Profile
Maria Emília Madeira Santos has been a Senior Researcher at the former Institute of Tropical Scientific Research (IICT) since 1986, where she developed the research programme “The Coastal-Interior Relationship in the Dynamics of Portugal’s Presence in Africa”.
She served as Director of the Centre for the Study of Ancient History and Cartography (1987-2007) and Director of the Department of Human Sciences (1992-2004). She retired in 2007.
She has collaborated with various universities and cultural institutions in Portugal and abroad, particularly in Africa. She is the author of numerous works on African History, Colonialism, Cartography, Nautical Science, and Scientific Expeditions. Since 1965, she has published over a hundred books, articles, and book chapters, with a particular focus on the long-term history of Angola and Cape Verde.
She created and directed several research projects, including: General History of Cape Verde, a project resulting from an agreement between the governments of Cape Verde and Portugal, executed between 1987 and 2007 by a joint Portuguese-Cape Verdean research team (6 volumes); Europe/Africa/America Relationship: The Dynamics of Africa’s Opening to the External World in the Third Quarter of the 19th Century, a project launched at the 1st International Meeting on African History, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG), Lisbon, 1988; Africa and the Establishment of the Colonial System (c. 1885 – c. 1930), launched at the 3rd International Meeting on African History, FCG, Lisbon, 1999; Cartography, Politics, and Colonial Territories: The Cartography Commission (1883-1936), an interdisciplinary and interdepartmental project aimed at identifying, describing, contextualising, digitising, and systematising the entire cartographic, written, photographic, and material collection of the Cartography Commission at IICT. This initiative resulted in: a database; the “Fronteiras de África” (African Borders) exhibition; the development of studies in the fields of African History, Diplomatic History, Cartographic History, and Historical Geography.
Awards and Distinctions: Science Prize, FCG (1987); Honourable Mention of the “Boa Esperança” Prize, JNICT (1995); Cape Verdean Writers’ Association Prize (1999); António Carreira Prize, AECV (2004).
