Mozambique Archives - Commonwealth Oral History Project

Witness Seminar – The Commonwealth Secretariat, Economics and Development, and Global Politics

by evanamusoke | Jan 6, 2017 | Australia, CHOGM, Civil Society, Commonwealth Foundation, Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), Commonwealth Secretariat, Constitutional Change, Decolonisation, Democracy, Development, Diplomacy, Education, Elections, Fiji, Human Rights, India, Media, Mozambique, New Zealand, Queen, Small States, South Africa, United Kingdom, United Nations, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

The Witness Seminar was held on 24th March 2014 at the Australian National University in Canberra. Download Witness Seminar. Programme Session 1: The Commonwealth Secretariat Session 2: The Commonwealth, Economics and Development Session 3: The Commonwealth in Global...

Interview with Mark Chona

by evanamusoke | Mar 22, 2016 | Angola, Apartheid, CHOGM, Decolonisation, Democracy, Diplomacy, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Race, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

NOTE: The respondent stipulates that, before 2026, researchers should seek permission from him before citing this interview in their work. Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Chona, Mark, 1935-. Educated at University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now...

Interview with Moses Anafu

by chrismoffat | Jul 16, 2015 | Apartheid, Bangladesh, Botswana, Cameroon, Cold War, Commonwealth Secretariat, Democracy, Diplomacy, Elections, Gambia, Ghana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zambia, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcripts: Part One (17 June 2014); Part Two (13 July 2014); Part Three (19 November 2014). Appendices: One – Interview Inserts (6 May 2015); Two – Secretariat Analysis of 1979 Internal Settlement in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia; Three –...

Interview with Madhuri Bose

by chrismoffat | Jul 13, 2015 | Bangladesh, Cameroon, CHOGM, Civil Society, Commonwealth Secretariat, Democracy, Development, Education, Elections, Human Rights, India, Kenya, Mozambique, United Nations

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Bose, Madhuri. Educated at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. Positions with the Centre for Human Rights, Geneva, late 1970s, and with the International Labour Organisation, United...

Interview with Max Gaylard

by chrismoffat | Jun 29, 2015 | Apartheid, Australia, CHOGM, Commonwealth Secretariat, Diplomacy, Elections, Human Rights, Kenya, Malaysia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, Small States, South Africa, Technical Assistance, United Nations, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript: Part One (7 May 2014); Part Two (6 August 2014). Biography: Gaylard, Maxwell. 1946- . Born in Nambour, Queensland, Australia. Educated at the University of Queensland and the Australian National University. Served in the Australian...

Interview with Albie Sachs

by chrismoffat | May 8, 2015 | Apartheid, Canada, Cold War, Constitutional Change, Democracy, Judiciary, Law, Mozambique, Rhodesia (see also Zimbabwe), South Africa, Tanzania, United Kingdom, Zimbabwe (see also Rhodesia)

Download Interview Transcript. Biography: Sachs, Albert ‘Albie’ Louis. 1935- . Born in Johannesburg, South Africa. Educated at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Sussex University, England. Started practice as an advocate in Cape Town, 1956. Active in...

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Definitioner

Umkhonto we Sizwe

Umkhonto we Sizwe (‘Spear of the Nation’; abbreviated as MK) was the armed wing of the African National Congress (ANC), operating from 1961 to 1990. MK was founded following the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre and represents a turn away from non-violent struggle in South Africa. Branded as a ‘terrorist’ organisation by both the South African government and the United States, its members included Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Chris Hani, Joe Slovo and Thabo Mbeki, among others..

Anthony Gubbay

Anthony Ray Gubbay (b.1932) is a Zimbabwean judge who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Zimbabwe from 1990 to 2001. He was previously a Supreme Court judge (1983-90), a High Court judge (1977-83) and an advocate in private practice from 1974.

Enoch Dumbutshena

Enoch Dumbutshena (1920-2000) was a Zimbabwean judge who served as Chief Justice of his country from 1984 to 1990. He was Zimbabwe’s first black judge and a member of the International Commission of Jurists.

Isi Foighel

Isi Foighel (1927-2007) was a Danish jurist and political figure who served as Judge on the European Court of Human Rights from 1988 to 1998. From 1982 to 1987 he was the Danish Tax Minister in the government of Prime Minister Poul Schluter.

Dieter Grimm

Dieter Grimm (b.1937) is a German jurist and academic who served as Justice on the Federal Constitutional Court from 1987 to 1999. He has lectured at the Max Planck Institute in Frankfurt (1967-79), Bielefeld University (1979-87), New York University (1996-2000) and Humbolt University, Berlin (2000- ).

