Colonial Legacies in Times of 'Black Lives Matter'
CES Public Interventions
Tarrafal - Memórias do Campo da Morte Lenta
Diana Andringa
Documentary
About
They called it "The Slow Death Camp"; the critics, of course. When prisoners were Portuguese, the authorities first called it, between 1936 and 1954, "Cape Verde's Penal Colony" and then when it reopened in 1961 for the admission of anti-colonialist militants from Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea, "Chão bom Work Camp".
Thirty-two Portuguese, two Angolans, two Guineans lost their lives there. Others died after being released, but still as a result of what they had experienced there. Families, without knowing anything about the fate of the prisoners, gave them up as dead and even held funeral ceremonies.
At the invitation of the President of the Republic of Cape Verde, Pedro Verona Pires, the survivors met again for an International Symposium on the Tarrafal Concentration Camp, the result of this meeting was this documentary produced and directed by Diana Andringa with the support of the Mário Soares Foundation and the Amílcar Cabral Foundation.
Credits
Original Title: Tarrafal - Memórias do Campo da Morte Lenta
Direction and Production: Diana Andringa
Year: 2011