Migrants, Settlers and Colonists: The Biopolitics of Displaced Bodies

Abstract

All through the nineteenth century, Madeirans migrated from their Atlantic island to places as remote as Hawaii, California, Guyana and, later, South Africa. Scarcity of land, a rigid social structure, periodic famines and rampant poverty made many embark to uncertain destinies and endure the harsh labour conditions of sugarcane plantations. In the 1880s, a few hundred Madeirans engaged in a different venture: an experience of ''engineered migration'' sponsored by the Portuguese government to colonize the southern Angola plateau. White settlements, together with military control, scientific surveys and expeditions, contributed to strengthen the claims of European nations over specific territories in Africa. At that time, the long lasting claims of Portugal over African territories were not matched by sponsored colonial settlements or precise geographic knowledge about the claimed lands. There was little else representing Portugal than the leftover structures of the slave trade, the penal colonies and the free-lance merchants that ventured inland. In fear of losing land to the neighbouring German, Boer and British groups in south-western Africa, the Portuguese government tried then to promote white settlements by attracting farmers from the mainland into the southern plateau of Angola. As very few responded to the call, the settlement consisted mostly of Madeiran islanders, who were eager to migrate anywhere and took the adventure of Angola as just another destiny out of the island where they could not make a living. Their bodies and actions in the new place became highly surveilled by the medical delegates in charge of assessing their adaptation. The reports document what were then the idealized biopolitics of migration and colonization, interweaving biomedical knowledge and political power over displaced bodies and colonized land. At the same time, those

Biopolítica y necropolítica: ¿constitutivos u opuestos?

“…El estudio del biopoder es común en Europa, Reino Unido, Australia y Sudamérica para analizar la migración desde la perspectiva de la seguridad (Bigo, 2002;Ceyhan y Tsoukala, 2002;Darling, 2009;Edkins y Pin-Fat, 2005;Muller, 2004;Owens, 2009;Tyler, 2010;Zylinska, 2004) y como un problema a controlar con fines racistas (Bastos, 2008;Bolaños, 2013;FitzGerald, 2010;Kalm, 2005;Kelly, 2004;Kunz, 2008;Vaccotti, s/f;Yuing, 2011).…”

Biopolítica y necropolítica: ¿constitutivos u opuestos?

“…El estudio del biopoder es común en Europa, Reino Unido, Australia y Sudamérica para analizar la migración desde la perspectiva de la seguridad (Bigo, 2002;Ceyhan y Tsoukala, 2002;Darling, 2009;Edkins y Pin-Fat, 2005;Muller, 2004;Owens, 2009;Tyler, 2010;Zylinska, 2004) y como un problema a controlar con fines racistas (Bastos, 2008;Bolaños, 2013;FitzGerald, 2010;Kalm, 2005;Kelly, 2004;Kunz, 2008;Vaccotti, s/f;Yuing, 2011).…”

Migrants, inequalities and social research in the 1920s: The story ofTwo Portuguese Communities in New England

“…Some of the islands had highly stratified plantation systems, such as the main island of Madeira and S. Miguel in the Azores. Throughout the Nineteenth century, rampant poverty pushed large numbers of Madeirans into Caribbean and Guianese plantations (Harney 1990;Bastos 2008); later, both Madeirans and Azoreans were contract labourers in Hawaiian sugar plantations (Williams 2007). Towards the end of the century, many Azoreans joined the labour force in New England's mills and other places in North America (Lamphere 1987;Warrin 2010).…”