Reproducing Portuguese Villages in Africa: Agricultural Science, Ideology and Empire

This article examines the imperial entanglements between agricultural science and colonial ideology, focusing on two white rural settlements (colonatos) established in Angola during the late Portuguese colonial empire at a time of unprecedented economic development, white population growth and anti-colonial contestation: Cela in the central highlands and Cunene (also known as Matala) in the Cunene river valley.1 My analysis draws on a range of primary sources from the Portuguese colonial archive and the literature on Angola during the last decades of
Portuguese rule. My main intent is to insert this particular case within the existing literature on the history of science and development in post-war Africa, which is still mainly focused on the British and French empires.