Arthur Chaskalson

Arthur Chaskalson (1931-2012) was a South African jurist who served as President of the Constitutional Court of South Africa (1994-2001) and Chief Justice of South Africa (2001-05). Chaskalson was a human rights lawyer in apartheid-era South Africa, participating in the 1963 Rivonia Trial as part of the defence team.

Robin Cooke

Robin Brunskill Cooke (1926-2006), Baron Cooke of Thorndon, was a New Zealand jurist who served as President of the Court of Appeal from 1976 to 1996. He is the only New Zealand judge to have sat in the British House of Lords, where he was granted a life peerage in 1996.

Rosalie Abella

Rosalie Silberman Abella (b.1946) is a Canadian judge who was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 2004. Abella is considered one of Canada’s leading experts on Human Rights Law, and presided over the Royal Commission on Equality in Employment.

Walter Kamba

Walter Kamba (1931-2007) was a Zimbabwean lawyer and academic who served as legal advisor to Zimbabwean nationalists at the Lancaster House Conference in 1979. He served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe from 1981 to 1992.

Welshman Ncube

Welshman Ncube (b.1961) is a Zimbabwean lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Industry and Commerce in Zimbabwe from 2009 to 2013. He is President of the Movement for Democratic Change – Ncube, and a former Professor of Law at the University of Zimbabwe.

Unity Accord of 1987

The Unity Accord of 1987 was a political agreement signed between Robert Mugabe and Joshua Nkomo in Zimbabwe to end the violence that had started in Matabeland in the wake of the Rhodesian Bush War. The Accord effectively dissolved Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) into Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), creating ZANU-PF (Patriotic Front).

PN Bhagwati

Prafullachandra Natwarlal Bhagwati (b.1921) is an Indian judge who served as Chief Justice of India from 1985 to 1986. He was previously Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court (1967-73). He is considered a pioneer of judicial activism in India due to his work on the concept of Public Interest Litigation.

Yusuf Dadoo

Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo (1909-1983) was a South African political figure and anti-apartheid activist. He was chair of the South African Indian Congress (1950-1960) and the South African Communist Party (1953-60, 1972-83), and a defendant at the 1956 Treason Trial. In 1960 he was forced into exile and operated from London as an international spokesperson for the anti-apartheid movement.

Bram Fischer

Abram Louis Fischer (1908-1975) was a South African lawyer and anti-apartheid activist. Commonly known as ‘Bram’ Fischer, he is famous for defending African National Congress leaders in the 1963-64 Rivonia Trial. Fischer was himself later convicted for his involvement with the South African Communist Party, serving eleven years in prison.

Stephen Ellis

Professor Stephen Ellis is an historian and former editor of the journal African Affairs. He has written broadly on issues as diverse as the African National Congress in exile, the Liberian Civil War, religion and politics in Africa, and the history of Madagascar.

Moses Kotane

Moses Kotane (1905-1978) was a South African political figure who served as Secretary General of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from 1939 until 1978. Kotane was also involved with the African National Congress, within which he acted as Treasurer General from 1963 to 1973. He attended the 1955 Asian-African Conference in Bandung, Indonesia.

SADET (South African Democracy Education Trust)

The South African Democracy Education Trust (SADET) was established in 2000 to consolidate historical materials concerning South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle and transition to democracy. It is based in Pretoria and is assisted by private sector funding. Its first project on ‘The Road to Democracy in South Africa’ has produced a considerable archive of oral history materials.

Tor Sellstrom

Tor Sellstrom is a Swedish civil servant, economist and writer who spent a large part of his career working in Southern Africa. From 1977 to 1979, Sellstrom assisted SWAPO of Namibia as part of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He was later a Planning Economist for the Swedish International Development Authority (SIDA) in Zambia (1979-82), Mozambique/Swaziland (1982-83) and Zimbabwe (1986-90). Sellstrom was also associated with the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (1991-94) and the Nordic African Institute (1994-2001).

Perestroika

Perestroika is the Russian word for ‘restructuring’ and refers to a political movement for reform within the Soviet Union during the 1980s. The movement is associated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and is held to be a key factor in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the associated end of the Cold War.

Mayibuye Centre

The Mayibuye Centre is an archive of materials related to apartheid South Africa and the anti-apartheid struggle, based at the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. The Centre includes a photographic archive, posters and banners, oral history records and collections of historical papers and art. The Centre was officially opened in 2001, but traces its origins back to the archives collected by the London-based International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) during the anti-apartheid struggle itself.

