AIRN Seminar #11
Elephants and ivory: Resources, subsistence, and trade in southeast Africa in the early 16th century (Challenges of using Portuguese written documents)

Ana Cristina Roque (University of Lisbon, CH-ULisboa)

February 21, 2024 | Online | 6 PM (GMT)

Organization | African Ivory Research Network & Centre for History of the University of Lisbon

Zoom Meeting | https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/99204203201

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Summary: This talk is an outcome of preliminary research on 16th-century Portuguese documents, specifically oriented towards examining data about wildlife resources, their exploration, and utilization in Southeastern Africa. It serves a dual purpose: firstly, to enrich the general discussion about ivory, encompassing its origin and significance in the region at the time of Portuguese arrival; secondly, to underscore the challenges in approaching this topic using these documents as primary sources.

Ana Cristina Roque has a Ph.D. in the History of Discoveries and Expansion and currently holds a research position at the Centre for History of the University of Lisbon, where she is part of the research group Building and Connecting Empires. Her academic focus is on the History of Africa and the Indian Ocean, particularly in Mozambique and Southern Africa, spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. Her research interests focus on scientific expeditions, traditional knowledge and practices, and biodiversity and environmental challenges in the colonial framework. The current trajectory of her research interests converges towards the exploration of African Environmental History from a more-than-human History perspective, as well as to the complexities inherent to the growing academic interest that these areas have aroused in recent decades.

Previous AIRN seminars:

#10- Yusuf M. Juwayeyi (Long Island University): Emperor Muzura of the Maravi Empire and intensification of International Trade at Mankhamba (January 17, 2024)

#9- Sarah Van Beurden (Ohio State University/School for Advanced Research, NM): Bolobo’s Ivory Carvers (1880s-1980s): Making and Mobilities in Congo (December 13, 2023)

#8- Suzanne Preston Blier (Harvard University): Patterns of Anomaly in African Ivories (November 15, 2023)

#7- William Hart (University of Ulster): Afro-Portuguese Ivories since Bassani and Fagg 1988 (October 25, 2023)

#6- Book Launch: Vanicléia Silva-Santos, Marfins africanos como insígnias de poder. Belo Horizonte: Fino Traço, 2023 (September 27, 2023)

#5- Edward A. Alpers (University of California, Los Angeles): Thinking aloud: Elephants and ivory in Mozambique (May 17, 2023)

#4- Vanicléia Silva-Santos (University of Pennsylvania/Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais): Santo Antônio Ivory Statuettes Attributed to Kongo: Problems with Age and Provenance (April 19, 2023)

#3- René Lommez Gomes (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais): Ivories on a piece of paper. Notices on Sapi cups and saltcellars in Renaissance Spain (April 5, 2023)

#2- Sarah Guérin (University of Pennsylvania): Ivory trade before and after Henry the Navigator: Shifting worlds (February 15, 2023)