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Extract
from an Angolan Map (1870)
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The chief purpose of the Symposium was, firstly, to produce a better
understanding of the dynamics of the transport routes and communications
that have had a fundamental impact on African history for centuries.
Secondly, prominence was to be given to the case of Angola and its hinterland,
which in many respects resembles a microcosm of African history in its
entirety. Time and again, long and often precarious lines of transport
and communication have played a crucial role in this space.
The Symposium took place from
24th to 26th September 2003 at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies
in Berlin, with the support of the Volkswagen Foundation. It was convened
and organized by Drs. Beatrix Heintze and Achim von Oppen. The active
participants, twenty scholars and area specialists, some of international
reputation and others in the process of building up their academic career,
came from three continents and covered different academic disciplines.
Most of them were social and economic historians, anthropologists, or
political and communication scientists. Their presentations (as well
as three additional papers circulated in absentia) and the subsequent
discussions with a number of invited guests addressed a broad range
of relevant issues and produced a rich variety of insights on the topic.
Benefiting from the considerable historical depth of sources and research
on Angola and its hinterland, the contributions not only examined long-term
processes that began centuries ago, but also took up the challenges
of today, marked by Angola’s new departure after the end of the civil
war. A wide spectrum of different forms and routes of transport and
communication were explored, ranging from local case studies to trans-African
and trans-Atlantic connections.
The studies on the latter looked
at the movement of people and the transport of trade goods, as well
as at the circulation of various kinds of knowledge and information.
While the presentations and discussions took place in nine sessions,
their results will be summarized along five specific areas of debate.
Firstly, it was pointed out
that the region has an enduring history of transport and communication
modernization. Under the specific conditions of colonial rule and early
world-market integration through slaves and tropical products, however,
this modernization process was marked by a number of profound contradictions.
The case of Angola is a clear illustration of these contradictions and
ambivalences, even in certain periods prior to the 20th century.
Secondly, it was shown that
throughout its history, both transport and communication in West Central
Africa have had a strong impact on the histories and livelihoods of
the areas involved, in the economic and social as well as in the political
and cultural sense.
Thirdly, a number of contributions
examined how transport lines and communications shaped the spatial structure
of the region profoundly, integrating or fragmenting it, from the very
local to the large-scale level.
A fourth area of inquiry was the everyday concepts of space among people
who move(d) through West Central Africa. Particular attention was paid
here to popular perceptions of a familiar landscape of routes and connections
and how they coped with the boundaries and territories that were advanced,
often violently, by the colonial and post-colonial state.
Finally, it emerged that the
history of transport and communication in (Central) Africa is an important
facet of world history, and that regional studies on the topic should
not present their results merely as echoes or variants of this wider
history, but indeed as its constituents. A similar emphasis on multiplicity
is also required for the method of study: a history of mobility in Africa
and beyond requires a multitude of approaches that complement rather
than oppose each other.
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