In Portugal, on one hand, leftists can use decolonization as that apologetic pat on the back, in an orgiastic self-flagellation of White guilt, always reiterating how Whites are horrible and privileged bastards who only know how to hurt the rest of the world. Apparently, this absurd and self-centered mea culpa makes the world fairer and abracadabrally fades away all issues of oppression. On the other hand, even right-wingers can use it to further fuel their unfounded hatred and their glimpses of grandeur, based on a romanticized past of conquest and domination as a show of intellectual and racial superiority.
Despite being financially autonomous and not feeling personally discriminated against, Maria Eugénia was sensitive to the “colonial condition” inspired by her political conscience, motivating her to take action in the face of the circumstances of her time, a fact that makes her an unusual woman, not only in that specific era, but in any era that demands rejection of convention and conformism in the face of an unjust social order. Maria Eugénia was not a guerrilla fighter, nor a nurse, nor a political counselor to the nationalist movement.
In Portugal, on one hand, leftists can use decolonization as that apologetic pat on the back, in an orgiastic self-flagellation of White guilt, always reiterating how Whites are horrible and privileged bastards who only know how to hurt the rest of the world. Apparently, this absurd and self-centered mea culpa makes the world fairer and abracadabrally fades away all issues of oppression. On the other hand, even right-wingers can use it to further fuel their unfounded hatred and their glimpses of grandeur, based on a romanticized past of conquest and domination as a show of intellectual and racial superiority. 
Despite being financially autonomous and not feeling personally discriminated against, Maria Eugénia was sensitive to the “colonial condition” inspired by her political conscience, motivating her to take action in the face of the circumstances of her time, a fact that makes her an unusual woman, not only in that specific era, but in any era that demands rejection of convention and conformism in the face of an unjust social order. Maria Eugénia was not a guerrilla fighter, nor a nurse, nor a political counselor to the nationalist movement. 
