Christiana Martins text Nuno Botelho photography The Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon has focused its entire budget this year on the exhibition "Deconstructing Colonialism, Decolonizing the Imaginary", a strong bid to reveal what lies behind the myths that sustained the Portuguese empire in Africa. Historian Isabel Castro Henriques has summoned 30 experts to scrutinize the narratives and knows it will stir up controversy Roland Barthes said in "Mythologies" (1957) that "myth is speech". Many social science interpretations have been built on this reasoning. Especially when the French author added in the same work that "myth is a system of communication, a message", "it is a mode of signification, a form". At the National Museum of Ethnology (MNE) in Lisbon, this thesis took shape in the exhibition "Deconstructing Colonialism, Decolonizing the Imaginary". There, the message and form of the myths of Portuguese colonialism in Africa are on display for all to agree and disagree with. But that's a debate that will take place after the visits. DISCOVERING COLONIALISM, DECOLONIZING THE IMAGINARY National Museum of Ethnology, Lisbon, until November 2, 2025 Organized by the Centre for Studies on Africa and Development (CESA/ISEG-University of Lisbon) and the National Museum of Ethnology (MNE), the exhibition resulted from the initiative of historian Isabel Castro Henriques, one of the leading scholars of Portuguese colonialism, who took on the challenge of unveiling the structure that sustained the Portuguese presence in Africa in the 19th and 20th centuries. To achieve this goal, Castro Henriques sets out to "decolonize the Portuguese imaginary and contribute, in a pedagogical and accessible way, to a renewal of knowledge about the Portuguese colonial question". A bold goal to which the historian has given herself completely and, almost two years on from the start of the work, she says she fears she may just have been too ambitious. "Preparations for the 50th anniversary of April 25 had begun and I told a small group of researchers that I thought it was essential to hold a major event on Portuguese colonialism, which is precisely one of the pillars of April 25. At the time, there was nothing on the subject, which I thought was an incredible gap. So I proposed an exhibition on a subject that until recently had been silenced," says the historian. From the outset, she explains, it was essential that "the focus was on the myths that were indispensable for justifying colonial domination". That's when the difficulties began. "It was necessary to find a space compatible with the exhibition and funding to make it happen. I tried the Museum of Natural Science, spoke to the Museum of Lisbon and came to Ethnology and, a month after my contact, director Paulo Costa said he would divert all the museum's funding in 2024 to this project. And so it was," shares Castro Henriques, recognizing that the exhibition will also make it possible to "promote a museological renovation of the institution". The project has grown, always around the idea of presenting large panels, combining text and images, on the main issues of the colonial phenomenon. Thus, the exhibition is organized around the presentation of seven themes, designated by the myths associated with them, which are deconstructed in 29 three-metre-high cloth panels. The first myth shows Africa in the 19th century and is based on the idea that "we [the Portuguese] have been in Africa for 500 years". To dismantle this claim, images will be shown that prove that when the Portuguese arrived there, they found local authorities and a political structure and not a vacuum. "We showed Africa as it was, independent, made up of political structures, trade and populations that maintained relations with the Portuguese on the coast," explains Isabel Castro Henriques. This is followed by the "campaigns of conquest and pacification" and how the local populations resisted them "I know you're going to criticize, but I don't mind. For a long time, the negative aspects of colonialism were silenced, but they are also part of history" Isabel Castro Henriques Curator offensive. "If [Africa] belonged to the Portuguese, they wouldn't have had to pacify anything," says the historian. Also present are the scientific explorations, which revealed the interior and the riches of the territories, "essential for organizing the occupation routes", as well as the "Pink Map" and the Berlin Conference. Not to be forgotten are the "civilizing missions", the "historical mission", the relationship between "the savages and the civilizers" or "us and the others", "Portuguese Africa", "the greatness of the nation and the armed struggle" and, finally, "heritage and racism". At 78, Isabel Castro Henriques is, together with Fernando Rosas, the oldest of the group of 30 researchers who collaborated to design the exhibition. Responsible for introducing African history studies in 1974, the academic has never stopped producing historical research on the region and on Africans. And this time, in order to demystify the national imaginary, Castro Henriques says he tried to bring together "almost everyone who studies the subject", such as the director of the National Library, Diogo