ECHOES
Historicizing Memories of the Colonial War
The project examines the processes surrounding the historicizing of the memory of the colonial war waged by the Portuguese state and independentist movements in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau between 1961 and 1974/5. It works on the general assumption that war evocations on political speech, popular culture, group memories and personal recollections disclose continuities and contradictions based upon a strain between the loss of an imagined imperial centrality and the subsequent building of a democratic, European and post-colonial country.
The specific objectives are: a) to analyze the different stages the (non-) registration of the colonial war into public memory goes through; b) to exploit the dynamics and strains between private speech and public representation; c) and to revitalize the studies on the colonial war from a perspective imbedded in Oral History and Memory Studies. Therefore, the importance of the project derives from putting forward an innovative approach in historical studies, bringing about fresh reflection about the past, which is still traumatic.