Description
This research project examines the relationship between the late decolonisation process triggered by the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Portugal and the domestic insecurity experienced in the now-former Portuguese African colonial territories. I employ a comparative approach, looking at the conditions informing different outcomes in every country within Lusophone Africa: Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and S. Tomé e Príncipe. I argue that the existing historiography of the cases favours explanations based on predatory behaviour (greed) by the new elites in the colonies, to the detriment of explanations looking at the insecurity experienced by those agents. Importantly, this research suggests that the outcome of post-colonial violence in post-colonial Lusophone Africa has varied in accordance with the experience of extreme insecurity rather than with the presence of greedy actors and the effect of state capacity. Furthermore, the dynamics through which state capacity and insecurity impact the outcome of post-colonial violence are further related to the quality of attempts at political settlements, the barriers to the mobilisation of violence and the role of the former colonial power in assisting the transition.
