Silvia Braganca speaks…
From left, litterateur Dr Maria Aurora Couto, NRI Commissioner for Goa Eduardo Faleiro, author of the book Silvia Braganca, and Portugal’s Consul General in Goa Dr. António José Marques Sabido Costa. Photos of April 2, 2011 function by Edgar Silveira
CONSUL OFFERS TRIBUTE TO FREEDOM FIGHTERS’ ROLE IN REFORMING PORTUGAL TOO
PANJIM, April 3: In a touching tribute coming in the 50th year of the end of Portuguese colonial rule in Goa, the Consul-General of Portugal has praised freedom fighters whom, he said, helped Portuguese society itself understand their “wrongdoings” elsewhere in the globe.
Dr. António José Marques Sabido Costa, the new Consul-General of Portugal in Goa, was speaking in the context of the launch of a book on Aquino de Braganca, a Goan who played a prominent role in the liberation struggle of Mozambique and a string of other African countries.
Speaking in Panjim late Saturday evening, the Consul-General said “As a Portuguese, I’m also indebted to him in a different way. It was persons like Aquino Braganca, who helped the Portuguese society to understand better all the wrongdoings we were doing in certain countries, and he helped us realise that we needed to change our official policy and fight for a democracy ourselves.”
Portugal, of all European countries, was a dictatorship in for much of the 20th century, till 1974. It hung on to its colonies long after the British, French and Dutch gave up on theirs. Goa celebrates the 50th anniversary of the end of Portuguese rule this year, following an Indian army action in 1961.
Sabido Costa recalled that the anti-colonial fight brought democratisation to Portugal itself in 1974.
“In a way, Aquino de Braganca helped us Portuguese realise that we also need to change, and for that reason as a Portuguese, I’m very happy to be here,” he said at the a function which saw rich tributes paid to a Goan who fought for liberation in Africa, and was killed in a plane crash with President Samora Machel in 1986.
Goa NRI Commissioner and former federal minister Eduardo Faleiro praised the Consul General’s comments, saying: “This is the spirit. Let bygones by bygones, but let us recognise that something was wrong with the colonial system.”
Faleiro noted that power leads one to oppress those who are weaker. He added: “It happened yesterday in the West, it’s happening today in the
West. It may happen tomorrow in this part of the world. I greatly appreciate what you have said: truth and reconciliation, that is the spirit.”
He noted that colonial times were “difficult” both in the colonies and in the colonial centre. “Our entire political activity — including Tristao Braganca Cunha and Purshottam Kakodkar — had to function from places like Bombay. They were part of the diaspora, in a manner of speaking,” he said.
Faleiro announced a conference on the end of colonial role five decades ago, and the contribution of diasporic communities.
Noted literateur Dr Maria Aurora Couto praised Aquino Braganca as “a very important hero in my panetheon of heroes for many many years.” She said this was not only because of his role in the Mozambiquan struggle, but because “he combined a life of the mind, with political activism.”
She praised him for his extraordinary intellectual honesty, which is currently “lacking in all our politicians” and extremely humble, humane point of view.
Campaigner Miguel Braganza, a relative of Aquino, said his radical politics had at one time led him to be spoken of in “hushed tones” in the family, but he had subsequently proven to be an inspiration for all who believe they are working for the good of society.
Silvia Braganca, author of the book and widow of Aquino, offered her reminiscences of his life, and explained his involvement with the great figures of the African liberation struggle. Historian Prajal Sakhardande said the book fulfilled a long need and dream of the author.
The book is published by Goa,1556 priced at Rs 350 locally and available for sale via mail order at goa1556@gmail.com
Dr. António José Marques Sabido Costa, the new Consul-General of Portugal in Goa, speaks at the launch of a book on Aquino de Braganca, a Goan who played a role in the liberation struggle of Mozambique and a string of other African countries.
Author Silvia Braganca signs copies of the book Battles Waged, Lasting Dreams (2011, Goa,1556)
Former Indian union minister Eduardo Faleiro eulogises the contribution of Aquino de Braganca at the launch of the book.
Italian Gandhian Alessandra “Chandra” L’Abate, Goa University associate professor Dr Andre Rafael Fernandes, and novelist-architect Amita Kanekar (right), at the launch.
