July 1, 2025

Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship

Margarida Calafate Ribeiro , Roberto Vecchi e Nazir Ahmed Can

This work is part of the process of recovering the memory of Tarrafal as a place of incarceration. Having come to the present as the most violent prison ground set up by Estado Novo to punish its opponents, Tarrafal survives in the collective memory as a political prison designated in official discourses as a concentration Camp. The research is based on tracing the forgetfulness that blurs its boundaries, problematises its name, questions its exceptionality and opens space for reflection on the use of Tarrafal's memory in tributes, commemorations and musealisation. Starting from silences in the testimonies of former prisoners and the signs of various absences disseminated throughout the archive, the research developed by crossing these signs, seeking to concretise forgetfulness. Multiple sources of information were mapped, adding new testimonies from prisoners to the existing memorial production and complementing official records (regional, national and international) with information from civilian memory preservation initiatives, newspaper reports, opinion articles, posts on social networks, websites, exhibition catalogues and guides, museums and personal collections. Everything was considered in light of the law at the time of the events. The interpretative redisposition of these narratives articulates a genealogy of Tarrafal that allows us to glimpse a less resistant, more diverse, more ambiguous, more exceptional and broader camp. The list of prisoners was expanded. In addition to the two known phases of the prison (Colónia Penal de Cabo Verde/Campo de Trabalho de Chão Bom), two others were documented - Presídio do Tarrafal, which housed prisoners from the archipelago for common offences, and the incarceration of dozens of men for political reasons after the 25th of april (1974-1975). Tarrafal operated continuously for 39 years as a place of deprivation of liberty. Having documented multiple forgettings that have been lost between the action of time and readings focussed on political resistance, it is possible, from the Concentration Camp, to undertake a reflection on the Estado Novo's very particular way of exercise of power.

KEYWORDS: Tarrafal, Banishment, Memory, Forgethfulness, Estado Novo.