in architecture and geography, as well about possibilities for archival futures. In the afternoon, the research team will present ongoing work, as well as a web documentary prepared by Cape Verdean artists, reflecting on the project and its disjunctions.

A second event, which will be held virtually later in the year, will gather scholars from various universities in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau to continue the conversations that the project team has been having, in order to critique ongoing work, and to envisage future paths for multi-scalar research on African spaces, and particularly on rural urbanism.

Registration is free but mandatory [HERE]. The deadline for registration is November 2 at 10 am (GMT)

This event has the support of Lisbon City Council