COMMISSIONER FOR NRI AFFAIRS, MR. EDUARDO FALEIRO IS SEEN RELEASING A BOOK “AQUINO DE BRAGANCA: BATTLES WAGED, LASTING DREAMS” OF AQUINO DE BRAGANCA AN EMINENT GOAN AT A FUNCTION HELD AT PANAJI ON APRIL 2, 2011. ALSO SEEN ARE PADMASHREE, MRS. MARIA AURORA COUTO, CONSUL GENERAL OF PORTUGAL IN GOA, MR. ANTONIO JOSE SABIDO DA COSTA, AUTHOR, MRS. SILVIA BRAGANCA, PROF. PRAJAL SAKHARDANDE AND MR. MINGUEL BRAGANCA.
Panaji, April 2 , 2011: Commissioner for NRI Affairs, Shri Eduardo Faleiro today released a book “ Aquino de Braganca: Battles waged, lasting reams” of Aquino de Braganca, an eminent Goan, an Advisor to the first President of Mozambique Samora Machel at a function held in the city today. The book has been written by his widow Silvia Braganca.
Speaking on the occasion, Commissioner for NRI Affairs, Shri Eduardo Faleiro said that his office will hold a Conference in the course of this year to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Liberation and to highlight the role of the Goan Diaspora in our Freedom Movement as well as in the anti-colonial struggles across the world.
The leaders of Goa’s Freedom Movement were mostly based in Mumbai and elsewhere in India since no political activity whatsoever was permitted in Goa during the Salazar regime. Many Goans participated in the freedom struggles of colonies in Africa such as Pio de Gama Pinto and Fitz de
Souza in Kenya and Aquino de Bragança, Oscar Monteiro and several others in Mozambique.
Aquino de Bragança and George Vaz represented the Party of the People of Goa at the Conference of Nationalist Organisations of Portuguese Colonies (CONCP) in Casablanca in April 1961.
After the independence of Mozambique, Aquino De Bragança became advisor to the first President of Mozambique, Samora Machel and died with him and several Mozambiqan Ministers in a plane crash 25 years ago in 1986.
Shri Faleiro said that he had met President Samora Machel as a Special Envoy of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi a few days earlier and had discussed with him assistance from India to enable Mozambique to withstand the military and economic aggression from apartheid South Africa. On this occasion, President Machel had introduced to him Aquino De Bragança. Shri Faleiro noticed that the President and his Ministers held Aquino De Bragança in high esteem as a comrade, a scholar and a diplomat.
Shri Faleiro said though Goa is small it has produced galaxy of personalities who contributed in various fields to the world. He said there are about 20 thousand people of Indian origin including about 2000 Goans in Mozambique.
Padmashri and writer Smt. Maria Aurora Couto, Consul General of Portugal in Goa Shri Antonio Jose Sabido da Costa, Author Smt. Silvia Braganca, Prof. Prajal Sakhardande, and Shri Minguel Braganca also spoke on the occasion. Kum. Munira Ursula de Souza compered the function.
