Reviews for Postcolonial History of Lusophone Africa

The average rating for Postcolonial History of Lusophone Africa based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-05-29 00:00:00 april clark Useful and accessible account that helpfully compiles the different lusophone struggles, in all their variation, in one volume. My main problem with it is that it tells the stories of resistance and decolonization through dry technical militaristic and party politics approach that is appallingly devoid of any gender or intersectional lens. At a simplistic level I felt like I was just reading about men's history (men leading guerilla groups, men forming regional factions, men being exiled, etc) which is not only a blatant case of tunnel vision but also is uninteresting-- who is doing organizing, supporting the resistance, contributing to the guerilla movement in non-leadership and other capacities? How does masculinity and femininity feature into it all, and more interesting still, how is gender reconstructed and reproduced through the militaristic struggle and nationalist narratives of patria, unity, and progeny? How are disruptions in economy and mobility (Angola-wide but particularly in the groups that vacillated between Belgian Zaire and Portuguese northern Angola and partook in coffee agriculture, mining, and oil extraction) contributing features? The authors go into how regionalization based on ethnic, economic, and religious ties contributed to competing factions, but they leave it here and fail to make useful analyses with these observations. How might the racialization of creole versus black along class, metropolitan ties, and ideological lines contribute, for these individuals, to differing notions of citizenship and nationhood? This text can serve as a useful point by which to lay the groundwork when learning about lusophone independence but there is a lot to be missed here.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-04-24 00:00:00 Anan Hiri A well written, informative book. It gave me a fresh perspective on something I think of, and cherish, as my own heritage. There were times when I disagreed with Mr. Russell's opinion of an author, or with his interpretation of a certain story or a verse, but that wasn't something that left me distraught. For one, the nature of Literature as a genre allows for such discrepancies to exist. Secondly, the author is (of course!) much more acquainted with Urdu Literature, and with the material pertaining to it, than me (reproachful, I know); so, I took this experience, more than anything else, as my education by an expert - and overall enjoyed the process :)