Ciências Sociais, Diplomacia E Colonialismo Tardio: A Participação Portuguesa Na Comissão De Cooperação Técnica Na África Ao Sul Do Saara (Ccta)

Abstract

RESUMO Instituída no segundo pós-guerra, num contexto de crescente contestação ao colonialismo e como resposta das potências coloniais europeias ao interesse científico das Nações Unidas e de círculos académicos norte-americanos pela África, a Comissão de Cooperação Técnica na África ao Sul do Saara (CCTA) revelou uma atenção particular aos estudos sociais, estabelecendo uma agenda de pesquisas paralela à da Organização das Nações Unidas para a Educação, a Ciência e a Cultura (Unesco). Com base nos arquivos diplomático e científico colonial, o artigo analisa a atividade da CCTA naquele domínio e, sobretudo, a participação portuguesa nessas dinâmicas, determinando a importância relativa do país na sua promoção e seus reflexos no campo das ciências sociais em Portugal.

Threatening Alliances: Portuguese Ethnography of Indigenous Associative Life in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea (1945-1974)

“…In terms of colonial knowledge per se, these findings ratify those studies on colonial knowledge that frame ethnographic surveys within "colonial scientific" policy, intending to dominate (Castelo 2006;Costa 2013). However, they also endorse more recent research on post-WWII scientific trends in a bid to justify and preserve late colonialism by following international developmental trends (Abrantes 2012, Ágoas & Castelo 2019). Both Portuguese colonial schooling and administration researchers characterized African culture as "backward" -an idea used both to underestimate the capacity of indigenous populations to self-organise, and to justify the obstacles that were imposed on their associations (Ferreira 1968).…”

“…The colonial knowledge thus produced resulted in part from the relationship between participation in national and international academic debates and field research undertaken as part of the overseas administration. 7 As Ágoas and Castelo argue, it was at this point that modern social anthropology and sociology developed among colonial academic elites (Ágoas & Castelo 2019).…”

Regional cooperation and health diplomacy in Africa: from intra-colonial exchanges to multilateral health institutions

“…Based on Anglo-French agreements signed from 1945 onwards and limited funding from colonial powers (Pearson, 2018, p.169), CCTA aimed to provide low-cost technical assistance in a variety of domains including health, while opposing "interference" from interests considered "foreign to the African continent," including UN organizations and Cold War protagonists (Henry, 1953, p.308). The Scientific Council for Africa South of the Sahara (CSA), which was established in 1950 in Bukavu (then Belgian Congo) and functioned as a liaison center for a network of expert panels and sentinel posts, advised CCTA on scientific matters and facilitated the exchange of epidemiological data (Ágoas, Castelo, 2019). Following pre-First World War and interwar initiatives to combat sleeping sickness, the "colonial disease" par excellence (Lyons, 1992), an International Conference on TseTse and Trypanosomiasis was held in Brazzaville in 1948, with the participation of French and Belgian governments.…”