From Le Matin DZ, a 2011 comment
Anniversaire du 19 mars : Portrait d’un Juste
… l’Union des populations du Cameroun, les mouvements des colonies portugaises, le CNOCP,(Comité de coordination des organisations nationalistes des colonies portugaises présidé par Aquino de Braganca, Amilcar Cabral qui passait régulièrement… … Birthday March 19: Portrait of a Just
Le Matin DZ - March 18, 2011
… the Union of peoples of Cameroon, the movements of the Portuguese colonies, the CNOCP (Coordinating Committee of National Organisations of the Portuguese colonies headed by Aquino de Braganca, Amilcar Cabral, who regularly spent … …
http://www.lematindz.net/news/3894-anniversaire-du-19-mars-portrait-dun-juste.html
Tags: 19marchanniversary, aquino de braganca, CNOCP, le matin dz
Bardez-born Braganca may not find a place in Goa’s history books. His role in the independence of another Portuguese colony in Africa, Mozambique, has, however, been forever etched in that country’s archives. Those who would like to know more of the man who has been described as “an important intellectual and political figure in the years leading up to and immediately following Mozambican independence” will get the chance to do so now. On Saturday, the book ‘Battle Waged, Lasting Dreams’ will be released and it has been written by the person who knew him best, his widow Silvia. Silvia, living today in St Estevam, has interviewed people who knew her husband, delved into his diaries and writings, and produced a 558-word volume on the man. There was no dearth of matter on Aquino. Being himself a journalist and an academic, Aquino wrote prolifically and there was much that had been written about him. The material, however, was scattered. “I started writing in 2003 and made trips to Portugal and Mozambiquegathering information. In 2009 I produced in Portuguese the first book on Aquino,” Silvia told TOI on Friday. Aquino’s friendship with Mozambique’s first president Samora Machel, led to them travelling together and he was often sent on missions as an envoy of the Mozambican government. Even before Mozambique gained independence, Aquino was the person the Front for Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) turned to and sent to Lisbon to assess the situation there and initiate negotiations with the Portuguese government following the April 1974 overthrow of the dictatorship in Portugal. After Mozambique got its independence and FRELIMO formed the government, Aquino was appointed director of the Centre for African studies at the University Eduardo Mondlane, which recruited radical scholars with the aim to form them into “a research collective that focussed on current issues of social and political transformation”. Writes Silvia, “The largest body of his written work was centred on the denunciation of the colonial system and the apartheid regime. Such was the intensity of his work that it reinforced his conviction that the road to building socialism could not, by any means, be based on dogmatic theories. He irritated many orthodox Marxist scholars when he wrote on the Marxism of Samora, because, in his view, at that moment of history, he saw president Samora’s approach to Marxism as embodying his own conception of what Marxism ought to be about.” The idealism of Aquino may not, however, have percolated into the system. In the book Silvia recalls Aquino saying, “Power corrupts, whichever the system. That which we would criticize in others, we do it now. Where are the ideals gone? Where have all our good intentions to invest in education, to create wealth to be distributed among all, to eradicate poverty, to remove the incompetent and the corrupt, to create a better world gone? We try but we are quite far from attaining our cherished dreams!” Aquino’s closeness to Machel brought the Mozambique president to Goa in 1982. It was with Machel, travelling on the presidential aircraft to South Africa for consultations with the government there, that Aquino and many other Mozambique leaders lost their lives when the plane crashed over the Mozambique-South Africa border. For Silvia, writing the book was fulfilling a request from her late husband. She recalls him telling her to “write a little about what we say everyday”. And write she did, even recalling their last moments together. “You came close to me, who was waiting for you near the door and with a kiss you said: ‘Silvia! I am going’,” she writes. The tragic death ended a great Goan’s existence in the world.
Mozambique’s immortal Goan connection
Tags: aquino, press coverage, goa, india, april 2 2011, the times of india, alexandre moniz barbosa
Photos by Vivek Menezes.
Aquino de Bragança, 1924-1986
