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The Late Colonial State in Portuguese Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2011

Malyn Newitt
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Extract

Since their independence in 1975 the former Portuguese African colonies of Guiné, Angola and Mozambique have been notorious for their instability, while the microstate of Sāo Tome has sunk to become one of the poorest and most debt-burdened countries in the world. The easiest explanation for these disasters can be found in the circumstances of the Portuguese withdrawal from Africa and the maelstrom of the final phases of the Cold War in which these states became embroiled. But are these explanations adequate?

Type
The Late Colonial State
Information
Itinerario , Volume 23 , Issue 3-4 , November 1999 , pp. 110 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © Research Institute for History, Leiden University 1999

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References

Notes

1 There are a number of general works that deal with the Portuguese African Empire in the twentieth century. The most important general account which concentrates almost entirely on economic policy is Smith, W.G. Clarence, The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975 (Manchester 1985)Google Scholar; for Angola the best general account is Pélissier, René, La Colonie du Minotaure (Orgeval 1978)Google Scholar; for Mozambique see Newitt, M., A History of Mozambique (London 1995)Google Scholar and Rocha, Aurelio, Serra, Carlos and Hedges, David eds, Historia de Mozambique II (Maputo 1983)Google Scholar;for Sāo Tome see Tenreiro, Francisco, A Ilha de Sāo Tome (Lisbon 1961)Google Scholar and the more recent Seibert, Gerhard, Comrades, Clients and Cousins (Leiden 1999).Google Scholar Among gene1ral works on modern Portugal Robinson, Richard, Contemporary Portugal (London 1979) is very informativeGoogle Scholar.

2 For Delgado's campaign see Raby, D.L., Fascism and Resistance in Portugal (Manchester 1988)Google Scholar.

3 This is the argument of Clarence Smith in The Third Portuguese Empire, chapter 7. See also MacQueen, Norrie, The Decolonization of Portuguese Africa (Harlow 1997)Google Scholar.

4 Lodge, Tom, ‘The Southern African Post-Colonial State’, Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 36 (1998) 20–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 For the weakness of the colonial state prior to 1926 see Newitt, History of Mozambique, Neil-Tomlinson, Barry, ‘The Nyassa Chartered Company: 1891–1929’, Journal of African History 18 (1977) 109–128CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Vail, Leroy, ‘Mozambique's Chartered Companies: The Rule of the Feeble’, Journal of African History 17 (1976) 389–416CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

6 For the South African campaig n to take over the port of Lourenço Marques see, Katzenellenbogen, S., South Africa and Southern Mozambique (Manchester 1982)Google Scholar; for Sāo Tome labour scandals see Duffy, James, A Question of Slavery (Oxford 1967)Google Scholar.

7 Vail, L. and White, L., Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique (London 1980) chapter 7Google Scholar.

8 For Salazar's economic policies see Clarence Smith, Third Portuguese Empire, Pitcher, Anne, Politics in the Portuguese Empire: The State, Industry and Cotton 1926–1974 (Oxford 1993)Google Scholar contains a useful first chapter on imperial policy and is a detailed study of the cotton growing campaigns and their metropolitan context. For the cotton campaigns see also Vail and White, Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique, Isaacman, Allen, Cotton is the Mother of Poverty Currey (London 1996)Google Scholar.

9 Vail, and White, , Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique, 307Google Scholar.

10 For the decline of the assimilado class see Rocha, , Serra, and Hedges, , História de Moçambique II, 288–289Google Scholar.

11 By far the most detailed account of the events in Sāo Tomé is contained in Seibert, , Comrades, Clients and Cousins, 55–71Google Scholar.

12 MacQueen, Decolonisation; see also A. Rita-Ferreira, Mozambique post-25 de Abril: Causas do Exodo da Populacdo de Origen Europeia e Asiática, extract from Moçambique: Cultura e Historia de urn Pais (Coimbra 1988)Google Scholar.

13 Vail and White, Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique, chapter 7.

14 Penvenne, Jeanne, African Workers and Colonial Racism (London 1995)Google Scholar is the best study of a colonial city in the Portuguese empire.

15 See note 10.

16 Hermele, Kenneth, Land Struggles and Social Differentiation in Southern Mozambique: A Case Study of Chokwe, Limpopo 1950–1987 (Uppsala 1988)Google Scholar.

17 Abshire, D.M. and Samuels, M.A., Portuguese Africa: A Handbook (London 1969) chapters 6 and 7Google Scholar.

18 Vail, and White, , Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique, 307–308Google Scholar.

19 Clarence Smith, The Third Portuguese Empire, chapter 6.

20 Vail and White, Capitalism and Colonialism in Mozambique, chapter 9; for Sāo Tome see Hodge, Tony and Newitt, Malyn, Sāo Tomé: From Plantation Colony to Microstate (Boulder 1988) chapter 6Google Scholar.