Lusotropicalismo
Lusotropicalismo
- Cristiana BastosCristiana BastosInstituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa
- , and Cláudia CasteloCláudia CasteloFaculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa
Summary
Lusotropicalismo, or Lusotropicalism, was officially coined in 1951 by Gilberto Freyre when delivering an invited talk in Goa, India, during his visit to the Portuguese colonies in Africa and Asia. Freyre did not invent the concept on the spot: it evolved from his earlier analysis of Brazilian society and colonial history as a tale of three peoples (Europeans, Africans, and Indigenous)—a tale in which the Portuguese were portrayed in a positive manner, with a tendency to mix and mingle that ultimately resulted from their own history of mixtures and mingling. Albeit controversial, Freyre’s sympathetic portrayal of the Portuguese in tropical lands was valued by some intellectuals of Portugal and African colonies since the 1930s. In the 1950s, the Portuguese government invited him to visit the colonies and write about them. While claiming total independence, Freyre wrote about the Portuguese colonial endeavor with sympathy and strengthened his depiction of their overseas encounters as more fluid and benign than those of other colonizers. His views would ultimately become official doctrine of the Portuguese regime in the 1960s, precisely when other colonial regimes collapsed. Transmitted in textbooks, media, official documents, and a number of propaganda channels, Lusotropicalist ideas became deeply ingrained and naturalized under the colonial regime, which lasted until 1975. They influenced popular representations of colonial history, interracial harmony, and cultural exchanges in ways that outlasted the regime and entered the 21st century.
Keywords
Subjects
- Colonial Conquest and Rule