Small-large representations of the Portuguese Empire: the stamp series 'Sporting Modalities' (1962)

Abstract

In 1962, Portuguese government launched the stamp series 'Sporting Modalities': 48 stamps, six for each colony (Angola, Cape Verde, State of India, Portuguese Guinea, Macao, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Timor), with different sports represented. This study aims to analyze the launch of these stamps, in order to discuss the presence of sports under Portuguese colonial policy in the 1960s. We worked on the hypothesis that, through the stamps, sport was mobilized as a strategy to conform a representation of empire, harmonious and multiracial, which responded to pressures that hung over Portuguese colonialism.