Drawing on anthropology, history, and translation studies, the project proposes to ethnographically theorize the relationship between naming, translation, and subject constitution. How do names attributed to oneself, and others intertwine with changing contextual possibilities related to race, ethnicity, gender, status, prestige, and class? How do vernacular forms of designation and their translations into power-laden languages affect subject constitution in colonial and post-colonial contexts? What is the role of translation in the constitution of ethno-linguistic units in colonial contexts? How did Ovimbundu, the plural of ocimbundu, a term in Umbundu translated into Portuguese as »black«, become the ethnonym associated with this region? Based on historical sources in Portuguese and Umbundu, the vernacular spoken in Central Angola, this research will analyze the simultaneous reduction of the Umbundu language and the constitution of Ovimbundu ethnicity at the turn of the 20th century.

Iracema Dulley works as an anthropologist, psychoanalyst, and creative writer. She holds a B.A. in philosophy and a Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of São Paulo and is Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. Her research considers processes of subject constitution from an interdisciplinary perspective. She has conducted fieldwork in and archival research on colonial and post-colonial Angola and her publications focus on ethnographic theorization, the case study, witchcraft, translation, naming practices, and processes of differentiation related to race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality. Research methodology is a central area of concern. Dulley has held fellowships at ICI Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Federal University of São Carlos, the London School of Economics, the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning, the University of São Paulo, and the State University of Campinas. She is the author of On the Emic Gesture, Os nomes dos outros and Deus é feiticeiro as well as several articles, book chapters, edited collections, poems, and short stories.