Paper short abstract:

This presentation aims to analyze the (auto)representations of the Angolan women in history and memorialistic publications and in the public space, with the scope of gendering and decolonizing the debates on women participation in the liberation and civil wars in Angola.

Paper long abstract:

'I just did what I had to do' is what I often heard while discussing with Angolan women that had participated in the outburst of the liberation movements in Angola. This positionality does not reflect a lack of political consciousness, rather speaks about women’s roles embodied as such, as long as it serves a greater goal: the liberation beyond independence. But, while fighting both in the trenches of life and battling alongside their fellow male comrades, their various contributions were and are systematically discarded. I argue that women themselves should challenge such representations by publicly acknowledging and affirming their own participation in the fight, no matter how apparently insignificant the contribution. For better understanding the importance of this point and the implicit agency of the Angolan women, I will analyze the (auto)representations of women in history and memorialistic publications and in the public space, through the discussion-interviews conducted. The idea of memory, oral history and national liberation will be approached from a gender perspective. I think of this approach as one of the first possible steps into decolonizing the debates on women’s participation in the liberation and civil wars in Angola, and how they can negotiate more socially equal position nowadays.