What did these fathers say about their war experiences?
What can one tell a child? Have those men told their Portuguese children that they have African brothers whom they’ve never met?
In places where there was war, African women fell pregnant of these former military. At the time, some called them soft Portuguese, today they are known as children of the wind. They are men and women who were children and who are now adults, and who continue to ask “Who is my Tuga father?”
Catarina Gomes
CHILDREN HERE AND CHILDREN THERE
CATARINA GOMES
A journalist of the newspaper Público for 17 years and author of the book Dad, were you afraid? (Matéria-Prima editions) which features twelve stories about the colonial war viewed by children of former combatants, she too, the daughter of a veteran. This book led to the article Children of the Wind. In 2015, the journalist received the AMI-Journalism against the indiference award with two articles: one about the disappearance of a father with Alzheimer’s disease; and another about children separated from their leprosy parents.
THE GRANDCHILDREN THAT SALAZAR DID NOT HAVE
MARGARIDA CALAFATE RIBEIRO
With a PhD in Portuguese Studies by King’s College London, she is a researcher-coordinator in Social Studies Centre at the University of Coimbra and responsible for the Chair Eduardo Lourenço at the University of Bologna and support of Instituto Camões. Amongst her publications highlight goes the books Africa in the feminine: Portuguese women and the Colonial War, A History of return: Empire, Colonial War and post-colonialism and also, together with Roberto Vecchi, Anthology of the poetic memory of the colonial war. Between 2007 and 2011, she coordinated the project Children of the colonial war: post-memory and representations.
OF WHICH WAR DO WE SPEAK TO OUR CHILDREN ABOUT?
LUÍS GRAÇA
With a degree in Sociology and a doctorate in public health by Universidade Nova de Lisboa, he is a researcher and university professor, and director of the Revista Portuguesa de Saúde Pública (Portuguese Journal of Public Health) since 2007. He has a personal web page on health and work since 1999, and develops the blog Luís Graça & Camaradas da Guiné, since 2004, a rare case of sharing memories and affections among former combatants of the colonial war, composed of about 700 members.
RIGHT TO KNOWLEDGE OF GENETIC ORIGINS?
RAFAEL VALE E REIS
Guest assistant at the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra and researcher at the Biomedical Law Center at the Law School of the University of Coimbra. He comprises the team of the Permanent Observatory for Adoption under the Family Law Centre of the Faculty of Law of Coimbra. He is the author of The Right to Knowledge of Genetic Origins, published in book form by Coimbra Editora in 2008.