The Retornados and Their “Roots” in Angola. A Generational Perspective on the Colonial Past and the Postcolonial Present

This chapter discusses the plurality of individual and family narratives told by the retornados, using a generational perspective and inviting a more fluid approach to the category of retornados. It focusses on seven Portuguese settler families that were rooted in Angola for longer than a single generation and also characterised by a significant number of racially mixed marriages. The analysis is based on an ethnographic research survey focussed on the relationship with the past and on the constant updating of links with the “lost territory” through “returnings” to Angola. The plurality of memories, which go beyond the affirmation of a nostalgic Africanness, and the links with the former colonies through ongoing personal and cultural exchanges demonstrate that some children of retornados are not merely “passive recipients of a legacy from the past.”