13:30 - 15:00
Room: Aston Webb Theatre – G33
Stream: Portuguese-Speaking Africa Beyond Borders: Comparative and Intercultural Approaches
Chair/s:
Eleanor Jones
Portuguese speaking Africa,’’ lusophony’’ and solidarism across African and global international societies
Alexandra Magnolia Dias
FCSH-NOVA, Nova University of Lisbon, Lisbon

The study of the African international society from an International Relations English School Approach is giving its first steps (Elaine, 2013). The study of The paper will telescope three concepts: pan-africanism, solidarism and sovereignty across regional and global international societies in order to understand: a) how the Portuguese speaking national liberation movements learderships’ trajectories contributed to the evolution of an african international society anchored around anti-colonialism and anti-apartheid and b) how lusophony contributed to raise the support for the East Timorese post-colonial fight for Independence from Indonesia’s occupation in the aftermath of the end of Portuguese colonialism and c) how support for the East Timorese fight for independence contributed to transform the relations between Portugal and the afro-asian bloc in the post-colonial period. The paper will argue that the trajectory of the national liberation movements from Portuguese colonial role reinforced solidarism within an African international society vis-à-vis extra-regional actors while paradoxically exposed the fissures and tensions between solidarism and pluralism within that same society. In effect the discourses and the practices within the African international society did not match due to the precedence of the OUA member states’ regional and national interests vis-à-vis the movements, their leaderships and the African territories under Portuguese colonial rule. The OUA discourse of unity in the representation of the national liberation movements was not matched by the pluralism in individual members’ states support for factions within the liberation movements or for the different liberation movements seeking to gain legitimacy as the sole national liberation movement in each territory. The paper will argue that the East-Timorese fight for Independence benefited from solidarism within the lusophone spaces across regional international societies, namely through the efforts of two Portuguese-speaking countries (Mozambique and Portugal) and Portuguese-speaking diaspora. This was a key opportunity for Portugal to transcend the legacy of opposition from the afro-asian bloc within the UN during the final decade of the colonial period and to re-inforce its post-imperial vision and project for the post-colonial relations with former territories under Portuguese colonial rule.


Reference:
Th-A36 Portuguese 4-P-003
Presenter/s:
Alexandra Magnolia Dias
Presentation type:
Panel
Room:
Aston Webb Theatre – G33
Chair/s:
Eleanor Jones
Date:
Thursday, 13 September
Time:
14:00 - 14:15
Session times:
13:30 - 15:00