Lilica Boal Quotes

It was only a small canoe. We could only go two by two, but in our group there were babies who were with their parents.

All this leaves its mark on a 20-year-old woman. When people started talking about our liberation, I saw reasons to join the fight.

When I came to study in Portugal, Guilherme’s family welcomed me, and took me to visit the families of the other political prisoners in Tarrafal.

We had just set up home. We ended up closing the door, taking only the clothes that were necessary.

I worried the secret police would use our daughter to pressure us and said this to my husband. He said when a person joins this sort of thing, they have to be prepared for anything. It wasn’t easy.

I was not under suspicion because I was studying on a loan given by the Portuguese Youth Organisation, a movement led by the fascist government and based, I came to understand, on the Hitler Youth. What the police wanted to do was warn me not to mix with those ‘communists’ at the house of the students of the empire.

There were very hard moments though.

Once they were in the colony there was almost total silence about their lives.

We were told that in two days we would be leaving and that we could only take 5kg.