Call for Article Submissions for Dossier (Edition 2024.2) - Amazon(s) and Africa(s)

2024-08-30

The submission period is open for scientific articles for the dossier Amazon(s) and Africa(s): Economic, Political, and Sociocultural Connections of Somanlu: Revista de Estudos Amazônicos, to be published in the second half of 2024. Submissions must be made by October 31, 2024.

Editors:
Prof. Dr. Manuel Henriques Matine/Centro de Estudos do Vale do Limpopo - Mozambique
Prof. Dr. José Gil Vicente/UFAM

In search of academic and intellectual connections in the field of Social Sciences and Humanities among researchers from the Amazon(s) and Africa(s), Somanlu, the journal of the Graduate Program in Society and Culture in the Amazon of the Federal University of Amazonas (UFAM), announces the thematic dossier Amazon(s) and Africa(s): Economic, Political, and Sociocultural Connections. The main objective is to invite all interested parties to submit research works in the form of articles, reviews, and field notebooks.

Studies in Social and Human Sciences, particularly in the field of Anthropology and History, locate the first political, economic, and sociocultural contacts between the Amerindian peoples—indigenous people of the Amazon—Europeans—white colonizers—and Africans—enslaved blacks—in the late 17th century. Representative data and information on the probable origin of the blacks, from regions in present-day Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique, can be found in the archives of the General Trading Company of Grão-Pará and Maranhão (1755-1778). Alongside this record, the dispersed documentation of clandestine slave traders and oral sources are also considered valid.

Despite the arguments explaining the transatlantic slave trade to the greater Amazon being divided among experts into: (a) the need to ensure the reproduction of colonial production relations and (b) populating the Amazon to contain foreign expansionist ambitions, we must point out the following: "Indians; whites and blacks, in search of complementarities, reinvented their traditions. The historical evolution of this symbiosis is observed through: the exchange of Bantu, Sudanese, and indigenous words in Amazonian Portuguese; religiosity; folk festivals; melodies, dances, and choreographies, and Quilombos—the recreation of Africa(s) in Brazil."

It is known, however, that this historical complementarity between the Amazon(s) and Africa(s) has been silenced over time, either by the Brazilian racist elite or by academics eager to reproduce Eurocentric ideology. Thus, Somanlu, moving against the grain of the subordination of Amazonian and African intersections, aims with this thematic dossier to promote scientific debates on knowledge and practices among the peoples of the Amazon and the African continent. The primary objective of this proposal is to stimulate the exchange of thoughts and experiences.

Thematic Axes:

  1. Slave trade depots on the coast of Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea: memories, images, and history.
  2. The teaching of transatlantic trade in schools in Amazon(s) and Africa(s).
  3. Contemporary history, anthropology, and sociology of Africa(s).
  4. Black presence in Amazon(s): historical, anthropological, and sociological debate.
  5. Practices and knowledge of Afro-Amazonian culture(s): possibilities, challenges, and perspectives.
  6. (Re)affirmation of Amazonian Quilombos: from historical struggles to political recognition.