Luso-tropicalism was a means of reinterpreting the history of Portuguese colonization that gained momentum during the last decades of authoritarian rule, when a series of discourses and rituals fostered the idea that Portugal was a multiracial country, geographically diverse, and yet a politically homogeneous unit. I will argue here that somea number of mass culture events and figures, namely football icons, such as Eusébio, contributed to the reproduction and banalization of the key themes of Luso-tropicalism outside the institutional framework. Seen by many as an icon of Portuguese multiracialism, Eusébio’s trajectory, this essay argues, offered a constant, butyet barely conscious, a reminder of Portuguese nationality, thus making Luso-tropicalism unforgettable.
Keywords: Nationalism, ideology, lusophone Africa, colonial ideology, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira
