Independence & revolution in Portugese-speaking Africa: Aquino de Braganca: selected articles & interviews 1980-1986

Abstract

Aquino de Braganca 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.