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Cristina Sá Valentim wins International Prize for Historical Research “Agostinho Neto”
Cristina Sá Valentim, collaborator at the Instituto de Etnomusicologia – Centro de Investigação em Música e Dança (INET-md) wins the 3rd edition of the International Historical Research Award "Agostinho Neto" with the work "Sons do Império, Vozes do cipale. Canções Cokwe, Poder e Trabalho durante o colonialismo tardio na Lunda, Angola". This work was developed within the scope of the PhD in 'Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship' from the Centro de Estudos Sociais e da Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra, with scientific guidance from Catarina Isabel Martins (FLUC / CES) and Ricardo Roque ( ICS-ULisboa).
According to the jury, the work was selected as a winner "because it is a very important, multidisciplinary, innovative work, which uses diverse sources and crosses written sources with oral sources and musical sources and, in this respect, it is not only innovative as practically unique, dealing with a very significant group in the history of Angola, the Cokwe, a population marked by adherence to novelty, dynamism and the creative and changing capacity".
The evaluation of competing works was carried out according to four criteria: historiographical relevance, conceptual, methodological and thematic innovation, clarity and coherence of argument and archival research.
Cristina is a cultural and social anthropologist. She has a PhD in Sociology, doctoral programme in ‘Post-colonialisms and Global Citizenship’ studies, at the Centre for Social Studies (CES), University of Coimbra. The main areas of interest are within the areas of anthropology, sociology and postcolonial studies, specifically on social differentiation, portuguese colonialism, music, migration, power, agency, subjectivity and image, and more recently, environment and sustainabilities, political and cultural ecology. With the support of a PhD scholarship awarded by FCT (Portugal), in 2019 she defended the doctoral thesis: "Sounds of Empire, Voices of Cipale. Tucokwe songs, power and Labour during the late colonialism in Lunda, Angola". She studied the colonial category of 'folk music' within the Cokwe people (1940-1970), during the Portuguese colonial context of Diamang (Diamonds Company of Angola) at Lunda, Angola. She did fieldwork in Portugal and Angola through oral history survey and in colonial sound and documentary archive. She is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Functional Ecology - Science for People & the Planet (CFE) at the University of Coimbra.
The international historical research competition Agostinho Neto is promoted biannually by the Fundação Dr. António Agostinho Neto (FAAN) and the Instituto Afro-brasileiro de Ensino Superior (IABES), represented by the Faculdade Zumbi dos Palmares (FZP). The prize is intended to reward the research works written about Agostinho Neto, Angola, Africa, Brazil, the Diaspora and Afrodescendants that contribute to the best knowledge of the history of Angola, Brazil and Africa. The winning work is distinguished with its publication in Brazil and Angola, and with the delivery of a diploma, a trophy, and a monetary prize equivalent to 50,000.00 USD.
