Scientific Exploration in Africa at the age of the Berlin Conference
The CEAUP is organizing a special issue of its Journal Africana Studia dedicated to the Scientific Exploration in Africa in the age of the Berlin Conference.
The process of producing science is often neglected when its final results are presented. In the case of Social Sciences it is consensual that these have consolidated themselves in the second half of the XIX century – particularly the geographical sciences – mainly serving the colonialist expansion of European powers.
The African continent was certainly the part of the world where this association of phenomenon became stronger and, simultaneously, more spectacular. The interest of the industrialized societies of Europe in creating markets and domains in Africa led to the establishment of an alliance between the State and the civil society in order to mobilize efforts in the entrepreneurship and in scientific research. At the same time, geographical “explorations “in Africa were coincident with the appearance of mass media. This fact became a powerful leverage in the formation of public opinion. Geography was never so popular, and simultaneously, so politized.
The historiographical interest about this social and political phenomenon – after the commemorative phase of these events, celebrated by the colonial administrations – has been growing in the last two decades. Much of the documentation on what truly were the motivations, the organization and the objectives of these travels lies still in public and private funds, partially or completely ignored. Moreover, the profile of the explorers themselves is in a phase of reconstruction. Besides the well-known European travelers, we now know much more about their Africans supports that many times preceded them in the opening of routes. We know also more about who did not write nor publish and about what the famous did when they weren’t corresponding with the scientific academies.
This is a call for articles which can reflect the present the state of the art regarding this particular scientific field: the history of geographical exploits in Africa during colonial and pre-colonial times.
Call for Articles: 1st July-30th November 2011.
Norms for publishing
Articles should be signed stating the institutional affiliation of the author.
Articles should be sent in 12 Times New Roman, with one and half space.
Articles should not be over 70.000 characters, including space and foot notes.
Each article should include an abstract in 2 languages with a max. of 500 characters and a set of keywords.
In case of images this should have at least 10x6 cm, 1200x800 pixel (300 dpi).
Bibliographical references
References within the text should follow the norm (author, year). In case of references of an author referring to the same publishing year the author’s name should be followed by a small cap letter: Ex: (Rodrigues, 2000a) (Rodrigues, 2000b).
Quotations should be in italic.
Foot notes should be limited to substantial information and preferably not over 5 lines.
Final bibliography should contain only the complete references used in the text of the article, listed by alphabetical order and by chronological order within the same authors’ entrance.
Info: http://www.africanos.eu/ceaup/
