The Past Is a Foreign Photo: Image and Travel Writing in the Benguela Railway. Angola, 1920-1930
2018; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.7301/z018351s
ISSN1645-6432
Autores Tópico(s)Travel Writing and Literature
ResumoEnglishThe introduction of railways in Europe throughout the 19th century is the origin of a new perception of space defined by the “annihilation of the traditional space-time continuum which characterized the old transport technology” (Schivelbusch 36). In the Portuguese colonial spaces in Africa, however, these changes would not occur until the early 20th century, thus resulting in the conflation of the narratives of colonization, territorial occupation, and modernization. However, this design is frequently at odds with the superposition of the railway line and the commercial tracks historically used for the trade of enslaved human beings, as was the case with the Katanga-Benguela Railway in Angola. In this paper, I examine three travelogues written between 1922 and 1933 by British travelers in Angola—Through Angola, A Coming Colony, by Colonel J. C. B. Statham, London 1922; Angolan Sketches, by Alexander Barns, London 1928; and A Fossicker in Angola, by Malcolm Burr, London 1933. Reconstructing their journeys, I intend to explore the tensions between text and photography as they shape colonial relationships. portuguesA introducao de linhas ferroviarias na Europa ao longo do seculo XIX encontra-se na origem de novas modalidades de percepcao do espaco definidas pela aniquilacao do tradicional continuo espaco-tempo que caracterizara as antigas tecnologias de transporte (Schivelbusch 36). Nos espacos coloniais portugueses esta transformacao so viria a ocorrer no principio do seculo XX, resultando dai a sobreposicao das narrativas de colonizacao, ocupacao territorial, e modernizacao. Esse projecto, porem, encontra-se em permanente tensao pela coexistencia, no mesmo espaco, de linhas ferroviarias e antigas rotas de comercio de seres humanos escravizados, tal como se verifica na Linha de Caminho de Ferro Katanga- Benguela. Neste artigo analiso tres narrativas de viagem escritas entre 1922 e 1933 por viajantes britânicos em Angola: Through Angola, A Coming Colony, de J. C. B. Statham (Londres, 1922); Angolan Sketches, de Alexander Barns (Londres, 1928), e A Fossicker in Angola, de Malcolm Burr (Londres, 1933). Atraves da focalizacao de cenas criticas testemunhadas pelo texto e pelos registos fotograficos das expedicoes
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