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 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Fallacious Mirrors: Colonial Anxiety and Images of African Labor in Mozambique, ca. 1929 |
| Author: | Allina, Eric E.D. |
| Year: | 1997 |
| Periodical: | History in Africa |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Pages: | 9-52 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Mozambique Portugal |
| Subjects: | colonialism photography Labor and Employment History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3172017 |
| Abstract: | This article examines the historical and political milieu that motivated the production of the 'Albuns fotográficos e descrítivos da colónia de Moçambique', developed by José dos Santos Rufino for the 1931 International Colonial Exhibition in Paris. Comprising ten volumes and more than 1,000 images, the albums are organized largely by geographic area - one volume for each of early 20th-century Mozambique's eight provinces. The present author argues that it was the album collaborators' anticipation of the historical experience of the intended audience that greatly shaped the images they collected. Boosters of Portuguese colonialism were profoundly insecure with the international reputation of Portugal's colonial administration. This insecurity had its roots in repeated charges - in the popular press and diplomatic community - of slave-trading and general administrative incompetence in lusophone African colonies. The albums present a carefully constructed image of African workers and workplaces. African workers and the environments in which they labour appear as civilized images of discipline and order. This visual representation established an unspoken visual defence of Portuguese colonial rule to the European observers. Notes, ref. |
