Implacable Archives: Reviving Mário Pinto de Andrade’s Personal Archive

ongoing

LUARC intends to contribute to the enhancement and revitalization of the personal archive of Angolan intellectual Mário Pinto de Andrade (MPA). In addition to working with unique documents, LUARC develops an interdisciplinary approach to the archive as a site of production of historical knowledge. Widely known for his participation in the Angolan liberation struggle, MPA is a key figure in the cultural history of Angola, and one of the most important contemporary African intellectuals. LUARC focuses on the vast and heterogeneous material that the writer collected between 1940-1990, following the life of MPA and that of Angola through the late colonial period, the anticolonial struggle, and post-independence. LUARC puts together academic institutions and non-academic organizations located in Portugal, Angola, and the US, creating international connections to animate meaningful debates on Angola’s recent past. The project uses methods and techniques of archival science and digital humanities to ensure the proper appreciation of MPA’s personal records. Treating data according to the best ethical practices, LUARC grants broad open access to the digital archive, as well as to other project results and outputs. Strongly rooted in history and postcolonial theory, LUARC situates the archive in the context of Angola’s transition from colony to independent nation, creating a framework in which personal records come to make meaning as parts of a complex collective history. In particular, records are analysed in order to trace the evolution of practices and discourses on culture and nationalism in Angola, bringing to the surface narratives that have often been neglected. At the same time, drawing from literary studies and archival art, LUARC reflects on the practice of producing and keeping records, understanding it as a performative act that intervenes in the creation of the narratives through which we come to make sense of the past.