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João dos Santos Albasini (1876–1922): the Contradictions of Politics and Identity in Colonial Mozambique
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
Extract
This essay considers the life and career of the leading Mozambican intellectual of the early twentieth century, João dos Santos Albasini (1876–1922). A journalist and political activist, Albasini took advantage of the political space opened by Portugal's First Republic (1910–26) to challenge the articulation of colonial policy with respect to citizenship, land alienation, labor conscription and opportunities for education and economic participation. As a founding member of the Grêmio Africano, a Lourenço Marques social group and political lobby, he helped launch the group's newspapers, O Africano (1908–19) and O Brado Africano (1918–74). With the Grêmio newspapers as his vehicle, he sharply contrasted colonial and Republican ideals with the racism and injustice Mozambicans faced in the colonial capital of Lourenço Marques (today Maputo). The Portuguese deemed Albasini a worthy opponent, in part because of his ability to employ Portugal's most revered cultural symbols with an ironic twist.
The essay considers two sets of questions. The first set relates to the definition and analysis of issues Albasini highlighted and pursued. What was Albasini's political and social vision of possible choices within this seemingly fluid era? How does one recover and interpret Albasini's vision and style? Are their meaning and value to be found within the discourses of class struggle, ethnicity, assimilation and nationalism? To what extent did Albasini's vision shape contestation of political and social policy in colonial Mozambique in the critical first quarter of the twentieth century?
A second set of questions confronts Albasini's place in local society and his legacy. Who comprised the Grêmio Africano? What was it about João dos Santos Albasini that inspired Grêmio members and subsequent generations of Mozambicans to view him as a beacon? What did the rest of the local population think about Albasini, during his lifetime and after? What was his impact, and how did it relate to the broader issues of politics, historical agency and identity in early twentieth-century southern African history?
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References
1 Miller, Joseph C., Clark, Andrew F., Zimba, Benigna and The Journal of African History'sGoogle Scholar anonymous critical readers provided very careful and helpful comments on earlier drafts of this essay. Research was funded, in part, by the following: Interpretive Research Project of the National Endowment for the Humanities (1988–90), co-directed by Drs Margaret Jean Hay and James C. McCann, of the African Studies Center, Boston University; Fulbright Regional Research Grant (1992–93); Livros/Africana Portuguesa and Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (1993). Dr António Sopa of Arquivo Histórico de Moçambique [AHM], renowned for his great skill, knowledge and generosity, acquired the Albasini family photograph from a surviving family member. He also provided photocopies of several documents and hand-copied newspaper references and data. James C. Armstrong of the Library of Congress facilitated the microfilming of the newspapers O Africano and O Brado Africano by Cooperative African Microform Project [CAMP] and drew the author's attention to the work of Brazilian scholar Valdemir D. Zamparoni. Prof. Dra Inês Nogueira da Costa, Director of the AHM, granted permission to publish material from the AHM and kindly provided a photocopy of the extremely rare booklet, Albasini, João dos Santos, O livro da dor: cartas de amor: com um prólogo de Marciano Nicanor da Sylva (Lourenço Marques, 1925)Google Scholar. Jill R. Dias and Olga Iglésias Neves also generously granted permission to cite their important original unpublished work. The author is sincerely grateful to all these people.
2 Jill R. Dias detailed the Portuguese African Associations in Lisbon, their relationship to the African colonial intelligentsia and the Pan-Africanist visions of DuBois and Garvey in her extensive annotations for the Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers. See also Dias, , ‘Portuguese African associations in Lisbon and international Pan Africanism, 1912–1931’ (Unpublished paper presented at International Conference Group on Modern Portugal Meeting, Durham, New Hampshire, 09 1989)Google Scholar; Brado Africano, 20 08 1932.Google Scholar
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4 The issue is identified as ‘Numero UNICO’, and the first issue of O Africano when it reappeared on 3 Jan. 1909 was labeled number one. They are clearly published by the same group under the same title.
5 O Africano, 25 12 1908Google Scholar, author's free translation. Olga Iglésias Neves' thesis includes photocopy reproductions of several key issues of O Africano, including the front page containing this editorial, ‘Em defesa da causa africana’, 152.Google Scholar
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32 Substantial literatures in English, Portuguese and Afrikaans address the life and legacy of João dos Santos Albasini's grandfather, João Albasini (Juwawa). Ilídio Rocha contributed an addenda on Juwawa to the annotated republication of Diocleciano Fernandes das Neves's classic, Itinerário de uma viagem á caça dos elefantes: Rocha, Ilídio (ed.), Diocleciano Fernando das Neves: das terras do império vátua às praças da republica boer (Lisbon, 1987), 196ffGoogle Scholar. Rocha's addenda provides a summary of the literature in Portuguese and Afrikaans and incorporates most of the basic data on Albasini; General Martins, Ferreira, João Albasini e a colónia de S. Luís: subsídio para a história da Província de Moçambique e das suas relações com o Transval (Lisbon, 1957), 14Google Scholar; Lima, A. A. Pereira de, História dos caminhos de ferro de Lourenço Marques (3 vols.) (Lourenço Marques, 1971), i, 25–8Google Scholar; Quintinha, Julião and Toscano, P. Francisco, A derrocada do império vátua e Mousinho de Albuquerque, 3rd ed. (2 vols.) (Lisbon, 1935), i, 79–100Google Scholar, and photos to 113, 313–49; Santana, Francisco, ‘João Albasini uma figura fascinante’, Correio de Manhã (30 07 1985)Google Scholar; Machado, J. J., ‘Lourenço Marques á Pretória’, Boletim da Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, IX–XII (1885), 647–725.Google Scholar
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35 Anonymous, A guerra dos reis vátuas (Maputo, 1986), 17, 77, n. 53Google Scholar, highlights several 1840s ‘doações’ trust documents established for ‘caseiras’ (common-law wives) of European traders or officials, among them one J. [Joaquina] Albasini.