«Tinha consciência perfeita da importância da informação». Aquino de Bragança was an important intellectual and political figure in the years leading up to and immediately following Mozambican independence. As a journalist, an academic and a public intellectual he engaged passionately with the issues of his time, and as a confidante of President Samora Machel and a frequent envoy of the Mozambican government, he translated his convictions into action, eventually losing his life alongside Samora in the service of the liberation of southern Africa. He was born Tomaz Aquino Messias de Bragança in 1924 in Bardez in northern Goa in India. At that time Goa, Damão and Diu made up the Portuguese-controlled Estado da Índia, but in December 1961 the independent Indian government occupied the three enclaves by force and expelled the Portuguese. Aquino‘s father was João Paulo Proença Bragança and his mother Ana Carlota Praxetes Antónia do Rosário Sousa. He left Goa as a young man and stayed briefly in Mozambique, where he was shocked by the racism that he found there. In 1948, at the age of 20, he left for Portugal and then France, where he studied physics in Grenoble and in Paris. It was at this time, apparently, that he became a Marxist. Convinced that Goan independence was achievable, he soon made contact with nationalists from other Portuguese colonies. In 1957 he moved to Morocco to teach science, and when the PAIGC and the MPLA set up the CONCP in 1961 in Rabat to coordinate the struggle, Aquino represented the Goan People’s Party in the new organisation. He soon became an indispensable member of the CONCP secretariat. He was an active journalist, writing for such publications as the progressive Afrique-Asie [Paris] and Révolution Africaine [Algiers]. When the MFA overthrew the Caetano regime in Portugal on 25 April 1974, as Aquino relates in the article “Independência sem descolonização: a transferência do poder em Moçambique, 1974-1975″ [see below], he was the person that Frelimo turned to, sending him to Lisbon to evaluate the volatile situation. After Mozambican independence, Aquino was appointed Director of the Centro de Estudos Africanos at the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane in 1976, and in 1978 was joined by the South African activist Ruth First, who became Director of Research. In late 1978 and early 1979, Ruth and Aquino set about recruiting a group of committed radical scholars from Mozambique, South Africa, and Western Europe, and forming them into a research collective that focussed on current issues of social and political transformation. After Ruth’s murder by the South African regime in August 1982, Aquino began to reorganise the CEA into several «núcleos de investigação» – the Núcleo de África Austral, the Núcleo de Documentação, and so on. Aquino de Bragança was a trusted confidante of Samora Machel, and undertook numerous delicate diplomatic missions on behalf of the Frelimo government. Allegedly he was nicknamed “the submarine” in party and government circles because of his ability to keep an exceedingly low profile. He was killed on board the Tupolev Tu-134 with Samora Machel when it crashed at Mbuzini on 19 October 1986, in circumstances that have yet to be fully clarified. His best-known publication for English-speaking readers is probablyThe African liberation reader (London: Zed Press, 1982; 3 volumes), edited with Immanuel Wallerstein and originally published in Lisbon in Portuguese under the more interesting title Quem é o inimigo?. In 2009 his widow, the artist Sílvia Bragança published Aquino de Bragança: batalhas ganhas, sonhos a continuar [Maputo: Ndjira, 2009; 482 pages] in his memory. The book consists of memoirs, interviews, photographs and facsimiles about Aquino‘s rich and complex life. In March 2011, the publishing house Goa 1556 announced plans to publish in April an English version of the book under the title Battles waged, lasting dreams. SOURCE: http://www.mozambiquehistory.net/aquino.html FOOTNOTE: A correction in the date of birth has been made above. It should be 1924 (not 1928).
Aquino de Bragança, 1924-1986
Paulo Jorge, quoted by Sílvia Bragança in her book Aquino de Bragança.
Forthcoming cover…
Book release on April 2, 2011
Just to say that the English translation of the book on Aquino de Braganca, is to be released on April 2, 2011, at 5.15 pm at a function to be held at Hotel Mandovi, Panjim.
O lançamento do livro terá lugar no próximo dia 22 de Setembro pela 17: 45 no Centro Internacional de Conferências Joaquim Chissano na cidade de Maputo.
A apresentação será feita pelo Pofessor Doutor José Luis Cabaço.
Livro
Aquino de Braganca, the Mozibiquan scholar, diplomat and humanist, was one of the victims of the plane crash of 19 October, 1986. ASOPE joins many others in honouring a man who gave so much for the African struggle. This journal is equally honoured that Aquino agreed — only a month before his tragic death — to be one of the first contributors (see last article in this issue) to AJOPE, the African Journal of Political Economy.
Some of these friends were actually “friends”, that is to say,people with whom he developed friendly relationships because that was something that his activities as a journalist and as a diplomat required. But,of course, Aquino’s warm personality was such that every single one of these “friends” was convinced that they were friends.
Aquino rarely talked about his own politics or his own personal life, including those events in which he actively participated, something that irritated tnose ot us who felt that his knowledge of the history of the continent was probably unmatched. And so, we are left with sketchy anecdotes of the kind he enjoyed recounting when he wanted to illustrate the fact that although not an academic historian, he did know about events and history makers that many professional historians did not know about.
Quite often, the anecdote would be so valuable as to have the weight of volumes because it projected on the event a light which completely changed one’s perception.
Various attempts were made to have him talk about his experience in a systematic fashion. He always refused in his well-known manner of saying no without saying no.
