Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Faculty and Staff Publications By Year Faculty and Staff Publications 12-2017 Staging of Memory: Monuments, Commemoration, and the Demarcation of Portuguese Space in Colonial Angola Jeremy R. Ball Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications Part of the African History Commons Recommended Citation Ball, Jeremy R., "Staging of Memory: Monuments, Commemoration, and the Demarcation of Portuguese Space in Colonial Angola" (2017). Dickinson College Faculty Publications. Paper 817. https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications/817 This article is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Staging of Memory: Monuments, Commemoration, and the Demarcation of Portuguese Space in Colonial Angola Jeremy Ball, Dickinson College Abstract This paper demonstrates how Portuguese leaders created historical representations celebrating Portuguese settlement as the supposed beginning of Angolan history. The accounts of Angolan history presented to the Angolan public in the 1930s-1950s deliberately represented Africans as heathens to be conquered and converted, with their presence often serving as an exuberant and exotic backdrop to Portuguese dignitaries. This cultural form of imperialism made use of both traditional and newer forms of commemoration to reinforce the image of benevolent colonialism. After Angolan nationalists launched a war for independence in 1961, Portugal’s colonial narrative shifted to emphasize the creation of a multi-racial, modernizing Angola. Key terms: Colonialism, Angola, politics of memory, monuments, film, international expositions Introduction From the 1930s until the end of colonial rule in 1975, Portuguese authorities pursued a period of intense commemoration in Angola.