ABSTRACT
This is an essay about issues of methodology when undertaking research in a post-colonial missionary archive. It is an attempt at recovering the history of post-abolition Angola from the photographic holdings of the archive of the Spiritans Congregation by restoring the links of a photograph to contemporary historical discourse. The method consists of answers to the following questions: Who was the photographer? What information is provided by the caption? Who was the intended audience? Who were the sitters? Where and when was the photograph taken? On what occasion? And in what measure can an outsider think “from the other side”?
