Abstract
From 1961 to 1974, Portugal sent nearly one million men to Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Conscripts and regulars were drafted to fight wars which were never officially declared. New State regime sought to control the conflicts’ public visibility, staging a harmonious picture of life in the colonies. In spite of official guidelines that restricted access to images of war, an undetermined but large number of servicemen used snapshot cameras during their tours of duty. These personal photographic collections have remained accessible only to a few, and in private. Excluded from the public visual imagination of the war for decades, veterans’ photos were recently given the opportunity to reverse its customary obscure existence. This chapter addresses the contemporary uses of ex-servicemen’s photos, and explores the ways these images have been shared and publicized. It will be argued that veteran’s curating drive has transformed private objects of affect into public objects of debate—under the form of published books or public visual media posted online—thus opening up new arenas for the articulation of visual and oral history of the Portuguese colonial wars.
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Notes
- 1.
See Luis Quintais, As guerras coloniais portuguesas e a invenção da história (Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2000), Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, Uma história de regressos. Império, guerra colonial e pós-colonialismo (Porto: Afrontamento, 2004).
- 2.
Alan Trachtenberg, “Albums of Wars: On Reading Civil War Photographs,” Representations, 9, 1 (1985): 1.
- 3.
When soldiers’ photographs break their customary private circulation, they become potentially disruptive documents of violence. There are numerous examples of soldiers’ pictures leaked to the press, but the most notorious is probably the case of images of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2004. See Janina Struk, Private Pictures. Soldiers’ Inside View of War (London: IB Taurus, 2011), Susan Sontag, Regarding the pain of other (New York: Picador, 2003).
- 4.
Martha Langford, “Speaking the Album. An Application of the Oral-Photographic Framework,” in Locating Memory. Photographic Acts, eds. Annette Kuhn & Kirsten Emiko McAllister (New York: Berghahn Books, 2008): 223–246.
- 5.
“Euro-African and Euro-Asian composite nation” were the terms used by the regime’s leader, Salazar, in a speech delivered in the Portuguese parliament in November 1960. António de Oliveira Salazar, “Portugal e a campanha anti-colonial”, Boletim Geral do Ultramar, XXXVI, 426 (1960): 13.
- 6.
António Costa Pinto and Miguel Bandeira Jerónimo, “Ideologies of Exceptionality and the Legacies of Empire in Portugal,” in Memories of Post-Imperial Nations. The Aftermath of Decolonization 1945–2013, ed. Dietmar Rothermund (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 97–119. For an in-depth analysis of lusotropicalism, see Cláudia Castelo, «O modo português de estar no mundo». O luso-tropicalismo e a ideologia colonial portuguesa (1933–1961) (Porto: Edições Afrontamento, 1999).
- 7.
These guidelines were drafted by the Bureau of Political Affairs (Gabinete de Negócios Políticos), a body of the Ministry of Overseas that played a central role in the naturalization of the national discourse of exceptionality. See Cláudia Castelo, “The Luso-Tropicalist Message of the Late Portuguese Empire,” in Media and the Portuguese empire, eds. José Luis Garcia, Chandrika Kaul, Filipa Subtil & Alexandra Santos (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 217–234.
- 8.
Francisco Rui Cádima, Salazar, Caetano e a Televisão Portuguesa (Lisbon: Editorial Presença, 1996).
- 9.
For an in-depth analysis of March 1961 massacres’ photographs and its political uses, see Afonso Dias Ramos, “Images that Kill. Photography and War in Angola in 1961”, in this volume. See also Afonso Ramos, “Angola 1961, o horror das imagens,” in O Império da Visão. Fotografia no contexto colonial português, ed. Filipa Lowndes Vicente (Lisbon: Edições 70, 2014), 399–434.
- 10.
Tânia Alves, “Reporting 4 February 1961 in Angola: the Beginning of the End of the Portuguese Empire,” in Media and the Portuguese Empire, eds. José Luís Garcia, Chandrika Kaul, Filipa Subtil & Alexandra Santos (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 235–251.
- 11.
See, for instance, an analysis of NBC’s 1961 documentary about war in Angola, and the struggle over images it generated in Afonso Ramos, “‘Rarely penetrated by camera or film’—Revisiting the first documentary on the Portuguese Colonial War, NBC’s Angola: Journey to War (1961),” in (Re)Imagining African Independence. Film, Visual Arts and the Fall of the Portuguese Empire, eds. Maria do Carmo Piçarra & Teresa Castro (Bern: Peter Lang, 2017), 111–130.