Ramada Curto, Margarida Calafate Ribeiro, coordinating researcher at the Center for Social Studies at the University of Coimbra, Rosa Cruz e Silva, former Minister of Culture of Angola or Victor Barros, researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History. Unfolding exhibition However, the exhibition is not limited to the panels and also features a selection of African art objects from the MFA - individually chosen by Castro Henriques, who was also responsible for the extended captions - which aim to highlight what the historian considers to be "the political and creative strength of African cultures, which contradict the derogatory European narratives about Africa". "African art is extremely rich, extraordinarily creative and rational and particularly symbolic and functional, because African artists, for all aspects of social life, make everyday objects with an important symbolic charge," says the historian, giving the example of pot lids with sculptures and the messages associated with them. "These objects show the cultural capacity of Africans, dismantling the myth that blacks are brutes, according to the derogatory language used by whites," she adds. When asked if she had come across any objects that were problematic and could be returned to their countries of origin, Castro Henriques said that she had not been denied anything by the museum's management on the grounds that they might have been improperly obtained. The exhibition will be completed with works of contemporary African art by artists Lívio de Morais, Hilaire Balu Kuyangiko and Mónica de Miranda. But so much material is the biggest concern of the show's organizer. "I'm a little afraid that the room will be too full, but I wanted to put in all of colonialism, because I think it lacked a global vision. This is an exhibition that will have to be seen several times," concludes Isabel Castro Henriques, who considers this event to be a corollary of her more than 50 years of work in the field. "I know you'll criticize, but I don't mind. I'm used to it. There were positive and negative aspects to Portuguese colonialism. For a long time, the negative aspects were silenced, but it's necessary to address them because they too are part of history." The MNE was created in 1965, as explained on the institution's website, "with the ambitious program of representing the cultures of the peoples of the world, not restricted to Portugal or the overseas domains under its administration". In other words, a museum where the world could fit, which is represented there through more than 42,000 inventories, ethnographic objects from 80 countries, including the former colonies. Inseparable from the history of Portuguese anthropology, it finds in the current building - inaugurated in 1976 - the body of the programme conceived by anthropologist Jorge Dias and his collaborators, in which two fundamental pillars stand out: "The absence of a permanent exhibition, giving priority to temporary exhibitions that make it possible to problematize, deepen knowledge and disseminate specific collections and themes to the public; and the organization of reserves in such a way as to provide researchers with access and a visual perception of its entire collection." The lack of a stable team and a budget capable of fulfilling this ambition has led the MNE to a situation of near oblivion, and it is even considered to be the national museum with the lowest number of visitors. It will be up to the new exhibition to help restore the centrality of a house of great importance in the panorama of public museums, given the importance of its collection, which the Minister of Culture has emphasized on more than one occasion. One of Isabel Castro Henriques' aims, however, was for the exhibition to go beyond the doors of the MNE, which is why itinerant exhibitions are planned, which will travel to schools and cultural centers in Portugal and other Portuguese-speaking countries, such as Brazil and Africa. The exhibition will also be complemented by a series of talks entitled "Deconstructing Racism, Decolonizing the Museum, Rethinking Knowledge", which will discuss current issues such as African historiography, historical reparations, African independence and racism in Portugal. And also, in partnership with CESA/ISEG-UL, the cycle "Cinema and Decolonization", with films about the post-colonial reality, at the ISEG and the MNE. The initiative also resulted in a 360-page bilingual catalog, financed by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and translated by the Luso-American Development Foundation. Perhaps one of Barthes' most important statements in the text that concludes "Mythologies" is precisely when the author says that "myth transforms history into nature", explaining that "this is why myth is experienced as innocent speech: not because its intentions are hidden - if they were hidden they couldn't be effective - but because they are naturalized". Until November 2025, in that building, the myths of the Portuguese empire will hang from the ceiling of the exhibition room on the second floor of the National Museum of Ethnology and, according to the curator's proposal, they will be emptied of official ideology. Denaturalized, Barthes might say.