RENAMO and UNITA’s role in ending civil wars and their contribution to post-war democratization in Mozambique and Angola

Abstract

The research on armed non-state actors in southern Africa that comprises this portfolio started in 1984-85 while in Mozambique and becoming intrigued by conversations with key Mozambican government officials, such as the late Fernando Honwana and Aquino de Bragança (advisers to President Machel but killed in 1986 with Machel in the air crash) – and with diplomats who struggled to explain the spreading Mozambican civil war. This convinced me that the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO) was more than solely a puppet of South African destabilisation and required research. Encouraged by Landeg White (Director of the Centre for Southern African Studies, University of York), I began researching on RENAMO in 1986, trying to understand why this rebel group was becoming so successful militarily in Mozambique and how it was evolving overtime. This took me to Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, Portugal, Italy and the United States. I received small grants from the Centre for Southern African Studies, the Catholic Institute of International Relations (now Progressio), the Refugee Studies Programme at Oxford University, Africa Watch (now Human Rights Watch), the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the British American Security Information Council.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Sponsors	University of York, Progressio, University of Oxford, Human Rights Watch, MacArthur Foundation & British American Security Information Council (BASIC)