Seminar: Colonial administration, native taxation and fiscal subjects in former Portuguese Africa

The question of colonial policies with regard to the extraction of taxes, labour and natural resources in Africa has become an important thread in recent years in studies on the economic history of empire. Over the last decade, scholarly contributions have focused on the possible correlations between the nature of the 'colonial state' and the impact of its extractive policies on fiscal subjects, but also on the long-term impact of colonial policies on the economic development and institution building of post-colonial states in a comparative perspective. Until recently, the former Portuguese colonies in Africa have remained on the margins of this discussion, which has largely centered on former British Africa. This paper intends to partly redress this imbalance by means of a multidisciplinary focus on the cases of Angola, Guinea and Mozambique and to shed light on extractive policies, with particular emphasis on direct native taxation, while considering their implications for the debate on statehood and citizenship in empire.