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Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses why, by its own nature, colonial press needs to be thought as international common archives that convoke particular clusters of countries, even if they transport a more global interest.

Paper long abstract:

This paper follows a debate that is being nourished by researchers and institutions adherent to the project IGSCP-PE (International Group for Studies of Colonial Periodical Press of the Portuguese Empire) regarding politics of reconstruction of collections through digital means, open access and research potentialities of the targeted archive. It will discuss why, by their own nature, colonial press collections need to be thought as international common archives that convoke particular clusters of countries, even if they transport a global interest. Such proposal is helpful to explore new approaches and methodologies in line with the international and transnational trends in historical research. It is also crucial to incentivize international archival politics that addresses local realities to surpass present inequalities, evidently loud when comparing Western with African panoramas, in access to sources without which academic work is highly limited. Coherent digital politics may not ignore the importance of building such archives in line with the most recent technical and scientific patterns that are being explored in the field of Digital Humanities in order to democratize the possibility of cutting-edge knowledge building.