Desertion and exile: experience and memory

Abstract

“Can anyone be who he is not? / Can anyone be who he is not? / Can anyone be who he is not? Sérgio Godinho’s chorus - from a song included in the album “Pré-Histórias” / “Prehistories” (1972) - came to mind as soon as I started reading the testimonies collected in this book. That was the year I was arrested in the course of a rally against the Portuguese Colonial War. I was then sure my destiny was written down: a registration with the PIDE-DGS (the State Security Police) meant I could not pursue my studies and, if not taken to Caxias - the infamous political prison - I would be drafted into the army, and sent to somewhere in Africa with the next platoon. Given I could not be who I wasn’t, I would then choose the path of desertion and exile, in the footsteps of so many before me. And so it happened, if only up to a point; I will be telling the closure of this personal episode at the end. For now, it should be noted that desertion seemed, back then, a natural choice, almost inevitable for those who, like myself and all the others whose voice can be heard in this book, had decided not to betray their conscience nor the trust of those who refused to accept an unjust war and a tyrannical government.