Insurgent memory, post-imperial governance, and change: reassessing the truth about Portugal’s colonial history
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The historical memory of the imperial past is central to Portuguese national identity. However, in recent years, this memory has been challenged, both from outside, due to changing international norms about colonial violence, and from within, with national organisations mobilising against the Portuguese state’s failure to acknowledge the harm caused by Portuguese colonialism. This article focuses on the ongoing dispute between opposing conceptions of the historical truth about Portugal’s colonial past. It contrasts the official memory of the state with the insurgent counter-memory practices of civil society, explaining the state’s reluctance to address the wrongs of the colonial past. It identifies the main actors and initiatives in promoting post-colonial justice, examines how the state has responded to their demands, and how truth-seeking processes have contributed to social change. The article also places these struggles in the context of current social, political, and epistemic changes resulting from changing world geopolitics and global political and economic crises. In this context, post-colonial memory is conceived as a space of dissent, conflict, exchange, and negotiation, within which civil society plays a fundamental role in the search for historical truth, recognition, and social justice.
Source: Rethinking History
Author: Elsa Peralta
Institution: University of Lisbon
Language: English
Subfield: Archeology
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4407293745