36 Albasini continued ‘and unhappily there are examples of this in your own family’; Livro da dor, 42Google Scholar. The editor Marciano Nicanor da Sylva gives the translations of mumadji and narra as simply common white and black people respectively, but Albasini probably intended the terms in their coarser sense. Both mumadji and narra were used in the press with negative connotations.
37 Ronga common names were culled from a number of sources, oral and written. Ernesto Torre do Valle's annex of Ronga names for some ‘former and contemporary residents’ of Lourenço Marques was especially useful; Valle, Ernesto Torre do, Diccionário shironga-português e português-shironga (Lourenço Marques, 1906), 318–20Google Scholar; Rocha, , Das terras, 169–208Google Scholar; Quintinha, and Toscano, , Derrocada do império vátua, i, 79–100.Google Scholar
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49 An Albasini family member brought this photograph to the attention of Dr António Sopa of AHM during an interview in 1993. She identified those pictured and gave Dr Sopa permission to copy the photograph. The author is grateful to the Albasini family and to Dr Sopa for sharing this photograph and to Prof. Dra Maria Inês Nogueira da Costa, Director of the AHM, for permission to reproduce it here.
50 Honwana claims that Albasini was never married, but it is clear from joint property documents, the press and Livro da dor that Bertha and João dos Santos Albasini were married in the late 1890s and divorced in 1916 or 1917. Honwana, , Life, 94.Google Scholar
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67 Michaela Loforte's wedding to Guilherme Bruheim; Brado Africano, 25 10 1919Google Scholar. See also 21 Sept. 1922.
68 Rudolfo Albasini, João Tavares de Fonseca, and Porto/Lisbon Albasini Interviews, 1989.
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102 Joaquim Swart commented specifically on this aspect in his history of the Grêmio published in Brado Africano, 24. 12 1948.Google Scholar
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109 Personal rivalries and feuds were as prevalent in Lourenço Marques as in every other community. In April of 1919 Portuguese settler José Cardosa's political disagreement with Albasini led Cardosa to assault Albasini with a whip. Albasini's colleagues claimed that Cardosa resorted to a whip because he was ill equipped to confront Albasini in a battle of words. O Africano, 19 04 1919, 5 and 12 07 1919.Google Scholar
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115 The following paragraphs based on OT, Mussana, Mussongueia Samuel, Maputo, Câmara Municipal de, 4 07 and 3 10 1977.Google Scholar
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118 Albasini's opposition to labor registration in principle and practice runs like a central thread throughout the press from 1913 to 1918. His column ‘Vozes de Burro’ specifically addresses labor registration. See also O Africano, 16 12 1913, 5 05 1914, 26 02 1916, 24 05 1916Google Scholar; Penvenne, , African Workers and Colonial Racism, 70–4.Google Scholar
119 The material in this paragraph is covered in greater detail in African Workers and Colonial Racism, 70ff.Google Scholar
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144 Tempo, Frelimo's national weekly magazine, highlighted Gungunhana's career in the 1970s, but by the early 1980s publication of História de Moçambique a more balanced approach prevailed.
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155 Turn-of-the-century Lourenço Marques is poetically described in several of Alexandre Lobato's works. Mendes also described the Alto Mahé as ‘essentially Mestizo’ by the late colonial era. O Africano and Brado Africano editorials demanding municipal services for neighborhood taxpayers also reflect Alto Mahé's comparative status, in that it had public toilets and showers in the mid-teens. Lobato, , ‘Xilunguine: pequeno monografia’, Boletim (Câmara Municipal de Lourenço Marques) (1969), 56Google Scholar; Mendes, Maria Clara, Maputo antes de indepêndencia: geografia de uma cidade colonial (Lisbon, 1985), 95Google Scholar; O Africano, 15 03 1916Google Scholar; Brado Africano, 16 03 1918, 15 09 1923, 16 01 1924Google Scholar; Soares-Zilhão, João José, ‘Lourenço Marques: ensaio geográfico’, Boletim da Sociedade de Estudos da Colónia de Moçambique, XXXVI (1938), 1–60.Google Scholar
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165 Although the number of titles published dropped from a high of 97 in 1926 to a low of 42 directly after the implementation of legislation targeting the opposition press in 1926, those figures exaggerate the actual impact of the press law. The number of titles was inflated in 1926 because striking railway workers responded to the banning of their newspaper by publishing under a slightly different name. Most of the ‘new titles’ that appeared in 1925–6 were simply single issues of the same paper, O Emancipador. The more marked difference after the coup was the nature of the press content. Rocha, , Catálogo dos periódicos, 22–3.Google Scholar
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171 This paragraph is based on Willan, Sol Plaatje. The author does not suggest that Albasini and Plaatje were figures of equal importance. Willan's extensive and painstaking research revealed a wealth of information on Plaatje. The hope is that historians will delve into the lives of many Mozambican intellectuals with similar care and energy.
172 Plaatje's papers, Koranfa ea Becoana, Tsala da Becoana and Tsala ea Batho, were all shortlived and irregular in comparison with O Africano and Brado Africano. Willan, Sol Plaatje.
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