Luso(A)fonias. Crossed Memories on Portuguese Colonialism

• Autor(a) principal: Cabecinhas, Rosa
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Estudos Ibero-Americanos
• Texto Completo: https://revistaseletronicas.pucrs.br/index.php/iberoamericana/article/view/32857
• topic: Social memory. Colonialism. Luso(A)fonias.; Memoria social. Colonialismo. Luso(A)fonias.; Memória social. Colonialismo. Luso(A)fonias.

In this article, we review a series of studies on social representations of national history carried out among young people in Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal, and East Timor. In each one of these countries, data were collected to examine the social representations of national history and the emotions associated with the most important events, among which the colonization process and the wars of liberation stood out. The results point to ambiguities, ambivalences, and contradictions in the social representations of history that “binds” Portuguese-speaking countries. In general, one observes a “mismatch” of memories about the colonial past. This mismatch of memories about the “common past” is particularly evident when we compare the historical memories of the young Angolans and of the Portuguese youth: while the Portuguese participants highlight the discoveries, the Angolan participants highlight the slavery, the slave trade, and the massacres. Borrowing the expression of Mia Couto (2009), globally the results mirror Luso(A)fonias and demonstrate how challenging is the active listening and engagement with of Other.