Full Description
Remembering the Liberation Struggles in Cape Verde: A Mnemohistory takes as its reference from the anti-colonial struggles against the Portuguese colonial empire in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s and the ways this period has been publicly remembered. Drawing on original and detailed empirical research, it presents novel insights into the complex entanglements between colonial pasts and political memories of anti-colonialism in shaping new nations arising out of liberation struggles. Broadening postcolonial memory studies by emphasising underdeveloped research cases, it provides the first comprehensive research into how the liberation struggle is memorialised in Cape Verde and why it changes over time. Proposing an innovative approach to thinking about this historical event as a political subject, the book argues that the "struggle" constitutes a mnemonic device mobilised while negotiating contemporaneous representations related to the Cape Verdean nation, state and society. As such, it will appeal to scholars of history, sociology, anthropology and politics with interests in memory studies and public memory, postcolonialisms and African studies.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.
Contents
INTRODUCTION: The Liberation Struggle as a Mnemonic Device
THE STRUGGLE AS THE CRADLE OF THE INDEPENDENT NATION
Building the Nation State and the centrality of the struggle
The "return to Africa" through music
The end of the union with Guinea-Bissau and its impacts
Recalibrating memory
Between two ruptures
THE STRUGGLE IN THE MNEMONIC TRANSITION
The political transition: causes and processes
The return of removed images
A new paradigm of remembrance
The change in national symbols
The mnemonic transition: reasons and circumstances
THE STRUGGLE AND THE IMAGE OF THE COMBATANT
Constructing the liberation struggle combatant
Public recognition and political disputes
The diversification of the image of the "combatant"
A composite memorial framework
THE STRUGGLE AND CABRAL'S AFTERLIVES
Crossroads of memory
Questioning Cabral
Alternative representations
The new heirs: Protest and appropriations
EPILOGUE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
