Afro-Portugal Afro-Portugal

The journal Cadernos de Estudos Africanos seeks contributions for a thematic issue on the African presence in contemporary Portuguese society. We start from a broad understanding of this sizeable populace, comprising not only people born in Africa or those who have lived there but also their descendants who identify themselves as Africans, Afro-Portuguese or retornados, irrespective of their nationality. Our aim is thus to portray a large and heterogeneous population (regarding the countries they come from, and the diversity of life courses, ethnic loyalties and cultural references) that nonetheless shares Africa as a common geographical reference. These groups include, but are certainly not limited to, the so-called second generation of African immigrants and those who have returned from the former colonies. In the Portugal of today, a person’s African heritage, or a prolonged residence in Africa, tend to be significant biographical elements, in addition to being key markers of a social and cultural alterity that is often racialized