Nascido no âmbito da Iniciativa Lusófona do CODESRIA e na sequência do simpósio internacional que decorreu sob o mesmo lema, ‘Lusofonia’ em África: História, Democracia e Integração Africana reune trabalhos de um conjunto de 14 autores de diferentes disciplinas de Ciências Sociais. A obra desconstrói e desmistifica o conceito de ‘lusofonia’ através de uma análise rigorosa das identidades e diferenças económicas, políticas e culturais que caracterizam os cinco países. Os autores fazem uma incursão a aspectos tão variados como o colonialismo, as lutas pela libertação nacional e o consequente desabrochar de novos regimes políticos no período pós-independência, as transições económicas e políticas que marcaram estes países desde as economias centralizadas e as tentativas de construção de sistemas políticos de tipo socialista. São igualmente analisados a introdução de economias neo-liberais, de sistemas multipartidários e a construção de sistemas democráticos, sem descurar os casos permeados por situações de conflito. ‘Lusofonia em Africa…’ representa assim um espaço em que se revisita os temas referidos, expondo-os aos novos desafios das mutações económicas, sociais e políticas.
This innovative work is the first CODESRIA has published in Portuguese, and the first scholarly work the institution has published on the politics, economics and societies of the Portuguese-speaking African countries, authored by social scientists from those countries. In its engagement with the Portuguese-speaking social science communities in Africa, the publication represents an important milestone for CODESRIA, and a symbolic moment in the development of Lusophone studies on the continent. The collection of essays grew out of CODESRIA’s ‘Lusophonia’ initiative, launched at an international symposium in May 2005 which brought together over 60 academics, mostly from the Lusophone African countries, as well as from African studies institutions in Portugal and Brazil, to reflect on the history, democracy and integration of the Portuguese speaking countries. The objectives of the Lusophonia initiative are to give a voice to social scientists from Portuguese speaking countries; centre debates on the priorities identified by the local academic communities; establish an integrated body of researchers based in the Portuguese speaking countries and integrate these into CODESRIA’s wider research programmes to the benefit of the wider research communities; and to strengthen capacity in the social sciences and comparative studies in the Lusophone environment in Africa.
The book brings together the works of fourteen authors from different disciplines in the social sciences. Through rigorous analysis of the identities, economic differences, policies and cultures that characterise the five Lusophone countries – Mozambique, Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé e Príncipe – the work deconstructs the concept of ‘Lusophonia’. The authors further cover colonialism and the liberation struggles in the Lusophone countries, and the consequences for post- independence, the introduction of neo-liberal economies, multi-party and democratic systems, and conflict situations. Some further examples of topics addressed are: the situation of higher education, universities, and the social sciences in the Portuguese speaking African countries; linguistic diversity and national identity; regional integration and the role of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), and local power in Lusophone Africa.
Teresa Cruz e Silva, Manuel G. M. de Araujo, Cardoso Térésa Cruz e Silva, Manuel G. Mendes de Araujo, e Carlos Cardoso
ISBN : 2-86978-174-1
CODESRIA 2005
