When analysing Lisbon’s Casa dos Estudantes do Império (Empire Student House; CEI) range of cultural activities its stands out its connections with the Clube Universitário de Jazz (University Jazz Club; CUJ). The choice of these ‘encounters via jazz', as a case study, it is not only related to CEI’s central role towards African Portuguese-speaking countries independence movements but also due to CUJ’s subversive actions against the right-wing Estado Novo colonial policies.
If on the one hand, CEI represented the ideal of the unity of the Portuguese Colonial Empire, explored by Salazar’s Estado Novo colonial regime propaganda. On the other hand, it became a space of intellectual and political discussions by many of those who have been at the base of the African Portuguese-speaking countries independence movements. In fact, these debates have been extended to other university student’s communities around the country. An example of this was CEI’s close connection with CUJ, through jazz-related activities, particularly their subversive actions. By associating jazz’s contribution to the Civil Rights Movement and the struggle of the African-Americans against the white supremacy in the United States of America, both CUJ and CEI student communities reinforced a collective awareness against Salazar’s Estado Novo colonial policies.
With this paper, based on both archive and fieldwork research, I will analyse the CEI and CUJ ‘encounters via jazz’ in Portugal’s colonial empire metropolis. In particular, the role that jazz as social and musical practice took in this process as an enhancer of as yet non-existent social realities during a period of censorship, repression and persecution of Portugal’s contemporary history.