‘Lusofonia’ em África: História, Democracia e Integração Africana

 This innovative work is the first CODESRIA has published in Portuguese, and the first scholarly work the institution has published on the politics, economics and societies of the Portuguese-speaking African countries, authored by social scientists from those countries. In its engagement with the Portuguese-speaking social science communities in Africa, the publication represents an important milestone for CODESRIA, and a symbolic moment in the development of Lusophone studies on the continent. The collection of essays grew out of CODESRIA’s ‘Lusophonia’ initiative, launched at an international symposium in May 2005 which brought together over 60 academics, mostly from the Lusophone African countries, as well as from African studies institutions in Portugal and Brazil, to reflect on the history, democracy and integration of the Portuguese speaking countries. The objectives of the Lusophonia initiative are to give a voice to social scientists from Portuguese speaking countries; centre debates on the priorities identified by the local academic communities; establish an integrated body of researchers based in the Portuguese speaking countries and integrate these into CODESRIA’s wider research programmes to the benefit of the wider research communities; and to strengthen capacity in the social sciences and comparative studies in the Lusophone environment in Africa.