Fortifications, Post-colonialism and Power by Joo Sarmento - 9781138260672

Taylor & Francis

By critically examining Portuguese fortiifications across the former Lusophone empire, this book constructs a cultural and political geography that informs our understandings of the performance of the 'colonial present', it investigates how memory attaches itself to places and discusses how contemporary postcolonial states resolve the ambiguous public treatment of colonialism and the 'colonial present. This book also provides an understanding of the role of various imperial legacies in the construction of memory and identity and explores the intersection of colonialism, memory, power and space in the postcolonial Lusophone world. > For more than 500 years, the Portuguese built or adapted fortifications along the coasts of Africa, Asia and South America. At a macro scale, mapping this network of power reveals a gigantic territorial and colonial project. Forts articulated the colonial and the metropolitan, and functioned as nodes in a mercantile empire, shaping early forms of capita.