ABSTRACT
The Introduction to The Retornados from the Portuguese Colonies in Africa looks at the history and memory of the Portuguese decolonisation and Return of settlers from the African colonies. It provides a contextual background, presenting a diachronic and comparative description of the key topics that lend structure to the rest of the book. It offers demographic data on the retornado population that was displaced during decolonisation, cross-checking data from the colonial past and the postcolonial present and relating colonialism to decolonisation migrations. It also addresses the integration and assimilation of the retornados and the way a memory of decolonisation and the Return was negotiated in Portuguese society. Finally, it places Portuguese decolonisation and Portuguese return migrations in the wider context of European decolonisation, as well as within the political and economic frameworks of the contemporary post-war world era.
