Of Homecomings and Homesickness: The Question of White Angolans in Post-Colonial Portugal
Of Homecomings and Homesickness: The Question of White Angolans in Post-Colonial Portugal
This chapter presents an ethnographic study of the perceptions of home and belonging of white Angolans living in Portugal since decolonisation, and the differences between their self-understanding and the dominant public narrative that treats Angolan-born Whites as Portuguese returning to the homeland. White Angolans typically had ongoing relationships with both black and white Angolan friends and partners, and maintained a critical approach to colonial history since the time they lived in Africa. The rejection they face shows that they present a challenge to the post-colonial national discourse that distinguishes between African-black and Portuguese-white and thus to a state-building process that while formally democratic depends on forms of exclusion, exposing ‘Luso-Tropicalism’ as a myth.
Keywords: Portugal, white Africans, Angola, Luso-Tropicalism, ethnography