Ussumane Gonçalves Tchuda

I'm a PhD candidate in African Studies at ISCTE-IUL Lisbon and Leiden University, researching how spiritually charged art and ritual function as political infrastructure in African revolutionary movements, with Senegal and Guinea-Bissau as my two case studies.

I hold an MA in Museum Cultures from Birkbeck, University of London, with fieldwork at the Musée des Civilisations Noires in Dakar, and I've spent five years working in museum and collections roles at institutions including the British Council, Heatherwick Studio and the V&A.

My own family history runs through Guinea-Bissau, Angola, São Tomé e Príncipe and Cape Verde, and that heritage shapes both my research questions and the archives I'm able to access, particularly through native Portuguese fluency. I'm especially interested in projects that treat oral tradition, ritual and sensory knowledge as legitimate historical evidence, not just supporting material for a written record.

September 2026