Postcolonial Testimony and the Ruins of Empire

Abstract

This contribution explores the multi-faceted relations of postcolonial testimony and architectural remains by focusing on Os hóspedes da noite (2007, dir. Licínio de Azevedo). The film stages a visit to the Grande Hotel in Beira and ambivalently highlights its significance for the Mozambican-Portuguese decolonization process. It engages the experiences of two former employees of the hotel and the daily life of the actual residents, mostly refugees of the civil war. The analysis concentrates on how filmic practices, colonial ruins and testimony intersect in this production. I argue that Os hóspedes da noite might be understood as a way of ‘thinking with the ruins of empire’ which is “to emphasize less the artefacts of empire as dead matter or remnants of a defunct regime than to attend to their re-appropriations […] within the politics of the present” (Stoler 2008: 196).