03. Classify:
A refrain in the footsteps of Cabral in Cuba




(1)
(2)
(3)


Cabral conducted fieldwork in 1951 for his thesis on soil erosion in Alentejo, before leading the anti-colonial resistance movement PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. His practice as an agronomist has inspired modes of resistance against the hegemony of chemically intensive cultivation practices, as well as political alternatives to neoliberal governance that that are still operative in the present.

Departing from the political implications of Amilcar Cabral’s agronomic work in the region, I investigate the environmental impacts of the Alqueva dam, within the wider context of the post-war geoengineering project of the Green Revolution. Resistance in this context is a term that connects the built-in resistance of GMO strains, genetically modified organisms designed to endure chemical treatment, with the political resistance that was prompted by the generalisation of their application.  (1)(2)    Without much time left, the last effort was to bring the sample back to the museum, and also to collect representative soil samples, one from each of the three horizons. Since time was running against us, I took these last samples while Jaqui gave a talk on the colonial history of the Highland Clearances. At that point, the sample was the material around which we could assemble.

(3)    A spread from the original facsimile thesis from Cabral, deposited in the ISA academic archives. The images depict visible effects of soil erosion, while the unnumbered caption on the right as been interpreted as veiled political critique. Source: Amílcar Lopes Cabral, ‘O problema da erosão do solo. Contribuição para o seu estudo na região de Cuba (Alentejo)’ (bachelor Thesis, ISA-UTL, 1951).



(4)


(4)     Amilcar Lopes Cabral, Era a charneca, 1951. Source: Amílcar Lopes Cabral, ‘O problema da erosão do solo. Contribuição para o seu estudo na região de Cuba (Alentejo)’ (bachelor Thesis, ISA-UTL, 1951) .
The surroundings of Cuba. Inside the frame, the area included in Cabral’s study of soil erosion. Red indicates the strong vegetation of the new irrigated plantations. Basemap: EDIA. Ortophoto. False color (IVRG) 2022. Spatial resolution: 0,25m.






(5)   Basemap: EDIA. Ortophoto. False color (IVRG) 2022. Spatial resolution: 0,25m.



SOIL POLITICS
RESEARCH
01.      Conflict
02.     Settle
03.     Classify    
04.     Resist    
SOIL AS  METHOD
Alentejo Research Unit
Unsettling Soil
 Unlearning Taxonomies


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