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  • Empire in Africa: Angola and its neighbors by David Birmingham
  • Patrick Chabal
Empire in Africa: Angola and its neighbors. By David Birmingham. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2006.

Students of colonial history have divided between those who argue that Portugal’s empire was unique and those who consider that, though somewhat different, it fitted the general pattern of European expansion in Africa. A quick review of the literature would reveal that the former have long dominated the field. This can be explained by two factors. The first is that students of the Portuguese African Empire have tended to be Lusophone specialists, who consider that Portugal’s singular historical trajectory marks it out from its European rivals. The second is that Salazar’s long dictatorship rested on an interpretation of Portugal’s imperial history that stressed its distinctiveness. This culminated in the theory of Lusotropicalismo, derived from the work of the Brazilian anthropologist Gilberto Freyre, which asserted that the Portuguese occupation of the tropics was so distinctive as to justify Portugal’s assertion that its African territories were ‘provinces’ and not colonies. Although this notion has long been discredited, it is interesting to observe that even today the Portuguese often believe that they have a ‘special’ relationship with Africa.

David Birmingham is a specialist of Angola who works firmly within a comparative imperial perspective. As the author of a major book on the history of Central Africa, he is particularly well placed to approach Angola from a regional perspective. As a seasoned analyst of Angola’s complex history, he is able to cut through the tangle of (mis)interpretations that has afflicted the study of that former Portuguese colony. Empire in Africa: Angola and its neighbors is Birmingham’s third volume of essays on Lusophone Africa and it brings together those that pertain to the historical setting of Angola’s contemporary situation. The publication of these papers is to be welcomed, if only because some of them are difficult to locate today. Together they constitute a summary of Birmingham’s research interest on that Portuguese-speaking country.

The book comprises eleven chapters, which are organised according to historical chronology (and not the dates when they were written). Following a broad introduction on the specificities of the Portuguese African Empire, Birmingham reproduces in this book articles on very diverse topics, ranging from the impact of wine imports on the colonial subjects, the role of missionaries in Angola, the notions of class and race, the historical significance of carnival in Luanda, to the more contemporary issues of power struggles, violence and poverty. Although each chapter is never less than interesting, they are not of equal value. The most informative and arresting pieces are those having to do with missionary history, on which Birmingham is an expert, and the well-known article on “Carnival in Luanda”, which is a model of social history.

Above and beyond the relative value of each article, the question is whether their compilation in one single volume brings added value to our understanding of Angola’s history. The short answer is yes, and for reasons that have largely to do with the author’s ability to write on Angola from a comparative perspective. Indeed, what makes these quite diverse and not easily compatible pieces into an interesting whole is the fact that Birmingham has always sought to explain Angola by means of an approach that is grounded in a long view of African history. The introductory and fifth chapters touch explicitly on cross colonial comparisons, thus illustrating the author’s concern to set the history of Angola within its regional context. However, most of the other pieces present the material from a perspective that makes it easy to make sense both of the specificities and commonalities of Angola’s imperial experience. Herein lies the added value.

Although Lusophone specialists will find little in this book that is new, they will appreciate the fact that it makes available some of the author’s key articles. Historians, however, might be frustrated by the somewhat idiosyncratic manner in which Birmingham presents his findings: some chapters are well documented; others are more impressionistic. Other than “Carnival at Luanda”, which is written...

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