The old Tarrafal mine has a new online documentation center

Since this Wednesday, the former concentration camp of the Portuguese dictatorship of Tarrafal, Cape Verde, has opened an online documentation center (www.tarrafal-cdt.org).

The initiative is part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary on April 25, organized by the Memorial Commission, which joins the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the release of political prisoners of Tarrafal, which is celebrated this Wednesday.

As part of the same program, the book “Tarrafal – Political and Social Prisoners” was published and a new exhibition was opened in the former camp, now the Museum of the Resistance.

The commission developed the exhibition “Tarrafal: From Repression to Freedom” to preserve the historical memory of the repression affecting almost 600 political prisoners from Portugal, Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde.

Alfredo Caldeira, the initiative’s curator, called the camp “the most significant symbol of the prison system of the Portuguese dictatorship.”

The exhibition complements the exhibition spaces and materials that transformed the former prison into the Museum of the Resistance.

Thus, from today there are three more museum spaces in this space, which use audiovisual and photographic materials, as well as testimonies about various aspects of prison life in the two phases of the camp.

This Wednesday, the exhibition was visited by the heads of state of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Portugal during a special ceremony dedicated to the freedom of political prisoners.

“The exhibition addresses important issues such as violence, censorship, forced labor and punishment, as well as culture and education, and prisoner resistance,” the Commission said in a presentation document for the April 25 50th anniversary celebration.