- 12.
In the aftermath of this speech, Portuguese forces in the territory increased fivefold, from 6500 to 33,477 personnel by the end of the year. See Estado Maior do Exército, Resenha Histórico-Militar das Campanhas de África (1961–1974). Enquadramento Geral (Lisbon: Estado-Maior do Exército, 1988).
- 13.
Letter from the SIPFA, 28 June 1961, ADN F05/Sr 1, Box 1, Number 5, Serviço Informação Pública das Forças Armadas fonds, Arquivo da Defesa Nacional, Paço de Arcos, Portugal.
- 14.
Cartas e fotografias relativas à acção das F. Armadas e à acção geral anti-terrorista escritas e tiradas em Angola por militares, 13 December 1961, ADN/F05/Sr 61 Box 307 Number 1, Serviço de Informação Pública das Forças Armadas fonds, Arquivo da Defesa Nacional, Paço de Arcos, Portugal.
- 15.
Restrictions on the use of cameras in Angola were softened in September 1962, with the ban being lifted in urban areas, as was announced in the press: “Determinações menos rígidas sobre o uso de máquinas fotográficas em Angola,” Diário de Notícias, September 26, 1962.
- 16.
“Madrinhas de guerra para os nossos soldados em serviço em Angola,” Eva, May 1961.
- 17.
Letter from SIPFA to the Command-Chief in Angola, 17 January 1962, ADN/F05/SR15, Box 64, Number 3, Serviço de Informação Pública das Forças Armadas fonds, Arquivo da Defesa Nacional, Paço de Arcos, Portugal. In spite of my best efforts, it was impossible to locate the photographs mentioned in this letter.
- 18.
Normas de segurança militar a observar na publicação, radiodifusão ou televisão, de notícias, crónicas, reportagens, fotografias e filmes relativos à acção das forças armadas (exército, armada e força aérea) no ultramar, 10 January 1962, ADN/F05/SR.1, Box 1, Number 5, Serviço de Informação Pública das Forças Armadas fonds, Arquivo da Defesa Nacional, Paço de Arcos, Portugal.
- 19.
See, for instance, Robin Gerster, “War by Photography: Shooting Japanese in Australia’s Pacific War,” History of Photography 40, 4 (2016): 432–452.
- 20.
For an overview of Portuguese psychosocial action in the wars, see John P. Cann Counterinsurgency in Africa. The Portuguese Way of War 1961–1974 (Westport CT: Greenwood, 1997).
- 21.
Normas de Segurança, 1962.
- 22.
Normas de segurança militar a observar na publicação, radiodifusão ou televisão, de notícias, crónicas, reportagens, fotografias e filmes relativos à acção das forças armadas (exército, armada e força aérea) no ultramar, 11 June 1964 and 1 June 1966, ADN/F05/SR.1 Box 1 Number 5, Serviço de Informação Pública das Forças Armadas fonds, Arquivo da Defesa Nacional, Paço de Arcos, Portugal.
- 23.
Os Anos da Guerra. 1961–1975. Os Portugueses em África. Crónica, Ficção e História, ed. João de Melo (Lisboa: Círculo de Leitores, 1988) and Guerra Colonial. Fotobiografia, eds. Renato Monteiro & Luís Farinha (Lisboa: Publicações D. Quixote, 1990). For an analysis of these two books, see Paulo de Medeiros, “War pics: Photographic Representations of the Colonial War,” Luso-Brazilian Review 39, 2 (2002): 91–106.
- 24.
See, for instance, Etelvino da Silva Batista, Angola 1961–63. Diário de Guerra (Lisboa: Três Sinais Editores, 2000), Manuel Catarino (ed), A minha guerra. Testemunhos de combatentes (Lisboa: PressLivre/Correio da Manhã, 2011), Luis de Matos, Diário da guerra colonial. Guiné 1966–1968: de Boa Nova à Guiné (Alpiarça: Luis de Matos, 2009).
- 25.
Luís Corrêa de Sá, Batalhão B. Caç. 595 1963–1966 (Lisbon: Medialivros, 2003), 5.
- 26.
