Paper short abstract:

This talk analyzes the film REGRESSO A NACALA (2001) which searches for the memories of colonialism and socialism in Mozambique. The documentary reflects on the tensions between subaltern rural and urban colonial as well as postcolonial elites. It also urges us to rethink the category of nostalgia.

Paper long abstract:

REGRESSO A NACALA (2001) by Joana Pereira Leite searches for the memories of colonialism and socialism in Nacala, northern Mozambique. When the harbor of this town was modernized in the 1950s and 1960s, the engineer José Henrique e Silva took a series of photographs of the local Makua fishermen community. The film brings the photographs back to the people who tell their stories, comment upon the relationship with Henrique e Silva and the FRELIMO government. Thereby, the film reflects the tensions between subaltern rural and urban colonial as well as postcolonial elites. But it also urges us to rethink nostalgia as a category that affects both retornados and people in Mozambique that experienced the time of the colonial regime.