Lives scarred by History: The Portuguese Colonial War and the "Disabled of the Armed Forces"
Objectives and Methods
In order to achieve our overall objective of recognising the historical importance of the Colonial War as a central moment in the definition of contemporary Portugal, we shall strive to reach three specific objectives:

Objective 1 - Valorisation of the memory of the Colonial War, in a fight against oblivion in Portugal’s social memory, whether via personal memories of those who experienced it or by means of existing documents. We aim to give lifelike density to the long-lasting impact of the Colonial War as a form of denunciation of the unsustainability of the policy of oblivion which has affected it.
Methodological Approach: We shall hold semi-structured interviews with the collection of life histories from the Disabled of the Armed Forces, whose disability was a result of the Colonial War. This approach will enable the understanding of how the Colonial War has had an impact on individuals’ lives, i.e. on how the break with daily social experience in Portugal, as an experience marked by contact with violence, as the backdrop to the acquisition of the disability, a tangible scar of the long-lasting impact of war. From the collected life histories, we will select subjects for the constitution of an oral history in which the Disabled of the Armed Forces will tell the story of their experiences during the Colonial War. We will use the oral history as a method of research and the creation of historical sources based on the witnessed interviews about facts which were directly experienced. The planned selection of interviews or oral depositions will be filmed and recorded on audio tape. The witnesses will be recorded on video and on audio tape, so as to remain available for future research on the Colonial War. In the context of this methodology, we will benefit from the experience of the CD25A, who has been working on an oral history project since 1990, focussing on people related to the transition to democracy, people who have left their mark on history. The oral project which we shall carry out will follow the opposite approach: the reconstitution of the Colonial War from the accounts of people on whom the War left an indelible scar. Furthermore, we will collaborate with the Centre of Documentation and Information of the ADFA in order to preserve, systematise, analyse and make ADFA’s materials on the Colonial War (such as personal diaries, military documents, letters, aerograms, photographs, etc.) available to researchers. Due to ADFA’s lack of funds for the valorisation of the materials, the project will collaborate with the association in order to make backup copies of the documents which are at risk of degradation at ADFA, as well as to create an open online catalogue for the ADFA documents (which will include a digital archive with access to integral documents). 


Objective 2 - Reflection and analysis of contemporary Portuguese society on the basis of the experiences of the Disabled of the Armed Forces (DFA). 

Methodological Approach: We shall research and analyse the life experiences of individuals whose lives have been affected by the fight for rehabilitation and social integration. We will also explore the associative history of ADFA as an organisation of socio-political intervention which fights against the silencing of the Colonial War and its consequences, but also against the discrimination of disabled people. We will establish a dialogue with the conditions of social exclusion of disabled individuals in society: the discriminatory cultural values, the serious problems of rehabilitation and the lack of an inclusive social organisation. This dimension will make use of the contribution of the collected life histories, namely as regards what they tell of experiences of returning to Portugal and of the paths of reintegration into society. We will interview professionals who work on the rehabilitation of the Disabled of the Armed Forces in the ADFA. Finally, we will interview significant historical leaders in the frame of the consolidation and development of ADFA, collecting their accounts about the battles fought throughout successive socio-political contexts.


Objective 3 - Analysis of the place of Colonial War in the identity narrative of a post-imperialist Portugal and of the postcolonial relations in the Portuguese-speaking world. 

Methodological Approach: We shall strive to understand in which terms the Carnation Revolution silenced the Colonial War, the relation of Portugal with its history of wars and colonialism and the place given to postcolonialism in the Portuguese-speaking world. On the basis of the Conferences of Veterans from Portugal, Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, which have been promoted by ADFA and similar organisations since 1990, we shall analyse the space created for postcolonial dialogue. We will collect information from various actors who have participated in this dialogue so as to understand how a counter-hegemonic Portuguese-speaking world has been created and which, to the contrary of the hegemony, does not silence the experience of War but speaks of its traumas and horrors openly. In this regard, above researching the history of these dialogues, we shall map the encounters which take place during the period. We will do research in Mozambique in the form of a case study at  to understand the following: a) how the memory of the War of Liberation is lived in Mozambique.