Chandrika Kumaratunga

Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga (b.1945) is a Sri Lankan political figure who served as President of Sri Lanka from 1994 to 2005. She is the daughter of former Prime Ministers Solomon Bandaranaike and Sirimavo Bandaranaike. Kumaratunga was leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party until 2005.

Georges Simenon

Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was a Belgian novelist who published nearly 200 novels during his writing career. He lived in France for much of his life, with periods also spent in the United States, Canada and Switzerland.

Princess Anne

Anne, Princess Royal (b.1950) is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II. She is a patron of over 200 charitable organisations.

Bertha Wilson

Bertha Wrenham Wilson (1923-2007) was a Canadian jurist who served as Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada from 1982 to 1991. Nominated by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, she was the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Wilson later served as Commissioner of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991-96).

Edward Scott

Archbishop Edward Scott (1919-2004) was the Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1971 to 1986. He was a member of the seven-person Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group sent to investigate apartheid in South Africa in 1985. In 1988, he was awarded the Pearson Prize Medal.

Carolyn McMaster

Carolyn McMaster is a Canadian diplomat and development expert who spent much of her career supporting Canadian government projects in sub-Saharan Africa. From 1990 to 2000, she was Deputy Head of the Southern African Task Force, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. She was later head of the Commonwealth Section (2000-203) and then Deputy High Commissioner to New Zealand (2003-07).

Shula Marks

Shula Eta Marks (b.1938) is a South African historian who was an anti-apartheid activist based for the large part of her career in the United Kingdom. She was Director of the Institute of Commonwealth Studies from 1983 to 1993, having lectured at the Institute since 1963. She was later affiliated with the School of Oriental and African Studies (1993-2001).

Council for Assisting Refugee Academics

The Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) is a British charity which supports the relocation of academics unable to continue their work in their countries of origin due to persecution or conflict. It was founded in 1933 to assist Jewish academics fleeing Nazi Germany. In 2014, it was renamed the Council for At-Risk Academics; before 1999, it was known as the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning (SPSL).

CARA (Council for Assisting Refugee Academics)

Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) was a British philosopher, writer and political activist. He is considered one of the founders of analytic philosophy and is recognised as one of the twentieth century’s premier logicians. Russell was an anti-war activist, an anti-imperialist and a pacifist campaigner, a vocal proponent of nuclear disarmament and a critic of totalitarianism.

Lusaka Accord

The Lusaka Accord was signed between the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) and the Portuguese government on 7 September 1974, formally recognising the right of the Mozambican people to independence. The transfer of power to FRELIMO was concluded on 25 June 1975.

Vella Pillay

Vella Pillay (1923-2004) was a South African economist and political activist who helped organise anti-apartheid campaigns while living in London, UK. Pillay was a member of the Transvaal Indian Congress, the South African Indian Congress and the South African Communist Party (SACP). He moved to London in 1949 to study at the London School of Economics and there participated in the founding of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). Serving as AAM’s Treasurer and later Vice-Chairman, he was also editor of the monthly Anti-Apartheid News.

Albert Lutuli

Inkosi Albert John Lutuli (1898-1967) was a South African educator and politician who served as President of the African National Congress from 1952 to 1967. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1961, the first recipient from outside Europe and the Americas.

Lutuli (Albert Lutuli)

Congress of the People

The Congress of the People was a meeting held in Kliptown, South Africa, in June 1955. During the Congress, the ‘Freedom Charter’ – stating the core principles of the anti-apartheid movement – was officially adopted by the South African Congress Alliance. The second day of the meeting was broken up by police.

Defiance Campaign

The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was a national action implemented by the African National Congress in South Africa, December 1951. The Campaign called for non-cooperation with those laws considered unjust and discriminatory in the apartheid state, advocating instead full democratic rights for every person, irrespective of the colour of their skin. Some 8,500 people were imprisoned during the demonstrations which followed in 1952.

Commonwealth Lawyers Association

The Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA) was established in 1986 in Jamaica, emerging from the Commonwealth Legal Bureau (established in 1968) and linked to the Commonwealth & Empire Law Conferences first organised in London in 1955. The CLA aims to facilitate exchange between legal professionals, academics and students across the Commonwealth on issues of legal education, professional ethics and approaches to the rule of law.

