Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:44:25.922Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Wiriyamu Massacre of 1972: Its Context, Genesis, and Revelation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2013

Mustafah Dhada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This text on the Wiriyamu massacre of 1972 in Mozambique uses fieldwork and archival materials to address its historical context, the methods used to collect data for the narrative, the trajectory that the narrative took to reach the pages of The Times of London, the contest that ensued over its veracity, and its eventual acceptance as true by all parties concerned. The text concludes that both the context as well as the construction of the massacre narrative was much more complex and nuanced than the extant literature suggests. Its revelation too was governed by a series of factors, some directly related to the story and the timing of its arrival in London, and others entirely disconnected from the text of the massacre as received by The Times of London. The text discusses in the end how both the preponderance of evidence and a change in regime in Portugal among other factors delivered the narrative safely for all to agree on its veracity as a common text.

Resumé

Cet article sur le massacre des Wiriyamu en 1972 au Mozambique utilise les études d’archives et de terrain pour évaluer son contexte historique, les méthodes de collection des données utilisées pour créer le récit de cet évènement, sa trajectoire vers les pages du journal The Times of London, les protestations qui suivirent concernant la véracité de ce récit, et finalement son acceptation par tous les partis concernés. Cet article conclut que le contexte aussi bien que la construction du récit du massacre, étaient bien plus complexes et nuancés que la littérature qui en subsiste veut bien le suggérer. Sa révélation fut également le résultat d’une série de facteurs, certains étant reliés à l’histoire et au timing de son arrivée à Londres, et d’autres complètement disconnectés du récit du massacre tel que The Times of London l’a reçu. Enfin, cet article démontre qu’à la fois la prépondérance de preuves, et un changement de régime au Portugal furent parmi les autres facteurs qui rendirent le récit du massacre une version de la vérité acceptable pour tous.

