Portugal, colonial aphasia and the public memory of war

Abstract

The colonial war was a key moment in the contemporary history of Portugal. Since the late 1970s, the war and the context and circumstances in which it took place have remained the stage for fragmented evocations and persistent amnesia. This chapter examines the processes of memorialising and silencing the war in Portugal, with a focus on the evolution of the memory of the conflict in democratic Portugal and, at a later stage, the mnemonic challenges to this memorial framework within the country.