Historian Irene Flunser Pimentel looks back at this troubled period and its historiographical advances.
The colonial war waged by the Portuguese dictatorship in Angola, Guinea and Mozambique was called by different names depending on the geographical and political space of those who referred to it: Overseas War for the dictatorial regime; colonial war for the opponents, and war of liberation for all those who set out to conquer it by arms. In 1961, the wind of decolonisation sweeping Africa also blew over Angola in February and March, then over Guinea-Bissau in 1963 and Mozambique in 1964. As the unjust war continued, many young people called up for three years of military service emigrated to European countries or deserted. As 1974 approached, thirteen years of colonial war resulted in the death of 8,831 young people and the maiming of 15,507 others. The number of victims on the African side is not yet clear, but it is estimated to be close to 100,000. This war of attrition led the Portuguese military to orchestrate a military coup d'état which, on 25 April, overthrew the Portuguese dictatorial regime, allowing the establishment of democracy and decolonisation. Today, 48 years later, the memory of the colonial war has not been healed and there are traumas in Portuguese society that can only be healed by historical knowledge of both sides of the barricade. The historian Irene Flunser Pimentel looks back at this troubled period and its historiographical advances.
