Colonial War memories: secret alliances and imagined maps

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary results of a project about the Alcora Exercise. Established between Portugal, South Africa and Rhodesia in 1970, it aimed to fight African nationalist movements and preserve the white sovereignty in Southern Africa. Colonial War was a founding moment of the sociopolitical reality of present day Portugal, and was crucial to independencies of its former African colonies. A thorough understanding of Portuguese Colonial War gains relevance in the construction of national memories in all countries involved. Exploring these lines, Colonial War will be seen as part of a regional conflict – fight against black independencies in Southern Africa –, and as part of a global one – what some consider having been a Cold War subsystem in Southern Africa.