The desertion to the colonial war: history, memory, and politics

Abstract

The article analyzes the desertion and more generally the disobedience to the colonial war made within Portuguese Armed Forces between 1961 and 1974. The aim here is to map the historiographical, testimonial and audiovisual production made on the theme, showing how it has shaped the memory of desertion and its wider integration within the framework of colonial war memorialization in this last forty years. We will finally examine the testimonial discourse produced before and after April 25 on the subject, highlighting their context of production, their function and their particularities. In this context, it is argued that the memory of desertion provides an alternative mnemonic pattern, based on the denunciation of violence and the injustice of war.