A professional journalist who followed and analysed the historical process of national liberation, he was also a rigorous historian, but rigour to him did not mean, could not mean, dogma as it so often does. The abhorence for dogma was so ingrained in his thinking that it might be singled out as the characteristic that best defined him.” He liked to say that he was “anti-anticommunist”.
The largest body of his written work was centred on the denunciation ofthe colonial system and the Apartheid Regime. Such was the intensity of his work that it reinforced his conviction that the road to building socialism could not, by any means, be based on dogmatic theories.
He irritated many othodox marxist scholars when he wrote on the Marx-ism of Samora, because, in his view, at that moment of history, he saw President Samora’s approach to Marxism as embodying his own conception of what Marxism ought to be about.
Whether Aquino actually captured President Samora’s conception of Marxism or not is not important once it is realized that this was, in a sense, a sort of homage paid to a man he admired. They certainly shared the same sense of history. As President Samora liked to say Marxism must start from the Mozambican reality, from Mozambican history.
It was this insistence on knowing one’s history that led him to create withinthe CEA the history workshop, with the objective of studying the history of Liberated Zones by actually going to the Liberated Zones. He insisted on the Liberated Zones because he felt that that was one part of the history of Frelimo he knew little about; but more importantly, that if a Marxist history was going to be written, it had to be built from the ground where that history actually took place and not from some abstract theories. “Otherwise”, as he liked to put it, because it drew a lot of laughter, “we might as well study Patagonia”.
He never was satisfied with a piece of work. His attention to detail couldbe so fussy that it sometimes exasperated those who worked closely with him. However, his argument was that words had to carry a very specific meaning and they should not leave room for misinterpretation. The editors of AJOPE will remember his insistence that no word of the article included here be changed, even for so-called editorial purposes, because the words and sentences that had been chosen were chosen after multiple drafts.
Aquino’s generosity was legendary. Ironically, he knew that he could notbe accessible to all and everyone if he were going to be effective as a scholar, a diplomat. These two activities may seem contradictory in the subjective relationships they produce, but it is clear that, in the case of Aquino, the two activities fed each other.
It is this generous accessibility, combined with modesty, that made thosewho knew him realise that they had a privileged relationship, ranging from heads of states to colleagues, to his secretary, to his driver. He was as much at ease with heads of states as with peasants or workers.
In this day and age when scholars publish in order not to perish, when knowledge of any kind is constantly threatened with commoditization, it is refreshing to have to work with a man who had managed to keep things in perspective. He showed in his day to day life that one can be a first rate scholar well as be a first rate husband and father. To Silvia, his wife, Maya his daughter and Radek his son, we present our deepest condolences.
Farewell our old man!
Farewell Aquino!
More from the PIDE
In radical times
In close touch: Marcelino dos Santos, Aquino, and the ambassador of Algeria.
Aquino, Mota-Lopes…
Tempo, and its parent company, Tempografica, were set up in 1970 by five journalists (José Mota Lopes, Ricardo Rangel, Ribeiro Pacheco, Areosa Pena and Rui Cartaxana), who had left the daily paper Noticias, then the main mouthpiece for colonial propaganda.
The book “Carlos Cardoso: Telling the Truth in Mozambique’ by Paul Fauvet, Marcelo Mosse comments:
They used Cartaxana’s personal friendship with the last colonial governor-general of Mozambique, Baltazar Rebelo de Souza, to obtain a licence to open a weekly magazine.
They needed money, which they obtained from local businessmen, particularly Augusto de Sá Alves, a man with extensive interests in agriculture, trade and transport. This was an uneasy alliance between radical journalists and that faction of colonial capital that wanted to break free of restrictions imposed by the Salazarist regime. The journalists were minority shareholders — but they established an agreement with their financial backers under which the newsroom was entirely autonomous.
Tempo, though still shackled by colonial censorship, was the nearest thing to an opposition publication in Lourenço Marques. Some of the journalits, particularly MOta Lopes and Rangel, were already in contact with Frelimo. Mota Lopes was a clandestine member of Frelimo from 1971. There was an unwritten code of never writing about the colonial war. But editorial autonomy disappeared in 1972, when the magazine negotiated with Sá Alves for an increase in its capital. This generated a struggle between the journalists and the managers imposed by the majority shareholders.
