Portugal

Tuesday, April 15th, 2014

#HistoryClass with Cheta Nwanze: A Short History of the Slave Trade

Henry Okelue suggested that today's History Lesson be about Nigeria's security agencies. Problem is, there's paucity of verifiable information, so, we'll go ahead with what was mapped out for today, which is about slavery, it's effects on us, up until this day. And before some people chop my head off, it is not possible, in any way,...

Wednesday, March 12th, 2014

#WhiteHistoryMonth: When Salazar met one of Lumumba’s murderers

António Oliveira Salazar founded Portugal’s New State dictatorship in 1933. Some historians like to argue over whether it was fascist or not. And these days, some Portuguese remember him fondly. He presided over the late colonial administrations...

Monday, January 13th, 2014

Thanks to Eusébio, it’s common for European nations’ football fortunes to depend on African players today

Historian Eric Hobsbawn once wrote of the centrality of national soccer teams to national identity in Europe, that "the imagined community of millions seems more real as a team of eleven named people." And that allows it...

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

“Democracy is the Best Form of Democracy”

Let’s say you’re a pirate and you want to design an embassy, which you would use to: a) reproduce the symbols of national sovereignty; b) while challenging ideas about public authority and the normal jurisdiction of the...

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012

Os Kuduristas: Hip as Nationalist Project

Let’s say you’re the son of a very wealthy political leader, from a country that was fighting a long war for independence in the 1970s (remember, that war that’s been reduced to a subplot in a video...

Wednesday, June 27th, 2012

Euro 2012 Semi-Final Preview: Mozambique vs Spain

Here in Maputo there’s only one thing on tonight: Portugal’s clash with Spain in the semi-finals of Euro 2012. Fancy bars are pushing up their cover prices and there are images of Cristiano Ronaldo all over the...