Periodic Reporting for period 4 - CROME (Crossed Memories, Politics of Silence: The Colonial-Liberation Wars in Postcolonial Times)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-08-01 al 2023-01-31
Afro-Portuguese Colonial-Liberation Wars (1961-1974/5) generated plural memories, conflicting evocations, and persisting amnesias that still reverberate in the contemporary societies of the former coloniser/colonised countries. CROME’s main objective was to produce a history of the memory of the wars fought by the Portuguese state and the pro-independence African movements. The project lasted six years (February 2017 – January 2023) and its focus resided on the political memories and social representations produced on those historical events, covering more than six decades (from the beginning of the conflicts until the present days). The project sought to identify how the wars have reverberated in distinct times and spaces, since the conflicts have triggered memorialisation and silencing processes which have their own historicity, according to each country and social-political context. That exercise required looking at the entanglements between the former metropolis, Portugal, and the former colonized territories: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and S. Tomé and Príncipe.
To build this analysis, CROME resorted to different sources – written, oral, and visual – combining different actors, moments, and practices of memory production. The research included the analysis of primary and secondary sources, research data collected on private and public archives and libraries; and more than 100 interviews with former combatants, freedom fighters, politicians, artists, academics, military personnel, museum professionals and other memory producers and social actors. The fieldwork and data collection took place in 6 countries.
The research developed by CROME aimed to reach specialised and interested publics as well as wider audiences. It has – and will have – impact in both former metropolis and former colonised territories, promoting renewed ways to re-think the present and past relationships between the six countries, based on how the colonial past and the colonial-liberation wars have been politically and socially remembered and mobilised in the last 60 years. The societal repercussions of the project gain pressing relevance as the colonial pasts and the colonial-liberation wars are once again becoming the object of diverse historical-political disputes, triggering “memory wars” and public struggles across countries and continents. Considering the increasing visibility of national and international dynamics mobilizing colonial and anticolonial pasts, CROME’s research and results have been pivotal. CROME’s outputs – publications, school sessions, audio-visual products, conferences, social media, and website – as well as the regular researchers’ presence in the media extended the academic boundaries and had direct reverberations in the ever-growing debates around these issues.
facebook.com/crome.ces
To build this analysis, CROME resorted to different sources – written, oral, and visual – combining different actors, moments, and practices of memory production. The research included the analysis of primary and secondary sources, research data collected on private and public archives and libraries; and more than 100 interviews with former combatants, freedom fighters, politicians, artists, academics, military personnel, museum professionals and other memory producers and social actors. The fieldwork and data collection took place in 6 countries.
The research developed by CROME aimed to reach specialised and interested publics as well as wider audiences. It has – and will have – impact in both former metropolis and former colonised territories, promoting renewed ways to re-think the present and past relationships between the six countries, based on how the colonial past and the colonial-liberation wars have been politically and socially remembered and mobilised in the last 60 years. The societal repercussions of the project gain pressing relevance as the colonial pasts and the colonial-liberation wars are once again becoming the object of diverse historical-political disputes, triggering “memory wars” and public struggles across countries and continents. Considering the increasing visibility of national and international dynamics mobilizing colonial and anticolonial pasts, CROME’s research and results have been pivotal. CROME’s outputs – publications, school sessions, audio-visual products, conferences, social media, and website – as well as the regular researchers’ presence in the media extended the academic boundaries and had direct reverberations in the ever-growing debates around these issues.
facebook.com/crome.ces
The progress accomplished by CROME in six years reflects the dynamism of the research team and its ability to implement the planned research activities, the efficient support provided by the Host Institution and the productive cooperation with diverse groups of academics, social actors, and organisations in the six countries where the research took place.
CROME has a consistent online presence through its Facebook page account and website (launched in 2017). During six years, the project, its research, and the team members have been mentioned in more than 115 national and international journalistic pieces and news in the media: newspaper articles, TV/Radio broadcasts, individual interviews, and news briefs.
Regarding publications, the project numbers 11 books (5 forthcoming), 1 special issue, 31 book chapters (12 forthcoming in 2023), 19 scientific articles (mostly in international top-ranked peer-reviewed journals) and 23 other texts. Almost all the publications are available in open access at the publishers’ websites and/or at the institutional repository of the University of Coimbra.
Throughout its length, CROME organized 8 international conferences (including 1 in Angola, 1 in Cape-Verde, 1 in Spain, and 2 in Guinea-Bissau) and several other scientific events (e.g. roundtables discussions in S. Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea-Bissau, 13 book launches in 6 countries). Most of them were organized in collaboration with local partner institutions. In Portugal, the project promoted 13 seminars and conferences, 13 sessions of the outreach activity ‘CES goes to School’ – aimed for high school students – as well as other minor events. The team presented 140 papers in academic events (around 7760 people reached), besides the participation in cultural or outreach events.