Chief Justice Dixon (Owen Dixon)

Sir Owen Dixon (1886-1972) was an Australian diplomat and judge. From 1952 to 1964 he was Chief Justice of Australia, having served on the High Court since 1929.

David Steel

Sir David Steel (b.1938), Baron Steel of Aikwood, is a British political figure with a long career in Scottish politics. From 1976 to 1988, he was leader of the Liberal Party in the UK. From 1966 to 1970, he was President of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the UK and later, in 1994, was an observer at South Africa’s first democratic elections. In 1999, he was Chairperson of the Commonwealth Observer Mission to South Africa’s second elections.

International Development Agency

The International Development Association (IDA) was established in 1960 as a member of the World Bank Group, headquartered in Washington, DC. As an international financial institution, it offers loans and grants to developing countries in line with its mission to reduce world poverty and provide affordable development financing.

Marlborough House

Marlborough House is a 17^th century mansion in the City of Westminster, central London, which has served as the headquarters of the Commonwealth Secretariat since 1953.

Moses Anafu

Moses Anafu is a Ghanian diplomat who joined the Commonwealth Secretariat in 1979 as Research Officer in the International Affairs Division. He was appointed Chief Research Officer in 1987 and served as Assistant Director, Political Affairs Department from 1990 to 2000. He was the Secretary General's Special Envoy to South Africa from 1991 to 1994. Anafu has also advised the UNDP on questions of governance in Africa.

Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association

Founded in 1970, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association acts as a network for judicial officers in the Commonwealth. The work of its Secretary General, Executive Committee and General Assembly is directed to promoting the independence of the judiciary and advancing education in law, justice and the prevention of crime.

Ujamaa

Ujamaa is the Swahili word for 'socialism', connected via the root 'jamaa' to the concept of family and extended support networks. Ujamaa was the underlying concept informing Julius Nyerere’s social and economic policies whilst he was President of Tanzania, set out in the 1967 Arusha Declaration.

Reg Austin

Professor Reginald Austin is a Zimbabwean academic who served the Commonwealth Secretariat as Director of Legal and Constitutional Affairs from 1993 to 1998. He had previously been Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Zimbabwe (1982-92) and Chief Electoral Officer of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (1992-93). In 1994, he was Director of the Electoral Component, UNOMSA (South Africa).

Joe Clark

Joe Clark (b. 1939). Canadian journalist, politician and statesman. As a member of the Progressive Conservative party, he was Prime Minister of Canada, June 1979-March 1980 and Secretary of State for External Affairs 1984-91.

RENAMO

RENAMO (Mozambican National Resistance) is a Mozambican political party, founded in 1975 as an anti-Communist organisation. It fought against the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in the Mozambican Civil War (1976-1992) and received military support from South Africa.

African National Congress

African National Congress. A South African political party, founded in 1912, that opposed apartheid and has been South Africa’s governing party since 1994.

ZANU

Zimbabwe African National Union. A militant political organisation founded in 1963 to campaign against white minority rule in Rhodesia. It won power in 1980, and in 1987 merged with ZAPU to form ZANU-PF.

Verwoerd (Hendrik Verwoerd)

Dr Hendrik Verwoerd (1901 –1966). Prime Minister of South Africa (1958-1966), closely associated with apartheid policies.

United Nations. Major international organisation, founded in 1945.

Oliver Tambo

Oliver Tambo (1917-1993). South African politician and anti-apartheid campaigner.

Walter Sisulu

Walter Sisulu (1912-2003). South African anti-apartheid activist who was Secretary-General of the African National Congress from 1949 to 1954. He was Deputy President of the ANC from 1991 to 1994.

SACP

South African Communist party, founded in 1921.

Sonny Ramphal (Shridath Ramphal)

Shridath Surendranath 'Sonny' Ramphal (b. 1928). Guyanese politician, second Commonwealth Secretary-General (1975-1990).

Pan-Africanist Congress

The Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) is a left-wing Black Nationalist political movement in South Africa, founded by ex-African National Congress activist Robert Sobukwe in 1959. During the anti-apartheid struggle, the PAC represented a radical perspective focused on black power as against than the ANC’s multi-racial openness.

PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress)

Old Commonwealth

An informal term describing the countries of the pre-1945 Commonwealth: Australia, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Julius Nyerere

Julius Nyerere (1922-1999). Tanzanian politician and President (1961-1985).

Nkomati Accord

The Nkomati Accors was a non-aggression treaty signed by the governments of Mozambique and South Africa in 1984.

