The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

Aquino De Braganca

Aquino de Bragança was a close advisor to Samora Machel, former president of Mozambique. Both lost their lives when their plane crashed at Mbuzini in October 1986.

Born in Goa, fluent in French as well as Portuguese, and trained as a scientist, Aquino dedicated his life to the liberation struggles of southern Africa. He was a militant journalist, an academic, a diplomat, and a public intellectual. His skill in sensitive and discreet political negotiation earned him the nickname ‘the submarine’ and he played a key role in Frelimo’s early contacts with the Portuguese, leading eventually to independence in 1975.

Illustrated with contemporary photographs, Aquino de Braganca: Independence and Revolution in Portuguese-speaking Africa brings together a selection of his post-independence writings and interviews, many published in English for the first time. The editors – both specialists on Lusophone Africa – provide a general introduction to Aquino’s life and thought, as well as short contextual preambles to each of the twelve texts.

‘What a treasure! This collection provides a vast amount of information about the character of the Mozambican Revolution and the debates that surrounded it. Aquino’s words evoke the spirit of the times, the hopes, fears, disappointments, joys and speculations of a generation of activist scholars willing to devote all their energies, and give their lives if necessary, to the emancipation of humankind.’–Albie Sachs

Open Access

Product information

Format : 210mm x 148mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 224
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7969-2433-9
Publish Year : March 2019
Rights : World Rights

Introduction – Marco Mondaini and Colin Darch

Acronyms and Abbreviations

Persons, Events and Other Terms

Part 1 – Articles and Interviews

  1. Underdevelopment and Migrant Labour – with Ruth First (1980)
  2. Samora’s Marxism (1980)
  3. Savimbi: The Career of a Counter-Revolutionary (1981)
  4. There Was Never a Decolonisation Process in Mozambique (1982)
  5. Reflections on the Value of a Journey – with António Souto (1982)
  6. Cabral and Machel are the True Heirs of Marx (1983)
  7. The Work of Ruth First in the Centre of African Studies: The Development Course – with Bridget O’Laughlin (1984)
  8. The Portuguese Army Must Defend Cahora Bassa (1985)
  9. Independence without Decolonisation: The Transfer of Power in Mozambique, 1974-1975. Some Background Notes (1985)
  10. The Defence of our Sovereignty is More Important than Ideology (1985)
  11. From the Idealisation of Frelimo to the Understanding of the Recent History of Mozambique – with Jacques Depelchin (1986)
  12. Mozambique: Facing a War without End (1986)

Part 2 – His Comrades Remember

  1. Aquino, Our Comrade, Our Brother – Simon Malley (1986)
  2. Aquino – Immanuel Wallerstein (1986)
  3. Homage to Aquino de Bragança – Carlos Lopes (1986)
  4. Aquino de Bragança – Gary Littlejohn (1986)

Marco Mondaini is Brazilian, and has a BA in history from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, an MA in history from the University of São Paulo, and a PhD in social work from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. In 2009 he carried out post-doctoral research in human rights theory at the Università degli Studi in Florence, and has also worked at the Instituto Gramsci in Rome, in 2013-2014 he was a visiting researcher at the Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, in Mozambique.

Since 2004 he has been an Associate Professor at the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE) in Recife, in the Postgraduate Programme in Social Work. He was the first coordinator of UFPE’s Instituto de Estudos da África, and is the commissioning editor of the book series Brazil and África, published by UFPE University Press. He is a funded researcher of Brazil’s CNPq.

Mondaini is author or co-author of over twenty books, including Direitos Humanos (São Paulo, 2006); Direitos Humanos no Brasil (São Paulo, 2009); Enrico Berlinguer: Democracia, Valor Universal (Rio de Janeiro, 2009); Do Stalinismo à Democracia. Palmiro Togliatti e a Construção da Via Italiana ao Socialismo (Rio de Janeiro, 2011) and Democracia e Direitos Humanos sob Fogo Cruzado (Recife, 2013).

Share this

You might also consider these related books

2114  Large

Legacies of Power
Leadership change and former presidents in African politics

2114

The contributors discuss the hybridal political systems that exist in post-independance Africa; the role allotted to or pursued by former African presidents; transitional politics and justice, and political stability. The book stimulates careful further observation and analyses concerning progress in this contested arena of institutionalised political power in Africa.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 148mm x 210mm
Pages : 352
ISBN 10 : 0-7969-2102-2
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2120-8
Publish Year : 2006
Price R 220.00
2189

The Security-Development Nexus
Expressions of Sovereignty and Securitization in Southern Africa

2189

The link between security and development has been rediscovered after 9/11 by a broad range of scholars. Focussing on southern Africa, The Security-Development Nexus shows that the much-debated linkage is by no means a recent invention. Rather, the security/development linkage has been an important element of the state policies of colonial as well as post-colonial regimes during the Cold War, and it seems to be prospering in new configurations under the present wave of democratic transitions.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 145mm x 210mm
Pages : 288
ISBN 10 : 0-769-2184-9
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2184-0
Publish Year : 2007
Price R 191.00
2309  Large

Voices of liberation
Patrice Lumumba

US documents released in August 2011 reveal that President Eisenhower directly ordered the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of Congo. But the Americans were not alone Six months after achieving independence from Belgium, Congos first legally elected Prime Minister, Patrice Lumumba, was assassinated on 17 January 1961. The effects of that attempt at annihilation, sanctioned by the United States and carried out by the Belgians, continue to reverberate throughout the continent today as the scramble for Africa continues.

Product information

Format : 240mm x 168mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 224
ISBN 10 : 978-07969-2425-4
ISBN 13 : 978-07969-2425-4
Publish Year : 2013
Rights : World Rights
Price R 210.00
African Voices Cover

African voices - In search of a decolonial turn
In search of a decolonial turn

This book discusses the contributions of African thinkers and actors to what Paul Tiyambe Zeleza calls recentering Africa in discussions about major African phenomena. It makes an input into ongoing debates about what it means to decolonise knowledge; the university; the school; the library; the archive; and the museum.

Open Access

Product information

Format : 245mm x 170mm (Soft Cover)
Pages : 346
ISBN 13 : 978-0-7983-0531-0
Publish Year : March 2021
Rights : World Rights
Price R R290.00