Type
Critical Historiography
Information
History in Africa , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , October 2013 , pp. 45 - 75
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amnesty International, Annual Report 1973-1974 (London: Amnesty International, 1974).Google Scholar
Anonymous, , “Wiriyamu” or a Mare’s Nest (Lisbon: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1973).Google Scholar
Beckett, Ian F.W., “The Portuguese Army: The Campaign in Mozambique 1964-74,” in: Beckett, Ian F.W. and Pimlott, John (eds.), Armed Forces and Modern Counter-Insurgency (London: Croon Helm, 1977), 136–162.Google Scholar
Borges Coelho, João Paulo, O Início da Luta Armada Em Tete, 1968-1969 (Maputo: Archivo Histórico de Moçambique, 1989).Google Scholar
Bragança, Aquino de, and Wallerstein, Immanuel (eds.), The African Liberation Reader: Documents of the National Liberation Movements, Volume 2 (London: Zed Press, 1982).Google Scholar
Cabrita, João M., Mozambique: The Tortuous Road to Democracy (Basingstroke: Palgrave, 2000).Google Scholar
Cahen, Michel, “The Mueda Case and Maconde Political Ethnicity,” Africana Studia 2 (1999), 29–46.Google Scholar
Cardoso, Margarida, A Costa dos Murmúrios (Lisboa: Filmes do Tejo, 2004), 115 min.Google Scholar
Christie, Iain, Samora Machel: A Biography (London: PANAF, 1989).Google Scholar
Correia Poças de Carvalho, Susana Maria, “Dois olhares sobre uma guerra: A Costa dos Murmúrios” (MA thesis, The Open University, Lisboa, 2008).Google Scholar
Dhada, Mustafah, “Contesting Terrains over a Massacre: The Case of Wiriyamu,” in: Bond, George C. and Gibson, Nigel C. (eds.), Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: Contemporary Africa in Focus (Cambridge MA: Westview Press, 2002), 259–277.Google Scholar
Hack, Karl, “British Intelligence and Counter-Insurgency in the Era of Decolonisation: The Example of Malaya,” Intelligence and National Security 14–2 (1999), 124–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hastings, Adrian, Wiriyamu: My Lai in Mozambique (London: Search Press Limited, 1974).Google Scholar
Hastings, Adrian, “Reflections upon the War in Mozambique,” African Affairs 292 (1974), 263–276.Google Scholar
Hedges, David, “Apontamento Sobre as Relações Entre Malawi e Moçambique, 1961-1987,” Cadernos de Historia 6 (1987), 5–28.Google Scholar
Henderson, Robert D’A, “Relations of Neighbourliness: Malawi and Portugal, 1964-74,” Journal of Modern African Studies 15–3 (1977), 425–455.Google Scholar
Henriksen, Thomas, Revolution and Counterrevolution: Mozambique’s War of Independence, 1964–1974 (Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 1982).Google Scholar
Instituto Español de Misiones Extranjeras, II Asamblea General (Burgos: IEME, 1970).Google Scholar
Isaacman, Allen, A Luta Continua: Creating a New Society in Mozambique (Southern Africa Pamphlets No 1) (State University of New York, 1978).Google Scholar
Isaacman, Allen, and Isaacman, Barbara, Mozambique: From Colonialism to Revolution, 1900-1982 (Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Isaacman, Allen, and Sneddon, Chris, “Towards a Social and Environmental History of the Building of Cahora Bassa Dam,” Journal of Southern Africa Studies 26–4 (2000), 597–632.Google Scholar
Jardim, Jorge, Moçambique-Terra Queimada (Lisboa: Intervenção, 1976).Google Scholar
Sanders, James, South Africa and the International Media 1972-1979, a Struggle for Representation (New York: Routledge, 2011).Google Scholar
Jorge, Lídia, A Costa dos Murmúrios (Lisboa: Publicações Dom Quixote, 2008).Google Scholar
Jundanian, Brendan F., “Resettlement Programs: Counterinsurgency in Mozambique,” Comparative Politics 6 (1974), 519–540.Google Scholar
Karodia, Farida, A Shattering of Silence (Oxford: Heinemann, 1993).Google Scholar
MacQueen, Norrie, and Oliveira, Pedro Aires, “‘Grocer Meets Butcher,’ Marcello Caetano’s London Visit of 1973 and the Last Days of Portugal’s Estado Novo,” Cold War History 10–1 (2010), 29–50.Google Scholar
Middlemass, Keith, Cabora Bassa: Politics and Engineering in Southern Africa (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1975).Google Scholar
Morier-Genoud, Eric, “The Catholic Church, Religious Orders and the Making of Politics in Colonial Mozambique: The Case of the Diocese of Beira 1940-1974” (PhD dissertation, State University of New York at Binghamton, 2006).Google Scholar
Moutinho, Isabel, The Colonial Wars in Contemporary Portuguese Fiction (Suffolk: Tamesis Books, 2008).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Munslow, Barry, Mozambique, The Revolution and Its Origins (Harlow: Longman, 1983).Google Scholar
Nagl, John, Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam: Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife (Santa Barbara CA: Praeger, 2002).Google Scholar
Newitt, Malyn, “Towards a History of Modern Moçambique,” Rhodesian History 7–5 (1974), 33–47.Google Scholar
Newitt, Malyn, A History of Mozambique (London: Hurst and Company, 1995).Google Scholar
(no author), Panaf Great Lives, Eduardo Mondlane (London: Panaf, 1972).Google Scholar
Parker, Kevin, “Wiriyamu and the War in Tete, 1971-1974” (MA thesis, University of York, 1982).Google Scholar
Patel, Nandini, and Hajat, Rafiq, “Foreign Policy and International Relations,” in: Patel, Nandini and Svåsand, Lars (eds.), Government and Politics in Malawi (Zomba, Malawi: Kachere, 2007), 375–406.Google Scholar
Provencher, Jeff, “Foreign Aid and Diplomacy in Mozambique’s Liberation War” (MA thesis, California State University, Bakersfield, 2013).Google Scholar
Reis, Bruno C. and Oliveira, Pedro A., “Cutting Heads or Winning Hearts: Late Colonial Portuguese Counterinsurgency and the Wiriyamu Massacre of 1972,” Civil Wars 14–1 (2012), 80–103.Google Scholar
Rodrigues dos Santos, José, O Anjo Branco (Lisbon: Gravida, 2010).Google Scholar
Saavedra, Ricardo de, Os Dias Do Fim (Lisboa: Editorial Notícias, 1995).Google Scholar
Sagawa, Mukuse Daniel, “Power Politics or Personality? Re-Visiting Malawi’s Foreign Policy Conception and Strategy under Kamuzu Banda, 1964–1994,” Forum for Development Studies 38–2 (2011), 131–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sassine, Williams, Wirriyamu (London: Heinemann, 1980).Google Scholar
Shore, Herbert, “Resistance and Revolution in the Life of Eduardo Mondlane,” in: Mondlane, E., The Struggle for Mozambique (London: Zed Press, 1983), xii–xxxi.Google Scholar
Tavuyanago, Baxter, “Renamo: From Military Confrontation to Peaceful Democratic Engagement, 1976-2009,” African Journal of Political Science and International Relations 4–1 (2011), 42–51.Google Scholar