From lusotropicalism to Lusofonia: Brazil-Angola cultural exchanges under the sign of coloniality

The relations between the peoples inhabiting the spaces of modern-day Brazil and Angola predates the very existence of these states. Stemming from the late sixteenth century, when Portuguese colonialism began to transport enslaved people from its colonies in Africa to work in the sugar plantations of its colony in the Americas, the relationship between what today are Brazil and Angola has, in many ways, determined essential historical, economic, social and cultural aspects that are perceived as inherent to both spaces. As a result of such an important connection, there has been a growing demand for scholarly work dedicated to the study of cultural exchanges between these spaces, contributing to a welcomed increase in the number of works in the field, most of which focus on African influences in the fabric of Brazilian population and its popular culture. However, conveyed through a lexicon of fraternity that seeks to make justice to the African contribution in the making of Brazil, studies in the field tend to gloss over the violence underpinning this encounter forced by colonialism. Aiming at contributing to the development of critical studies of the postcolonial condition in the peripheries and semi-peripheries of the world system, this chapter will analyse contemporary cultural exchanges between Brazil and Angola in the wake of their postcoloniality. By paying special attention to the conditions of production and circulation of cultural goods between these countries, this study seeks to draw attention to the unevenness that inescapably taints all forms of exchange taking place under the different forms of capitalism.