It is well known that, after the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974, many Portuguese decided to leave Angola and Mozambique to settle in Brazil. However, it’s much less known that, in the mid seventies, some Brazilian journalists went to southern Africa to report about the new independent countries. In this communication I will focus on two journalist who wrote books from different political standpoints. On the one hand Fernando Luis da Câmara Cascudo, who was politically engaged with the FNLA, wrote a passionate book about Holden Roberto’s defeat: Angola. A guerra dos traídos (1979). On the other hand Sonia Corrêa and Eduardo Homem went to Moçambique just some months after the independence. In this case, their book Moçambique. Primeiras Machambas (1977) was sympathetic with Frelimo’s efforts to build a new regime. There were also other Brazilian journalists in the region at that time, such as the influent Carlos Lacerda in South Africa, or Lizinio de Azevedo in Mozambique, who also wrote a book, Moçambique com os Mirage Sul-Africanos a 4 minutos (1980). We argue that their contrasting views offer a differrent angle on regional politics in southern Africa, and contribute to a new regional perspective of southern Africa’s history.
About the Author
Albert Farré has a PhD in History (University of Barcelona) with a research on Mozambique’s colonial state. Currently he is post doctoral fellow at the Anthopology Department of the Federal University of Brasilia. He has been a post-doctorral fellow at the Human Economy Programme at the University of Pretoria (2012-2013), and he is still associated to that research programme. He has also been a post-doctoral fellow at the International Studies Center of the University Institute of Lisbon (CEI-IUL), formerly called African Studies Center (CEA-IUL).
A LUTA CONTINUA, 40 YEARS LATER 