The exodus of white settler minorities from Portuguese Africa: causes and driving forces (1974/1975)

Abstract

In this article we analyze the causes of the white settlers’ exodus from Angola and Mozambique during the Portuguese decolonization process. Our scope is to understand the historical and political context that shaped the settlers’ exodus and, especially, to demonstrate the reasons that determined the flight of about half a million white refugees to Portugal. Thus, we will show that the exodus of the white population was the result of a set of constraints, including racial violence, and of political choices that did not take into account the social and cultural background of the white minority that, because of its colonial status, wasn’t on the same political plane of the colonized majority.