Continuidades históricas em Escravos e Homens Livres, de Orlando Piedade

Abstract

With this article I intend to make a post-colonial and anti-racist analysis of Orlando Piedade's book Slave and Free Men, focused on the life stories of a family of Africans living in the Lisbon metropolis in the post-abolition of slavery’s period, with the main objective of allowing a reflection on the different layers of oppression of colonialism and its historical continuities from the eighteenth century to the present day. In this sense, I analyze the literary depth allied to the revisiting of historical facts for the potential emergence of silenced true narratives; and I indicate the ways in which colonialism shapes identity vectors - such as race, gender, class, sexuality, age, nationality, among others - in its daily practices and contextual interactions, requiring a review and complexification of concepts such as slavery, freedom, abolition and heroism.

Keywords: afro-pessimism, anti-racism, slavery, whiteness, historical continuities.