The history of violence in the colonial contexts in the twentieth century has received a considerable scholarly attention in recent years. With regard to some colonial spaces, the topic of colonial violence has, in fact, flourished as scholars have deployed new theories and methodologies to explore the mechanisms and typologies of violence across a range of colonial spaces/societies. Despite all this, inter- and transdisciplinary and empirically grounded approaches to colonial violence remain rare and considerably underexplored.

Colonial Violence: Secular and Ecclesiastical Perspectives (1919-1975) seeks to gather scholars from different disciplines such as History, Art History, Church History, Legal History, Law, Anthropology and Historical Sociology to study the phenomenon of colonial violence. The main goal is to discuss the attitudes of secular and ecclesiastical colonial and anti-colonial actors towards colonial violence, in its different forms and manifestations, in different levels from international fora to colonial territories, in colonial and non-colonial contexts.

Colonial Violence: Secular and Ecclesiastical Perspectives (1919-1975) is organized by the Centre of Mission and Global Studies of VID Specialized University of Stavanger, Norway, and will be held on 7.-9. November 2022 in Praia, the capital City of Cape Verde, West Africa (Venue: National Library of Cape Verde).

Keynote speakers

Keynote lectures will be delivered by:

• Diogo Ramada Curto (Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
• Aurora Almada (Instituto de História Contemporânea, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal)
• Mika Vähäkangas (Lund University, Sweden).

Call for papers

Proposals are invited for twenty-minutes papers which explore any aspect of the history colonial violence. Papers are welcome from any academic discipline. Interdisciplinary papers and studies of the European colonies in Africa and contributions addressing the dynamics of loyalties in the context of approaches to colonial violence are particularly encouraged. Potential topics could include (but are not limited to):

• Methodologies for histories of colonial violence in the twentieth century (source interpretation; archival purge/erasure; theoretical perspectives).
• Typologies of colonial violence (forced labour/slavery, cultural violence; environmental violence; psychological/symbolic violence; violence against cultural heritages, etc.).
• Conflict of loyalties in the justifications/rationalizations and condemnations of colonial violence.
• Resistance and dynamics of loyalties in colonial violence narratives.
• Colonial violence in the international secular and ecclesiastical conferences (Bandung Conference; Vatican II and other ecclesiastical meetings and conferences; the Pan-African Congresses, etc.).
• Supranational and transnational organizations’ reaction to colonial violence (League of Nations; United Nations, World Council of Churches; the Holy See, the World Labour Organization; the World Health Organization).
• Colonial and non-colonial states’ (Germany, the Scandinavian countries) approaches to colonial violence.
• Churches, religion/spirituality and colonial violence (prohibitions; justifications; complicity and loyalties).
• Native voices, perspectives/representations of colonial violence.
• Legacies, memories/reminiscences and scars of colonial violence.

Proposals, consisting of a title, an abstract (max. 250 words) and a short academic track record, should be sent to jairzinho.lopes@vid.no by Friday, 15 May 2022.
Feedback on the proposals will be sent by 3 June 2022.

This conference is scheduled to be held in-person in Praia, subject to the global public health situation.

For any queries and further information, please contact the conference organizer, Dr. Jairzinho Lopes Pereira

Related date:

15 May 2022