Hotel Trópico: Brazil and the Challenge of African Decolonization, 1950–1980In the wake of African decolonization, Brazil attempted to forge connections with newly independent countries. In the early 1960s it launched an effort to establish diplomatic ties with Africa; in the 1970s it undertook trade campaigns to open African markets to Brazilian technology. Hotel Trópico reveals the perceptions, particularly regarding race, of the diplomats and intellectuals who traveled to Africa on Brazil’s behalf. Jerry Dávila analyzes how their actions were shaped by ideas of Brazil as an emerging world power, ready to expand its sphere of influence; of Africa as the natural place to assert that influence, given its historical slave-trade ties to Brazil; and of twentieth-century Brazil as a “racial democracy,” a uniquely harmonious mix of races and cultures. While the experiences of Brazilian policymakers and diplomats in Africa reflected the logic of racial democracy, they also exposed ruptures in this interpretation of Brazilian identity. Did Brazil share a “lusotropical” identity with Portugal and its African colonies, so that it was bound to support Portuguese colonialism at the expense of Brazil’s ties with African nations? Or was Brazil a country of “Africans of every color,” compelled to support decolonization in its role as a natural leader in the South Atlantic? Drawing on interviews with retired Brazilian diplomats and intellectuals, Dávila shows the Brazilian belief in racial democracy to be about not only race but also Portuguese ethnicity. |
Contents
1 | |
1 Brazil in the Lusotropical World | 11 |
2 Africa and the Independent Foreign Policy | 39 |
Brazilian Diplomats in Nigeria | 64 |
4 War in Angola Crisis in Brazil | 91 |
5 Latinité or Fraternité? Senegal Portugal and the Brazilian Military Regime | 117 |
Brazil Rediscovers Africa | 141 |
7 Brazil and the Portuguese Revolution | 170 |
8 The Special Representation in Angola 1975 | 190 |
Marketing Brazil in Nigeria | 221 |
Epilogue | 244 |
Notes | 257 |
Bibliography | 293 |
Common terms and phrases
AAS mre Abdias do Nascimento African countries Afro-Brazilian ambassador Angola Antonio Olinto Arinos Azeredo da Silveira black Brazilian brasileira Brasília Brazil Brazilian delegation Brazilian diplomats Brazilian embassy Brazilian foreign Brazilian government Brito Candomblé Carlos Costa e Silva CPDOC/FGV cultural Dakar decolonization Diário diplomacia dispatch economic embassy in Lagos Ernesto Geisel Estado ethnic exiles exports FESTAC Foreign Affairs Foreign Ministry foreign policy Freyre's Geisel Ghana Gibson Barboza Gilberto Freyre Ibid independence Interbras Interview Itamaraty João Jornal José Maria Pereira Lacerda Lagos to Foreign leaders Lisbon Luanda Mário military minister Ministry of Foreign Mozambique MPLA Negrão de Lima Nigeria November Osava Ovídio de Melo Paulo Penna PIDE political Portugal Portugal's Portuguese colonialism President Quadros race relations racial democracy regime relações Rio de Janeiro Salazar São Paulo Sarmento Rodrigues Seljan Senegal Senghor Silveira Archive Souza Dantas telegram tion trip United Varig Verger West Africa zilian