The casualties of Light Infantry Batallion 595 are listed in the unit’s report, which was made public on a website: “Batalhão de Caçadores 595—Sempre Alerta,” Dos Veteranos da Guerra do Ultramar, accessed January 1, 2019, http://ultramar.terraweb.biz/Batalhao_de_Cacadores_595_Angola.htm. In April 2019, I met Sá and he introduced me to his personal photo albums. I came across images of violence that were not published in the book: a picture of a dead guerrilla fighter, and a snapshot of his corpse being interred into the earth. Limited to the privacy of his personal albums, these images were knowingly prevented from going public by Sá’s curatorial action.
- 27.
Luís Graça & Camaradas da Guiné, which inaugurated in April 2004, is probably the blog that has been active for the longest time. https://blogueforanadaevaotres.blogspot.com/, accessed 1 January 2019. On the Portuguese veterans’ use of the Internet, see Verónica Ferreira, “Rebuilding the jigsaw of memory”: the discourse of Portuguese colonial war veterans’ blogs,” in Mass Violence and Memory in the Digital Age, Eds. Eve Zucker & David Simon, (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020): 197–224.
- 28.
Daniel Miller and Jolynna Sinan, Visualizing Facebook. A comparative perspective (London: UCL Press, 2017).
- 29.
Eviatar Zerubavel, “Social Memories: Steps to a Sociology of the Past,” Qualitative Sociology 19, 3 (1996): 283–299.
- 30.
Veterans’ lives in the aftermath of war and decolonization are entangled in retrospective questioning, from which feelings of solitude and senselessness frequently emerge. See Ângela Campos, An Oral History if the Portuguese Colonial War. Conscripted Generation (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).
- 31.
The radical ambiguity of the juxtaposition of “tourists in uniform” and pictures of horror is thoroughly examined in Struk, Private Pictures.
- 32.
All names are pseudonyms.
- 33.
Martha Langford, Suspended Conversations. The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums (Montreal: McGill Queen’s University Press, 2001).
- 34.
Alan Trachtenberg “Through a Glass, Darkly: Photography and Cultural Memory,” Social Research 75, 1 (2008), 126.
- 35.
Personal photographs from the Portuguese colonial war follow the main themes identified by Janina Struk in her in-depth analysis of soldiers’ albums: touristy pictures, snapshots of colleagues and social occasions, fascination with indigenous people. Images of military brutality and dead, which is Struk’s fourth main theme, is not significantly represented in Portuguese soldiers’ collections. See Struk, Private Pictures.
- 36.
Geoffrey Batchen, “SNAPSHOTS. Art History and the Ethnographic Turn,” Photographies 1, 2 (2008): 121–142.
- 37.
Annebella Pollen, “When is a cliché not a cliché? Reconsidering Mass-Produced Sunsets,” in Reconsidering Amateur Photography. Either/And, edited Annebella Pollen and Juliet Baillie (2012) http://revuecaptures.org/r%C3%A9f%C3%A9rence-bibliographique/when-clich%C3%A9-not-clich%C3%A9-reconsidering-mass-produced-sunsets
- 38.
For an analysis of correspondence during the Portuguese colonial war, see Joana Pontes, Sinais de vida. Cartas da guerra 1961–1974 (Lisbon: Tinta-da-china, 2019).
- 39.
Eduardo Barreiros and Luís Barreiros, História do Serviço Postal Militar | History of Portuguese Military Postal Service. Aerogramas Militares Catálogo (Lisbon: E. Barreiros, 2004).
- 40.
Staging the warrior is also a common visual theme in Algerian war veterans’ photo collections. See Claire Mauss-Copeau, À travers le viseur. Algérie 1955–1962 (Lyon: Aedelsa, 2003). See also Struk, Private Pictures.
- 41.
Catherine Zuromskis, “On snapshot photography: rethinking photographic power in public and private spheres,” in Photography. Theoretical Snapshots, eds. J. J. Long, Andrea Noble & Edward Welch (London: Routledge, 2009): 60.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P. through a postdoctoral grant (SFRH/BPD/116134/2016) and strategic funding UID/SOC/50013/2019.
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Antunes, M.J.L. (2023). Curating the Past: Memory, History, and Private Photographs of the Portuguese Colonial Wars. In: Vicente, F.L., Ramos, A.D. (eds) Photography in Portuguese Colonial Africa, 1860–1975. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27795-5_14
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