Afonso Dhlakama was the leader of RENAMO, Mozambique's main opposition movement, for over forty years until his death in 2018.
Dhlakama’s story, and the Mozambican Civil War at large, are notable for two reasons. First is the regional and international dimension of the war. Mozambique's FRELIMO government courted support from communist powers such as East Germany but also became welcome in Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street.
Secondly, the two sides in the Civil War have actually come to an agreement in the early 1990s, having participated in a fifteen year civil war which claimed the lives of perhaps a million people. Does this make Mozambique a democracy today? Probably not. But its elites have at least accepted that they need to engage in some kind of inter-party horse trading.
My guest today is Alex Vines. Alex has led the Africa Programme at Chatham House since 2002, and his wealth of experience working on issues related to Africa is immense, having appeared on the UN Panel of Experts on Côte d’Ivoire and Liberia, chairing the former. He was also a UN election officer in Mozambique in 1994, and has authored many works related to the country.
EP127: Sadyr Japarov
EP126: Jean-Bertrand Aristide
EP125: Keir Starmer
EP123: J.R. Jayewardene
EP122: The Houthis (Part 2)
EP121: The Houthis (Part 1)
EP120: Jens Stoltenberg
EP119: John Magufuli
EP118: Mary Lou McDonald
EP117: Nayib Bukele
EP116: Hezbollah
EP115: Kim Yo Jong
EP114: Hafiz al-Assad
EP113: Alex Salmond
EP112: Islam Karimov
EP111: Geert Wilders
EP110: Hun Sen
EP109: Vytautas Landsbergis
EP108: Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
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