Geopolitics of decolonisation: The subaltern diplomacies of Lusophone Africa (1961–1974)

This paper addresses the global engagement of certain African intellectuals who strove for independence Lusophone Africa. It does so using geopolitical lenses based on new and multilingual archives. Extending current scholarship subaltern geopolitics, cultures decolonisation, critical development studies, I show performance diplomacies deployed by political leaders such as Amílcar Cabral, Mário Pinto de Andrade, Agostinho Neto, Eduardo Mondlane, Marcelino dos Santos in capturing international sympathy their cause from other scholars, activists, politicians at different levels (from grassroots movements to state organisations) across divides between Cold War blocs fields ‘First’, ‘Second’, ‘Third World’. argue that these endeavours disrupted mainstream narratives Euro-centred ideas assimilation, partly due emphasis education production histories geographies were instrumental national construction decolonised countries so-called ‘Portuguese Africa’. In 1960s early 1970s, used weapons culture, public communication, transnational networking devices important accomplishments fellow guerrilla fighters battlefield. Additionally, stories confirm importance archive tracing cosmopolite, multilingual, diasporic networks spatiality, well doing geopolitics perspectives than Anglo- or Western-centred ones, thus decolonising geography.