By early 1974, the magazine the five founders had dreamed of was virtually dead. What jolted it back to life was the 25 April coup in Lisbon. The pro-Frelimo journalists moved to reassert control. On the day of the coup itself, Tempo became the first publication to stop sending its articles to the censor’s office….
With Teresa dos Santos
Seen with Teresa dos Santosh, the mother of Marcelino dos Santos (b. 20 May 1929, Lumbo) — Mozambican poet, revolutionary, and statesman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcelino_dos_Santos
Arrest warrant…
The PIDE text
The origins of PIDE can be traced to 1933, the year of the inauguration of the Estado Novo. Under direct orders from Salazar himself, the PVDE (Polícia de Vigilância e de Defesa do Estado; “State Defence and Surveillance Police”) was created, with two main sections:
- Social and Political Defence section, which was used to prevent and repress crimes of a political and social nature (see: Censorship)
- International Section, which was used to control the entrance of immigrants, to expel undesirable immigrants and to take care of counter-espionage and/or international espionage
(SOURCE: Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PIDE )
Julius Kambarage Nyerere (April 13, 1922 – October 14, 1999) served as the first President of Tanzania and previously Tanganyika, from the country’s founding in 1964 until his retirement in 1985. Born in Tanganyika to Nyerere Burito (1860-1942), Chief of the Zanaki,[1] Nyerere is known by the Swahili name Mwalimu or ‘teacher’, his profession prior to politics.[2] He was also referred to as Baba wa Taifa (Father of the Nation).[3]
Savimbi and the Portuguese
With family…
In the photo, Aires, Aquino, Rui, Mariana, son Radek, Kathya, Dorothy and Ranya.
Passionate about ideas…
From Antoon De Baets, Censorship of Historical Thought: A World Guide 1945-2000 (Westport, Conn., and London: Greenwood Press, © 2002), 355
15-06-2006
Aquino de Bragança homenageado hoje
TEM lugar hoje na extensão do Centro de Estudos Africanos, em Maputo, uma mesa-redonda em memória de Aquino de Bragança, antigo director deste centro, com o tema “O Papel do Centro de Estudos Africanos e de Aquino de Bragança na Dinâmica da Pesquisa sobre África Austral”.
A mesa-redonda terá como palestrantes e oradores académicos que conviveram e trabalharam com Aquino de Bragança, tais como Fernando Ganhão, Colin Darch, Luís de Brito, Marc Wuyts, Anna Maria Gentili, Yussuf Adam, Fernando Lima e Carlos Serra. O evento enquadra-se nas comemorações dos 20 anos do acidente de Mbuzini, que vitimou o primeiro presidente de Moçambique, Samora Machel e sua delegação, incluindo Aquino de Bragança.
NOTÍCIAS – 15.06.2006
http://macua.blogs.com/moambique_para_todos/2006/06/aquino_de_braga.html
Letter to the PIDE
The Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado or PIDE (International and State Defence Police), was the main tool of repression used by the authoritarian regime of António de Oliveira Salazar in Portugal, the Estado Novo. Although the name PIDE was only used from 1945 to 1969, the whole network of secret police forces which existed during the 40 years of the regime are commonly known as PIDE.
Arménio Ferreira and Aquino
Arménio Ferreira was a Angolan physician of Portuguese descent. Ferreira was personal physician and unofficial advisor of Angolan President Agostinho Neto.
Immanuel Wallerstein’s words
ImImmanuel Maurice Wallerstein (born 28 September 1930, New York City) is a U.S. sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst. His monthly commentaries on world affairs are syndicated by Agence Global. Wallerstein is fluent in Spanish and French.manuel Maurice Wallerstein (born 28 September 1930, New York City) is a U.S. sociologist, historical social scientist, and world-systems analyst. His monthly commentaries on world affairs are syndicated by Agence Global. Wallerstein is fluent in Spanish and French.
Patrick Momy’s message
Letter from Samir Amin
Le Mond — René Daumian
Luta Armada, Angola, Aquino…
A premonition?
Africa do Sul journal
Tags: mediacomments