Mismatched signs

Photography and propaganda in a colonial context

Abstract

Both colonialism and the different expressions of resistance that came to erode it were build up with actions and they never lacked the support of words and images. We will guide our gaze to the way in which these categories combine, trying to understand how the narratives of colonial legitimacy and of appeal for independence made use of such a powerful instrument as photography. We will make use of various sources that are connected to a propaganda style that seeks to convince rather than inform. We will center this text on the colonial war, which means taking it as the most expressive moment of the confrontation between different representations of the colonial territory. Whereas Portugal saw it as a part of an indivisible whole, the liberation movements saw it as a territory occupied and abused by forces foreign to the legitimate interests of African populations. Long and bloody, made up of many fronts, the colonial war was also fought in propaganda. The pamphlets, posters and photos, showing either peaceful coexistence or the atrocities committed, were part of the confrontation, revealing a lot about the fabric of relations that structured colonial rule and the dynamics that led to the formation of new states in Africa.