«I escaped in a coffin». Remembering Angolan Forced Labor from the 1940s

Abstract

Forced labor in colonial Angola was infamous for its cruelty, even among colonial regimes in Africa. As a result of civil war, however, little research has appeared that explores how former laborers remember their servitude in shared stories and oral narratives. Collecting these memories is critical for Angolan historiography because the last generation of forced laborers (from the 1950s) is dying at increased rates. Based on an extensive oral history project conducted by the author in Benguela, Huambo, and Bié provinces (February-June 2006), this paper analyzes how Angolan forced laborers remember their servitude and recounts their various strategies for survival, including personal stories of escape and the encoding of resistance in song. In addition to documenting and analyzing common tropes among their memories, this paper argues that the gendered nature of their work regimes determines (and differentiates) the memories of these men and women nearly a half-century later.

Memories of colonialism are also complicated by the tremendous suffering of the civil war years, and the failure of independent Angola to meet many of the expectations generated by independence. This paper argues that current realities influence how and what former laborers remember about forced labor and Portuguese colonialism.