Paper short abstract:

The main objectives of this paper are to analyze the attachment to homeland among immigrants of S. Tomé e Príncipe in Lisbon. We intend to show it examining two main types of mnemonic practices - narratives and commemoration – through which people re-imagine and feel their national community.

Paper long abstract:

In his seminal work on the experience of space and place, Tuan draws attention to the central place occupied by the homeland in all societies of the world, be they hunter-gatherers or the inhabitants of the modern nation-states. Also, in one of the works that inaugurated the study of collective memory, Halbwachs emphasized the role played by the spatial dimensions in its structuration.

We will consider in this paper two main modalities of the re-imagining of the national community among immigrants from S. Tome e Principe in Lisbon: narratives and commemorations. Through the first, the homeland is constantly reminded, both in space and time. People evoke the map of the island, its landscapes and places, the flora, activities, the family, kinship networks and social settings, sensory experiences. Commemorations are times of celebration that enable conversation where the central element is a reference to the homeland. Taking as reference the national calendar of S. Tomé and Príncipe - Independence Day, Day of the Woman Sao Tome, Day of S. Tomé - they recreate a sense of belonging and identification with the nation by the reunion of members of the immigrant community who thus are mnemonically synchronized with those in the archipelago. Here, remembering operates not only through discourse, but also by music, the performing body, dance, and the ritualized consumption of food identified with homeland.

Finally, we will take into account the agency's role in the reimagining of the nation, distinguishing between intentional and unintentional ways of remembering.