The Nativist Movement in Angola: A Proposal for a Modern State and Society in the Lusophone Context

Abstract

During the colonial period, there were several nativist movements in the Lusophone sphere. The nativists demanded participation in political decisions and social life to build a modern and integrative colonial state. This modern state would lead to progressive autonomy and, ultimately, independence, accepting and blending African culture with Portuguese administrative and social models. In the early twentieth century (in 1910’ and 1920’ decades, in Angola particularly in 1913/1914 and 1915/1917). these movements conquered public space by publishing in the local periodical presses in Portuguese, as well as offering access to published books. The circulation of newspapers and books in the Portuguese Empire established communication between colonies, assuring the exchange of ideas and proposals for a different and modern colonial state with the participation of Africans. Thus, nativism became a way to establish local identities, bringing together mestizos and Africans (sons of the soil) brought up under Portuguese rule and within Portuguese institutions. In Angola, the nativist movement was especially notable and was persecuted and stifled by the colonial authorities. This chapter aims to analyse how the nativist movement shaped Angolan identity and influenced the African construction of the modern state under Portuguese colonialism. The debates taken up by the “sons of the soil” in the periodical press and books suggest that the nativist movement endeavoured to shape Angolan identity, the idea of the modern state, and introduced a connection to a broader Lusophone geopolitical space.