Iberian Atlantic Imperial Carcerality: Vestiges of Colonial Disciplinary Violence in Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, and Mozambique.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the literary and historical representations of prisons and concentration camps during the struggle for independence and the post-independence period in Lusophone and Hispanophone Africa. I concentrate on the infamous and iconic prisons of Tarrafal in Cape Verde, Black Beach in Equatorial Guinea, and Machava in Mozambique as starting points to examine questions of carcerality. From the lens of carcerality, I will show how narratives—works of literature, films, historiography, and archival documents—question and nuance the notion of decolonization, not as a rupture with colonialism but as a renegotiation of colonial powers in post-colonial Lusophone and Hispanophone Africa. I begin with a genealogy of penitentiaries to show that the emergence of prisons and penal colonies is inextricably linked to the active colonization and settlement of the Portuguese and Spanish territories in Africa. The pervasive networks of discipline and punishment in Africa suggest a colonial carcerality that I explore further in three separate case studies. I delve into the particularities of carceral violence in Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, and Mozambique from late colonialism to the post-independence period. I explore how the Concentration Camp of Tarrafal became a space of contention that allowed intellectuals to make historical claims about fascism, colonialism, and decolonization in Cape Verde. In addition to archival resources, I analyze memorialistic literature, namely Testemunho de um combatente (1990) by Pedro Martins, Tarrafal – Chao Bom, Memorias e Verdades (2010) by Jose Vicente Lopes, and Tarrafal – Chao Bom, Porque Mentir? (2012) by Eduardo Vieira Fontes. Then, I examine three contemporary Equatorial Guinean novels: Ekomo (1985) by Maria Nsue Angue and Cenizas de kalabo y termes (2000) and Autorretrato con un infiel (2007) by Jose Fernando Siale Djangany. These texts theorize the aftermath of colonialism as a perpetuation of disciplinary violence in the post-colonial period. Lastly, I study how the figure of the New Men and the New Women was invoked to legitimate widespread policing of those who deviated from State ideologies, during late colonialism and the first decade of the FRELIMO Revolution. I study archival documents, FRELIMO publications, and the film Virgem Margarida (2012) by Licinio Azevedo.