CROME has a consistent online presence through its Facebook page account and website (launched in 2017). During six years, the project, its research, and the team members have been mentioned in more than 115 national and international journalistic pieces and news in the media: newspaper articles, TV/Radio broadcasts, individual interviews, and news briefs.
Regarding publications, the project numbers 11 books (5 forthcoming), 1 special issue, 31 book chapters (12 forthcoming in 2023), 19 scientific articles (mostly in international top-ranked peer-reviewed journals) and 23 other texts. Almost all the publications are available in open access at the publishers’ websites and/or at the institutional repository of the University of Coimbra.
Throughout its length, CROME organized 8 international conferences (including 1 in Angola, 1 in Cape-Verde, 1 in Spain, and 2 in Guinea-Bissau) and several other scientific events (e.g. roundtables discussions in S. Tomé and Príncipe and Guinea-Bissau, 13 book launches in 6 countries). Most of them were organized in collaboration with local partner institutions. In Portugal, the project promoted 13 seminars and conferences, 13 sessions of the outreach activity ‘CES goes to School’ – aimed for high school students – as well as other minor events. The team presented 140 papers in academic events (around 7760 people reached), besides the participation in cultural or outreach events.
CROME is the first study that develops a history of the memory of the Afro-Portuguese Colonial-Liberation Wars, in a diachronic and comparative perspective. Based upon strong empirical research, CROME ground-breaking perspective brought new theoretical and conceptual knowledge, in particular about the politics of memory and the politics of silence produced when this past is evoked or mobilised. The work developed will now pave the way to further research allowing for comparative exercises with other international cases of (anti-)colonial/decolonization/liberation wars.
The analysis undertaken offer new insights about the agencies of individual/collective political actors and entities in creating socio-political dynamics of war memorialization. The work developed contributes to better understand how political and social memories are historicised, and the role played by the state, civil society, and individuals in generating, since the end of the war, plural memories, conflicting evocations and persisting amnesias about that historical event.
The outputs and knowledge produced by CROME will impact current public debates, memorial disputes, and political struggles about the memory of the colonial past and the (anti)colonial/decolonization/liberation wars.
Covering more than six decades of memory production, and with materials created and edited by the team, the focal point of CROME was the creation of a history on the memory of the colonial wars and liberation struggles that involved the Portuguese state and African liberation movements. CROME has strengthen ongoing conceptual and epistemological discussions regarding the relationship between social and individual memories and the dialectics between memory, power, and silence in each of the six national contexts in study. The project made it possible to read and analyse those historical processes in a comparative or crossed perspective, promoting the discussion and reconceptualization of some theoretical frameworks and concepts such as ‘counter-memories’, ‘mnemohistory’, ‘mnemonic signifier’ and ‘memoryscape’, thus enriching the debates about the materialisations of memory in the public sphere and between space, memory, and power.
This perspective offers a wider picture on the intersections, parallelisms, and similarities/differences of this common history. In consequence, the relevance of CROME does not exclusively rely on the academic knowledge that it encompasses towards the past. It also relies on the dialogues it promotes with current political, ideological and memorials dynamics that are mobilising contemporary societies. Moreover, it paves the way to build connections with a past that remains socially silenced. At least, regarding two of their most sensitive components: colonial violence(s) and war(s).
The analysis undertaken offer new insights about the agencies of individual/collective political actors and entities in creating socio-political dynamics of war memorialization. The work developed contributes to better understand how political and social memories are historicised, and the role played by the state, civil society, and individuals in generating, since the end of the war, plural memories, conflicting evocations and persisting amnesias about that historical event.
The outputs and knowledge produced by CROME will impact current public debates, memorial disputes, and political struggles about the memory of the colonial past and the (anti)colonial/decolonization/liberation wars.
Covering more than six decades of memory production, and with materials created and edited by the team, the focal point of CROME was the creation of a history on the memory of the colonial wars and liberation struggles that involved the Portuguese state and African liberation movements. CROME has strengthen ongoing conceptual and epistemological discussions regarding the relationship between social and individual memories and the dialectics between memory, power, and silence in each of the six national contexts in study. The project made it possible to read and analyse those historical processes in a comparative or crossed perspective, promoting the discussion and reconceptualization of some theoretical frameworks and concepts such as ‘counter-memories’, ‘mnemohistory’, ‘mnemonic signifier’ and ‘memoryscape’, thus enriching the debates about the materialisations of memory in the public sphere and between space, memory, and power.
This perspective offers a wider picture on the intersections, parallelisms, and similarities/differences of this common history. In consequence, the relevance of CROME does not exclusively rely on the academic knowledge that it encompasses towards the past. It also relies on the dialogues it promotes with current political, ideological and memorials dynamics that are mobilising contemporary societies. Moreover, it paves the way to build connections with a past that remains socially silenced. At least, regarding two of their most sensitive components: colonial violence(s) and war(s).