ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on political journalism in colonial Mozambique, in particular African press. It presents governmental norms and practices, from censorship to court cases, including the violent repression of the most ‘inconvenient’ voices. The opinions that were suppressed are analysed to underline the fight for press freedom, taken up by those who knew how just their cause was.
When in 1908, a group of ‘black men’ decided through a small newspaper O Africano (1908-1919) to defend the building of a school, they assembled more than a hundred signatures. Subsequently, the fight for education was followed by the fight against the laws of exclusion of Africans, for the support of the ideals of justice, equality, fraternity and labour rights, all in defence of the native Mozambican’s interests. The Brado Africano (1919-1974), our case study, was the most important African newspaper during the colonial period.
Several notable journalists of this newspaper, such as the brothers João and José Albasini, Estácio Dias, Karel Pott, Miguel da Mata, Rui de Noronha and José Craveirinha, released articles criticizing the system of colonial exploitation, which established such writing as an act of pressure, in other words, journalism of political intervention.
