The first digital archive of the contested legacies of slavery in Portugal can now be accessed through the website https://contestedlegaciesportugal.org/
The digital archive is an online space which aims to excavate and document the legacy of the early Atlantic slave trade. Academic and public engagement with the legacy of slavery and the Atlantic slave trade typically narrows its focus to the Americas. The fact that the trade had its roots in Portuguese exploration and was mostly directed to Iberia in the 15th and 16th centuries is generally overlooked.
The digital archive connects the study of the past with controversies and debates that matter to the present. It provides a tool to learn more about the historical realities of enslaved people of African origin in c. 1450-1550, as well as to engage with the visible and invisible marks which they have left on the urban fabric of Lagos and Lisbon and the very different meanings that they have for the Portuguese society. The website ‘Contested Legacies Portugal’ comprises a unique educational resource, which results from the collaboration and exchange of knowledge among a range of subjects and stakeholders, including scholars, MPs, activists and members of grassroots associations, and tour guides. It grants access to a range of carefully curated audio-visual materials, conceptualised and implemented by filmmaker and researcher Arjuna Keshvani (Arquitect Productions CIC), as well as information previously undocumented, histories previously unsung, and historical documentation hitherto untranslated. Interviews were recorded in Portugal and remotely during the month of June 2022.
This is a work in progress that will continue to grow and proliferate through knowledge exchange as the archive develops.
A collaboration between the University of Oxford and EuroClio, developed in close conversation with the ongoing Contested Histories Initiative, the project ‘The Early Atlantic Slave Trade in Portugal: A Digital Archive of Contested Legacies’ was funded by the Knowledge Exchange Seed Fund of the University of Oxford and directed by Professor Giuseppe Marcocci.
