Brazilian foreign policy in Africa, 1961--1976

This dissertation examines Brazilian diplomacy in Africa through the lenses of Brazilian and American diplomatic cables, adding a new facet to the historiography of Brazil's foreign relations. It begins with President Janio Quadros's independent foreign policy and concludes in 1976 when Nigeria surpassed South Africa as Brazil's leading commercial partner in Africa. By that time, Brazil had overhauled its relations with former Portuguese colonies in Africa, an extraordinary development for an authoritarian military regime.; The history of Brazilian foreign policy with Africa has attracted sustained attention over the past half century. Beginning in 1961, with the advent of President Quadros and decolonization in Africa, Brazilians began paying greater attention to their neighbor across the South Atlantic. Most of the ensuing historical studies were written by Brazilians: Jose Honorio Rodrigues, Amado Luiz Cervo, Jose Flavio Sombra Saraiva, and Jose Marroni de Abreu. Several non-Brazilians have covered the subject, among them David Fleischer, Keith Larry Storrs, and Samuel Yaw Boadi-Siaw.; Except for Boadi-Siaw's dissertation, "Development of Relations Between Brazil and African States 1950--73," and Sombra Saraiva's article "Do silencio," historians have argued that Brazil's relations with Africa ended with the cessation of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the 1850s and that their re-connection began only in 1961 with decolonization and the rise of Quadros. They also maintain that Quadros and his successor, Joao Goulart, initiated Brazil's independent foreign policy as a means to distinguish national interests from those of the United States and Western Europe. This dissertation argues that Brazil's early 1960s diplomacy, especially the African dimension, was not as independent as they asserted. After 1964 policymakers generally discounted Africa until 1972--1973, when they began searching for markets and solutions to the oil crisis. This dissertation asserts that it was after those issues became important that Brazil's diplomacy became more independent.