“Eduardo Lourenço, one of Portugal’s most influential thinkers of the past century, in an seminal essay published in 1978 on Portuguese identity, pointed to the overseas empire as central in the nationalist self-image of Portugal because it ‘added a mythical dimension to the country […] avoiding the painful necessity of confronting our smallness’. (…) ‘a war lasting for thirteen years 1961-1974 and the sudden collapse of the empire seemed events meant not only to create a deep collective trauma – analogous to the loss of independence between 1580-1640 – but also a deep revision of our self-image […]. We all witnessed the surprising spectacle that neither one nor the other actually took place.’”
“Roland Barthes significantly chooses as an example of the contemporary importance of myths as foundational narratives, a cover of the popular magazine Paris-Match showing a young black soldier saluting the French flag, as a symbolic construct representing the myth of France as ‘a great Empire’ in which all, ‘without colour discrimination, serve faithfully’.”
“In Portugal the myth of empire in its late colonial stage was developed from pre-existing cultural materials by the authoritarian nationalism of the Estado Novo regime led by Oliveira Salazar (head of government from 1932 to 1968) around the slogan that “Portugal was not a small country”” (see Marcas de Lusotropicalismo no Marcelo)
“Salazar was attuned to the “vision thing”, to this power of culture, claiming: ‘this union with the overseas territories gives us an optimism and sense of greatness that are indispensable in energising us and driving away any feelings of inferiority.’”
“The mainstream vision in Portuguese political culture of the country as an overseas power legitimized a massive mobilization in a violent , intransigent response to a perceived existential threat to Portuguese identity. As stated in a key article of Portuguese constitutional law it was ‘part of the organic essence of the Portuguese Nation to pursue the historical mission of possessing and colonizing overseas territories, and civilizing their native populations’. (…) when Salazar responded militarily to the first major anti-colonial uprising in Angola ‘he had with him the majority of the Portuguese people, including some of his most prestigious political adversaries’”1
“It is clear that the accumulated human and economic costs of facing three simultaneous, protracted anti-colonial insurgencies eroded this overseas creed and made Catholic and Marxist strands of anticolonialism increasingly attractive to the younger, more internationally connected, generations of Portuguese elites (…) What also happened, however, we argue, was a refashioning of the powerful cultural myth of a special connection between Portugal and tropical Africa. A colonial myth was turned into a post-colonial myth legitimising decolonisation as a mutual and fraternal liberation from the same oppressive regime without a loss of strong “natural” cultural bonds. (…) A myth of decolonisation was born, one strongly tinged by Lusotropicalism – the myth of the Portuguese as uniquely soft colonisers, adapted to the tropics and capable of embracing cultural hybridity and multiracialism and therefore also naturally adept at managing post-colonial relations once the authoritarian regime had been removed.”
"Portugal’s imperial retreat in 1975 is aptly symbolised in the famous photos of piles of crates containing the belongings of former settlers in Angola and Mozambique lined up next to the massive Monumento das Descobertas in Lisbon."
“In Guinea-Bissau the Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde PAIGC had already made a ‘unilateral’ declaration of independence in 1973 that had been recognised by more than 80 States, and was now also recognised by Portugal; Guinea-Bissau quickly evolved into a one-party state led by the PAIGC. Mozambique achieved independence in June 1975 after a brief transition period under a Portuguese military High Comissioner and a Portuguese-FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) government. Elections were held in Cape Verde and São Tomé, two small archipelagos off the coast of West Africa where there had been no armed struggle, in 1975; the result was a victory for the Marxist-inspired independence movements, favoured by the local representatives of the new Portuguese left-leaning military leadership.”
“According to this Marxist-inspired narrative, Portugal was a mere semi-peripheral facilitator of foreign exploitation of colonial riches, carried out by powerful foreign companies, while the Portuguese continued to devote significant financial resources to maintaining a colonial apparatus, with little or no benefit to their own development.”
“What emerged instead as the dominant memory of Portuguese decolonization was an ambiguous, somewhat contradictory narrative, a collage of old myths of empire and new myths of decolonisation linked to a Portuguese identity that was only partly refashioned. (…) ‘now that political power in Portugal is at the service of the less privileged classes, committed to a progressive policy of national independence, our historical role has changed radically. Portugal is finally apt, thanks to a decolonisation carried out without any neo-colonial ambitions, to act as the harbinger of a new model relationship between the core countries in terms of wealth and power and the poor exploited nations of the Third World.’ (…) Portuguese foreign policy, towards the Global South in general and some specific areas in particular, was not simply ideology-driven. It also had a strong dimension of cultural identification.”
“And yet, one can find traces of a strong attachment to the myth of Portugal’s special relationship with Africa – no longer as an imperial metropole but as a particularly able ‘bridge-building’ state – even among more pro- European elites”
“One of the concrete milestones of this Portuguese policy of détente towards Africa was the unanimous support by the PALOP to the successful Portuguese candidacy for a seat on the UN Security Council in 1982 (…)”
“The Cold War, the near economic collapse and complex politics of these former colonies should have led Portuguese decision-makers – if following simply a cold Realist logic – to have given-up on the possibility or interest of strong post- colonial relations. But this was very often and very widely perceived, as we saw in previous pages, as a family relationship, often tense, but naturally intense, and not optional.”
“Even in a period often presented as entirely dominated by the prospect and challenges of European integration, therefore, we cannot but be struck by the refashioning of old modes of thinking and the persistent preference in Portuguese foreign policy for trying to maintain a Portuguese influence in its former African colonies. Equally striking is the prevalence in Portuguese diplomatic discourse and practice of symbols, memories and myths associated with the Empire (although refashioned, as demonstrated by the disappearance of the word ‘empire’ from public discourse and its replacement by more more positive terms such as Overseas Expansion and Discoveries).”
”The more Portugal was becoming fully a part of the EEC/EU, the more Portuguese elites seemed to identify with a certain Lusotropical vision of the Portuguese imperial past, with a significant impact in the discourse and practice of Portuguese foreign policy to fit a re-constructed identity.”
“The Jerónimos Monastery, burial site of the kings and heroes of the golden period of Portuguese maritime discoveries, was chosen as the place for this symbolic act that marked the integration of post-authoritarian Portugal into the community of Western European democracies.”
"The re-engagement with Portuguese-speaking Africa seems to be both a way to address the delayed identity crisis that followed decolonisation, and a reflection of an increasing confidence by more Realpolitiker pro-Western Portuguese elites that this Lushopone identity was not incompatible with Portugal becoming a full member of the EEC, in fact it could provide additional leverage in Brussels."
‘the April Revolution was not aimed at putting an end to the image of Portugal as an exemplary coloniser, but rather to fit within it an equally exemplary Portuguese decolonisation.’
Footnotes
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Art.2 in Acto Colonial (Decreto n.º 18 570 de 8 de Julho de 1930 as a constitutional law; then incorporated into the 1933 constitution and in place until July 1974 in https://dre.pt/application/dir/pdfgratis/1930/07/15600.pdf ↩