Preamble Narratives and Social Memory - Universidade do Minho

Audiovisual Post-colonial Narratives: Dealing with the Past in Dundo, Colonial MemoryIsabel Macedo, Rosa Cabecinhas & Lilia Abadiathe psychological impact of the emotional or stressful event. In this case, the idea of ​guiltstrikes the interviewee’s memories and she believes it is something that does not go awaywith time.“And that is what I can not help feeling, it is a feeling of my generation, I can nothelp feeling guilty about it. Somehow, I was unwillingly accomplice: I was privileged.My privileges depended on people doing things like that. 50 years can go byand that stays with us. It is here... (Puts her hand on her chest)” (Andringa, 2011).“And, indeed, it was natural that they hated us, not that I, Diana, had caused anyharm. It was not what I had done wrong; it was what my people had done wrong.My people from whom I could not differentiate because it was marked by theskin, as they had been marked by the skin. And so I began to turn the other way,naturally and gradually I was convinced of the injustice of colonialism and realized... I had already noticed the actual injustices, but suddenly it is the injusticesof the system that you start to think about” (Andringa, 2011).Facing her memories and the marks the experiences of racism and segregation hadleft was one of the main reasons for carrying out the documentary Dundo, Colonial Memory.For Diana Andringa, Dundo is her homeland and the first of her memories: “Here I washappy, like all children are happy. Here I learned, still a child, racism and colonialism. For along time, Dundo felt like a hidden wound. Now that I have faced my memory, I can return”(excerpt from the documentary).In addition to the concept of guilt, the notion of ambivalence is also present in theinterviewee, marking her reflection on the experience of returning to Dundo. The concept ofambivalence can be defined as the degree to which an object or attitude is judged positivelyand negatively at the same time (Thompson et al., 1995).“Ambivalence. The word that haunts me as I walk through Dundo rediscoveringthe landscape of my childhood. Ambivalence in the words of former employeeswishing that the Portuguese return, though not ignoring the perversityof the colonial system. Ambivalence in myself, between the discontent forthe Diamang policies and the love for the land that grew under its direction.Between pain for what had disappeared in the meantime and the awarenessthat its disappearance was inevitable” (excerpt from the documentary).“I felt what I would call ambivalence, which is I hate Diamang and I love that landborn under the Diamang orders. I am fully aware and I fully understand that it cannot be preserved as it was and simultaneously it hurts that it is not as beautiful asit was, but I am perfectly capable of understanding that”(Andringa, 2011).This concept is evident in interviews conducted by Andringa (2011) in Guinea-Bissaualso, where, according to her, the popular feeling was that “as our comrade Amílcar Cabral 9said, we do not fight against the Portuguese people, we fight against colonialism, you werevictims of colonialism as we were”. The discourse of Angolans interviewed by Diana Andringaalso emphasizes this idea: the recognition of past negative experiences, but also a reflectionon the importance of the other to the development of their country.“- So, what do you think is better? Having the Portuguese here or being independent?9Amílcar Cabral was the founder (in 1956) of the PAIGC - African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (Silva,2006).Narratives and social memory: theoretical and methodological approaches170