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The historiography on political incarceration during the modern colonial period from the late 19th century to the end of empire has demonstrated a remarkable dynamic over the last decades, in both theoretical and empirical terms. One of the best studied cases being South Africa and the establishment of the first political detention camps on African soil following the Boer War. Research on other European colonial contexts in British, French, Dutch, Belgian and Italian empires also revealed the frequent use of prison camps in Africa and Asia for the incarceration of members of opposition groups, persecuted in metropolitan and colonial contexts.

In the case of the Portuguese Third Empire, the incarceration of political prisoners was strongly identified with the metropolitan opposition to the Military Dictatorship and Estado Novo which created special prison camps for that purpose in the then colonies. The Tarrafal prison camp on the island of Santiago in the Cape Verde Islands, being the most notorious, was the subject of numerous international denunciations as the first Portuguese concentration camp. Although Africans from the Portuguese colonies were also imprisoned at Tarrafal, its association with metropolitan politics bestowed a strong symbolism and major visibility upon the camp. Except for a few recent studies, Portuguese historiography has mainly focused on metropolitan connections rather than colonial perspectives. Thus, the history of Portuguese colonial prisons in the 20th century remains largely unexplored. The growing historiography of colonial incarceration has tended to focus mainly on other Europeans empires in Africa and Asia.

The Institute of Contemporary History (IHC/NOVA University) and the Aljube Museum – Resistance and Freedom wish to mark the 80th anniversary of the inauguration of the Tarrafal prison camp in Cape Verde by organising a conference on the historiography of political incarceration in European colonies in the 20th century. The organizers welcome new research on the prisons and prisoner camps in former British, French, Dutch, Belgian, German and Portuguese colonial territories, as well as comparative and transnational perspectives on colonial incarceration in general. A selection of conference papers will be included in a special issue of an international peer reviewed journal.

Topics :

 the politics of incarceration in a colonial context
 colonial prison and concentration camps and metropolitan political regimes (dictatorship or democracy)
 the incarceration in prison camps of members of metropolitan and colonial oppositions
 the legal framework for political deportation and imprisonment
 penal colonies, forced exile, deportation and imprisonment
 the relation between political imprisonment and forced labour
 the relation between prison camps and their colonial environment
 the practice of incarceration : punishment, violence, torture and death
 the prison camp as a site of resistance
 prison camps as laboratories of political repression
 the prison camp as a laboratory for post-colonial leadership
 the prison camp as a social, economic and political microcosm
 the impact of prison camps upon prisoners’ physical and mental health
 the prison camp as a site of learning and education
 the prison camp as a site for the production of memory (poetry, fiction, essays, letters, music, photography, etc.)
 prison camps and national and international media
 colonial prison camps and international organisations

Submission of paper proposals

 Maximum time allotted for presentation is 20 mins.

 Proposals including abstracts (max. 250 words), keywords (max. 5), author’s name, institutional affiliation and e-mail address, and a brief exposition of current research and interests, should be submitted in accordance with the template

 Colonial incarceration PROPOSALS and sent the following e-mail address colonialincarceration20century chez gmail.com

 Deadline for submission of paper proposals (abstracts) : 28 February 2016

 Selection of paper proposals and communication to participants : 30 March 2016
 Publication conference program : 30 April 2016
 Pre-circulation of summary papers (approx. 1000 words) to discussants : 30 June 2016

Some of the papers will be selected by the conference’s scientific board to be included in a special issue to an international peer-reviewed journal. Deadline for submission : 30 October 2016

Publication of the ‘special issue’ : 2017/2018