The Portuguese Colonial War and the African Liberation Struggles: Memory, Politics and Uses of the Past

The Portuguese Colonial War and the African Liberation Struggles: Memory,Politics, and Uses of the Past offers a critical analysis of the memory of these wars, focusing on the public memorialization in Portugal and former colonized territories in Africa. It explores the changing and crossed nature of political memories and social representations through time, highlighting three modes of mnemonic intersections. The book is a significant output of the CROME project and advances knowledge on Portugal and Lusophone Africa, contributing to discussions on social and individual memories, power, and silence in postcolonial states.

Format: Hardback
Length: 210 pages
Publication date: 14 September 2023
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The Portuguese Colonial War and the African Liberation Struggles: Memory,Politics, and Uses of the Past is a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the memory of the colonial and liberation wars that resulted in a regime change in Portugal and the independence of five new African countries: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Spanning over six decades, this book is based on extensive original archival research and critical analysis of sources and interviews, providing the first plural account of the public memorialization of this contested past in Portugal and former colonized territories in Africa. The book focuses on the diachronic and synchronic processes of mnemonic production, highlighting the changing and interconnected nature of political memories and social representations across time.

Three key modes of mnemonic intersections are explored: the intersection of distinct historical times, the intersection between multiple products and practices of memory, and the intersection connecting the different countries and national histories. This innovative approach sheds light on the complex and multifaceted ways in which historical events are remembered, interpreted, and used in contemporary societies.

The Portuguese Colonial War and the African Liberation Struggles: Memory,Politics, and Uses of the Past is a significant contribution to the field of study developed by CROME – Crossed Memories,Politics of Silence, a project funded by a Starting Grant (715593) from the European Research Council (ERC). The book advances our understanding of Portugal and Lusophone Africa and contributes to ongoing conceptual and epistemological discussions regarding the relationship between social and individual memories, the dynamics between memory, power, and silence, and the uses and representations of the past in postcolonial states and societies.

To make this valuable research accessible to a wider audience, an Open Access version of the book has been made available at www.taylorfrancis.com.

Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032501116