Recovering Returnee Memories: A Comparative Approach To Representations Of Pieds-Noirs And Retornados Experiences

Abstract

This dissertation examines the historical and transnational connections of the cultural memory of the Europeans and their descendants who left former French and Portuguese African colonies when the latter became independent. These populations are identified as Portuguese retornados from Angola and Mozambique and pieds-noirs, both of French and Spanish origin from Algeria. By comparing returnee migration experiences, through the interdisciplinary lenses of literature, visual media, and ethnographic interviews the present scholarly study begins to fill the critical void left by postcolonial discourses on these populations. Through the analysis of common themes, it defies the traditional discriminatory understandings of African decolonization in relation to the subsequent mass migrations of Europeans. Focusing on the representation of returnees’ private experiences, one of those themes is liminality before, during and/or after the independence wars. Another theme identified in literature and visual media, is the notion of the “Lost Paradise,” that connects the experiences of the populations in question. Shedding light on these similarities overcomes the boundaries imposed by the exclusive focus on any one national literature. This dissertation’s subjects assert their historical and traumatic experiences against the different national collective amnesias surrounding the liberation wars. Through the comparative analysis of their layered silences, linguistic maneuvers, and oral histories, this study provides a new understanding of the cultural impact of the mass European migrations from post-independence Africa on contemporary generations.