National Party. South African political party, founded in 1915, that governed South Africa from 1948 to 1994, instituting a policy of apartheid.

Nassau CHOGM

The Nassau Accord was passed by the 1985 CHOGM held in Nassau in The Bahamas. The Accord called on the government of South Africa to end apartheid, and launch negotiations with the country's black majority.

Brian Mulroney

Brian Mulroney (b. 1939). Canadian politician, leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1983-93) and Prime Minister of Canada (1984-93).

Abdul Minty

Abdul Minty (b. 1939). South African diplomat.

Thabo Mbeki

Thabo Mbeki (b.1942). South African politician. He has served as an African National Congress negotiator in the 1980s and 1990s, and as South African Deputy President (1994-1999) and President (1999-2008).

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela (b. 1918). South African anti-apartheid campaigner and politician, served as South Africa’s first post-apartheid President (1994-1999).

Dr Mahathir (Mahathir bin Mohamad)

Dr Mahathir bin Mohamad (b. 1925). Malaysian politician and Prime Minister (1981-2003).

Lancaster House

A London mansion house, frequently used as the venue for decolonisation negotiations between the 1940s and 1970s. It was the site of the Lancaster House Agreement in December 1979, for instance, which brought an end to white rule in Rhodesia.

Michael Kirby

Michael Kirby (b.1939) is an Australian jurist who served as a Justice on the High Court of Australia between 1996 and 2009. He was President of the International Commission of Jurists (1995-98) and from 2009 to 2011 was a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group.

Kenneth Kaunda

Kenneth Kaunda (b.1924). Zambian politician and President (1964-1991).

Inkatha Freedom Party

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) is a South African political party which was founded in 1975 by Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Though originally associated with the ANC in the anti-apartheid struggle, conflicts developed over Buthelezi’s loyalties to the Zulu tribe and his political and economic ties with the South African state. Relations between the IFP and the ANC were characterised by conflict and outbreaks of violence from the late 1980s to the 1994 elections. The feud continues in post-apartheid South Africa.

IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party)

Goldstone Commission

A South African government Commission appointed in 1991 to inquire into political violence.

Front Line States

A group of southern African states formed in 1970, which campaigned for democratic majority rule in South Africa.

FRELIMO

FRELIMO (Mozambique Liberation Front) was formed in 1962 as a Mozambican liberation movement. Since independence in 1975 it has been the ruling political party in Mozambique.

Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser (b. 1930). Prime Minister of Australia (1975-1983). Fraser also served as Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on South Africa.

Commonwealth Secretariat

The Commonwealth Secretariat is the principal inter-governmental body of the Commonwealth, responsible for promoting cooperation between members. Founded in 1965.

Cold War

A period of ideological tension from around 1945 to 1991 between capitalist nations led by the USA and communist nations led by the USSR.

CHOGM

Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Every two years Commonwealth heads of government meet to discuss global and Commonwealth issues, with the aim of promoting common initiatives.

Berlin Wall

The breaching of the Berlin Wall that divided East and West Berlin in November 1989 was a major milestone in the ending of the Cold War.

Apartheid

A system of legally enforced racial segregation implemented and upheld by the National Party in South Africa from 1948 – 1994

Emeka Anyaoku

Emeka Anyaoku (b. 1933). Nigerian diplomat. Served as Head of the Commonwealth International Affairs Division (1973-1977), Assistant Secretary General (1977-1979); Deputy Secretary General (1979-1991); Secretary General (1991-2001).

Anglo-Boer War

The war between Britain and Afrikaner settlers fought in southern Africa between 1899 and 1902, culminating in a costly British victory.

ANC

African National Congress. A South African political party, founded in 1912, that opposed apartheid and has been South Africa’s governing party since 1994.

African Union

The successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) from 2002. It aims to promote greater cooperation and unity between member states.

AAM

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM), originally known as the Boycott Movement, was a British activist organisation founded in 1959 to oppose white minority rule in South Africa. It continued to run until 1994, supporting economic and academic sanctions of South Africa and cooperating with other international organisations like the UN.

Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM)

Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher (1926-2013). British politician and Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Mrs Thatcher (Margaret Thatcher)

Margaret Thatcher (1926-2013). British politician and Prime Minister (1979-1990).

Witness Seminar – The Commonwealth Secretariat, Economics and Development, and Global Politics

Interview with Mark Chona

Interview with Moses Anafu

Interview with Madhuri Bose

Interview with Max Gaylard

Interview with Albie Sachs

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