Abstract

This article examines how the notion of «colonial exceptionalism» has been central to the management of colonial memory in various periods of Portuguese history and under different political regimes, up to the present day. Over five centuries from its earliest stages, the Portuguese imperial longue-durée has important implications for the empire’s place in the Portuguese national imagination. After the end of the dictatorship in the aftermath of the Revolution of 25 April 1974 that overthrew the dictatorial regime of Estado Novo (1933-1974), Portuguese nationalism underwent a profound revision to leave behind the imperial and undemocratic past and move towards a new European future. During the unstable period following the Revolution, with the country crushed after 13 years of colonial wars, the former empire was an unknown land. But as the young Portuguese democracy was successfully implemented and the country moved towards joining the European economic market, the official Portuguese identity policies began to be reworked to fit the new political and cultural context of liberal democracies. Providing a very positive framework for the colonial experience of Portugal, this idea of the universalist, humanist and anti-racist character of the Portuguese empire was quickly established in the post-colonial context. It was assumed and reproduced by Portuguese of all social origins and generational strata, updating earlier Lusotropical myths, which have now been converted into economic and symbolic resources. However, in recent years, and following international political and academic trends and movements, narratives about the colonial past and the empire’s material and symbolic legacies have been publicly contested. This article wishes to address how the notion of Portuguese «colonial exceptionalism» has accommodated to this changing discursive environment and how Portuguese institutions are handling the new challenges brought about pressures from within and outside Portuguese society to address the legacies of Portugal’s colonial past