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Paper short abstract:

The late 19th century in Mozambique would be marked by the appearance of a white type of nationalism, an ideological phenomenon that will compete with the rise of nativism in urban contexts a few decades later. What is the role of these two movements in the process of early resistance to colonialism?

Paper long abstract:

In the final years of the 19th century, the main urban centers of Mozambique have seen the emergence of a white nationalist current. The phenomenon predates the most acute manifestations of British and German expansionism in the region and can be read as a demonstration of local communities endowed with a political consciousness of itself. This notion in some circumstances served to express divergent point of views regarding the action of colonial authorities while not jeopardizing the basic lines of the Portuguese imperial project.

The process of a "civil society" building but in a "Euro-African" format, as defined by settlers, acquired visible signs of modernity. This kind of nationalist narrative also revealed the assimilation by colonial elites of an autonomist discourse, language that would support political, administrative and decentralization ideas.

This paper aims to identify and characterize the role of this movement by placing it in parallel with the onset of nativism manifestations, thereby contributing to the characterization of proto-nationalism in Portuguese East Africa.