ABSTRACT
The collective memory of the retornados perpetuates several controversial aspects of Portuguese colonial history and remains largely uncritical with respect to the unequal power relations that characterised Portuguese colonialism. Like the memories of other social and cultural groups, the memory of retornados results from a tension between strategic forgetfulness and blissful memories, both essential for the reinforcement of a sense of community and the construction of a specific “regime of memory.” This chapter examines how a specific regime of memory was produced and transmitted by a particular cultural object: the home video Angola: Do Outro Lado do Tempo [Angola: On the Other Side of Time]. The intention is to bring a banal and often overshadowed form of mediation to the forefront of the inquiry on collective remembering. The analysis is centred on the discursive and visual tropes that have played a part in crystallising a romantic idea of colonial times, shaped the notion of an African tropical paradise, and helped to forge an essentialised form of memory of the Portuguese community who lived in Angola in the last decades of colonial rule.
