Soldados Portugueses de Regresso

Portuguese Soldiers Returning to Lisbon. This photograph is of Portuguese Soldiers at the airport in Lourenço Marques (presently Maputo) preparing to disembark from Mozambique after the transition and handover of power to the liberation movement and independent government Frente da Libertação de Moçambique (The Mozambican Liberation Front, FRELIMO) in 1975. At the height of Portuguese colonial rule, approximately 200,000 Portuguese citizens populated Mozambique. That number of inhabitants decreased after independence, when FRELIMO required any Portuguese who decided to remain in Mozambique to adopt Mozambican citizenship. Photographs like these that documented the departure of the Portuguese from Mozambique directly contrast Rangel's images of colonial Portuguese soldiers marching down Maputo's streets in displays of military power and occupation, which are included in this collection. Photographs of Portuguese departure suggest that only white Portuguese fled but also at independence Indians, Asians (i.e. Chinese), and mixed-raced populations ("mulatos"), all classifications under the Portuguese colonial system, also left after independence. This mass departure laden with racial undertones was precipitated by fear of FRELIMO, which was then characterized as a communist and racist movement.