Nize Isabel de Moraes: memoiris of a historian specializing in Senegambia

Abstract

Between 1960 and 2015, Nize Izabel de Moraes, a historian from São Paulo, lived in Dakar (Senegal) and worked as a researcher at the Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noir (IFAN), at the current Université Cheikh Anta Diop. Exploring her private archive and other records in Brazil and Senegal, with emphasis on her diaries, correspondence and notes on her research and travels between Africa and Europe, the purpose of this article is to analyze her academic trajectory, as well as the impact of her production for the historiography of Senegambia, an area in which she stood out as a pioneering researcher. In this journey, we will point out the silences surrounding her life and work, as well as question her experience as a “black intellectual” in national and international networks of dialogues, marked by the intercessions of gender, race and nationality.