São Paulo – Brazilian publisher Editora Unifesp has launched a new edition of a book that recounts part of the history of Sudan. Titled Religião e tensões coloniais no Sudão: A experiência de Dom Comboni na África e dos combonianos no Brasil [Religion and Colonial Tensions in Sudan: The Experience of Don Comboni in Africa and the Comboni in Brazil], the book in Brazilian Portuguese was written as a master’s thesis by professor Patrícia Teixeira Santos. Pictured above, a view of Sudanese capital Khartoum.
Twenty years have passed since the book was first published, and it has now been launched as an e-book. “Seeing my book being published as an e-book with updates is an opportunity to share this study in Portuguese, which has been so important and pioneering in Brazil about the history of Sudan and the Catholicism in this part of the continent for a wider audience,” she told ANBA.
The North African country has been the topic of her studies since 1997. “This book was the result of my master’s thesis in History from the Federal Fluminense University in 200. The work was focused on the life story of Antônio Danielle Comboni, a Catholic bishop who served in missions in Central Africa, and his descriptions on Sudan, its population diversity and colonial struggles. The latter part portrays the rerouting of religious congregation Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus to Brazil and the situations of discrimination against the African descendant population,” she said.
The professor believes the new title better represents the researched topic. The text was revised and updated, features a new foreword and a chapter where Santos recounts the story of the book in African studies and the Catholicism in Africa and Latin America. The cover is a reproduction of a canvas by artist Eliane Nunes. The e-book is on sale on Google Scholar, and it’ll soon be sold on Amazon, too.
Translated by Guilherme Miranda
