The Wiriyamu Massacre of 1972: Response to Reis and Oliveira

Abstract

In their text published in May 2012, Bruno Reis and Pedro Oliveira proposed six theses on the massacre at Wiriyamu. They claim or imply that as a location of well-developed villages Wiriyamu did not exist; the massacre as reported might not have happened; although an atrocity may have occurred, the events are too complex to accurately unravel even today; lack of an independent or official inquiry makes the numbers of the dead as reported inaccurate; and that the exigencies of the counterinsurgency determined its context and magnitude within the framework of a civil war. This response examines these six theses, and concludes that Reis and Oliveira fail to advance the narrative. They accept at face value the Portuguese propaganda denying the existence of Wiriyamu as a place, rather than consider data that incontrovertibly proved the existence of Wiriyamu, the massacre, its context, and the overall integrity of the narrative. Finally this text sends a mixed message to its readers by contextualizing it as a case study in civil war.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This text has greatly benefitted from numerous suggestions from Eric Morier-Genoud, Anne Pitcher, Michel Cahen, Jeanne Penvenne, Brett Schmoll, João M. Cabrita, and Collin Darch. None mentioned here is responsible for the views expressed, for which I am solely accountable. This text draws upon the author's The 1972 Wiriyamu Massacre in Mozambique, London, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.

The research for this text relies on the printed and archival materials appropriate for this case; fieldwork on site in 1994–1995; interviews with some of the killers, survivors, religious personnel connected with the massacre; the catholic hierarchy in both the Archbishopric of Maputo headed now by the Búzi-born Capuchin Friar Francisco Chimoio and the Bishopric of Tete; missionary personnel at the Maputo-based main offices for the Jesuit, Verona, and Comboni orders; former missionaries at the Seminário Maior de S. Pio X; and the White Fathers active at the seminary at Zobue before its handover to the Jesuits in 1972; and last but not least, military personnel on both sides of the divide.

Notes

^1. Mustafah Dhada, ‘Contesting Terrains Over a Massacre: The Case of Wiriyamu’ in George C. Bond and Nigel C. Gibson (eds.) Contested Terrains and Constructed Categories: Contemporary Africa in Focus (Cambridge, MA: Westview Press 2002), pp.259–77.

^2. Adrian Hastings, Wiriyamu: My Lai inMozambique (London: Search Press Limited 1974); Adrian Hastings, ‘Reflections upon the War in Mozambique’, African Affairs 73/292 (1974) pp.263–76; Dhada, ‘Contested Terrains’, pp.259–77; Kevin Parker, Wiriyamu and the War in Tete, 1971–1974, MA Thesis, University of York, York, England (1982).

^3. Felícia Cabrita, ‘Os Mortos Não Sofrem’, Revista Expresso (5 Dec., 1992); ‘Wiriyamu, Viagem ao Fundo do Terror’, Revista Expresso (21 Nov., 1998); Massacres em África (Lisbon: A Esfera dos Livros 2008).

^4. Williams Sassine, Wirriyamu (London: Heinemann 1980); José Rodrigues dos Santos, O Anjo Branco (Lisbon: Gravida 2010).

^5. See entries under ‘Wiriyamu’, Choppertech Blog, http://choppertech.blogspot.com/, accessed 15 Jun. 2012; ‘Wiriyamu e Outras Polemicas’, Macua Blogs, http://macua.blogs.com/, accessed 10 Jun. 2012; The Delgoa Bay Blog, http://delagoabayword.wordpress.com/, accessed 13 Jun. 2012; ‘Wiryamu…o que foi?’, Cuamba Blog, http://cuamba.blogspot.com/2010/01/wiriyamu-o-que-foi.html, accessed 17 Nov. 2012.

^6. See for instance, ‘Massacre de Wiriyamu (01 de 07)’, http://youtube.com/results?search_query = wiriyamu&oq = wiriyamu&aq = f&aqi = &aql = &gs_l = youtube.3...3042.3340.0.3770.8.3.0.0.0.0.96.176.2.2.0...0.0.JQXlkOM0_mw, accessed 15 Jun. 2012.

^7. ‘Mozambique History Net: Atrocities and Massacres, 1960–1977: Wiriyamu, Mueda and Others, Dossier MZ-0354’, http://www.mozambiquehistory.net/massacres.html, accessed 15 Jul. 2012.

^8. A sample of these in the author's possession include two sets of research papers: one submitted at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB) in partial fulfillment for the BA HIST 418; and the other set submitted at Bard College, Master of Arts in Teaching Program, Delano Campus, California, in partial fulfillment for History 501.

^9. ‘Massacre de Wiriyamu Chawola e Juwau Dezembro de 1972,’ http://massacredewiriyamu.blogspot.com/, accessed 17 Nov. 2011.

^10. Bruno C. Reis and Pedro A. Oliveira, ‘Cutting Heads or Winning Hearts: Late Colonial Portuguese Counterinsurgency and the Wiriyamu Massacre of 1972’, Civil Wars, 14/1 (2012) pp.80–103, p.83.

^11. Ibid., p.98.

^12.The Times 17 Jul. 1973, 1f.

^13. Reis and Oliveira (note 10), p.80.

^14. Ibid.

^15. Harry Derelius, ‘Wiriyamu is marked on Tete mission maps’, The Times, 16 Jul. 1973, 1d.

^16. Mustafah Dhada, Preliminary census data gathered during 1994–1995 field work at Wiriyamu.

^17. Reis and Oliveira (note 10), p.81.

^18. Adrian Hastings, Wiriyamu: My Lai inMozambique (London: Search Press Limited 1974).

^19. Cesare Bertulli, A Cruz e a Espada em Moçambique (Lisbon: Portugália Editora 1974).

^20. Cabrita (note 3).

^21. The text does not indicate the extent of the research undertaken in The Times of London archives. See, The Times Annual Index (es) for a complete set of articles related to the case between 1973 and 1975.

^22. António Sousa Ribeiro, Terror em Tete: Relato Documental das Atrocidades dos Portugueses no Distrito de Tete, Moçambique, 1971–1972 (Porto: A Regra do Jogo 1974).

^23. Parker, Wiriyamu and The War.

^24. Interviews with General Gruveta, Maputo, Mozambique (1994) and General Hama Tai, Maputo, Mozambique (1995).

^25. The essential document pertinent here is ‘Dignitatis Humanae’, Vatican II – Voice of the Church (7 Dec. 1965), http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651207_dignitatis-humanae_en.html, accessed 10 Jun. 2012.

^26. Interview with Michael Knipe, London, 1996.