Data collection on historical contexts pertaining to commodity production, human agency and migratory phenomena across colonial Mozambique and British East Africa (1880 - 1970)

Abstract

This BEPE Research Project was designed to suit the current research about the creationof political associations among Mozambican émigrés in Tanganyika by assigning datacollection tasks to be carried out under the supervision of the University of Oxfords Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology. Following a discussion on the pertinence of theresearch topic on both theoretical and historiographical grounds, two distinct datacollection phases are discerned. Phase One proposes the execution of intensivearchival and bibliographical surveys in the United Kingdom. Although the researchemphasis rests primarily upon the University of Oxfords Bodleian Libraries for efficiencyreasons, Britains National Archives and other secondary repositories in London arealso considered crucial sites for data collection. Phase Two consists of extensivearchival surveys and fieldwork geared towards oral history in designated areas inTanzania. The sequencing of both phases in such order was planned to 1) deployinsights obtained through preliminary analysis of the data collected in Phase One toboost the following Phases fieldwork potentials; and 2) to strategically make use of thesignificant logistic advantages of executing fieldwork in Tanzania when based out ofBritain. The articulation of these two phases offers an invaluable opportunity to yieldquantitative and qualitative data necessary in devising innovative historiographicaloutputs.