Colonialism vs. decolonisation: The colonial question in José Neves Águas’s Political Pamphlets Collection (1951–1985)

Abstract

From the Collection Folhetos Políticos (Political Pamphlets), of José Neves Águas Fonds, under the custody of the Lisbon Municipal Archives a selection of documents dated between the 1950s and the 1980s that address the colonial question is presented. These documents allow us to observe the intensification of opposition to the colonial policy of the Estado Novo and the repercussions of this opposition on the regime’s official propaganda.  The corpus also covers the subsequent revolutionary period, marked by the process of democratic transition and by the rupture of the Portuguese colonial system, with the echoes of the decolonization remaining in the democratic regime.