The book discussed in this article is the published version of a doctoral dissertation defended at the University of São Paulo (USP) by a former leader of the Mozambican Liberation Front (Frelimo). It received the prize for the 'best doctoral dissertation' of 2008 in that year's competition organised by the Associação Brasileira de Ciências Sociais (Brazilian Association for the Social Sciences or ANPOCS). Its success in Brazil is undoubtedly a result of the detailed analysis that tears 'Lusotropicalism' to pieces, mainly insofar as it applies to Africa. While the book may be convincing with regard to the analysis of Lusotropicalism and race relations, it raises serious questions, on the other, about several aspects of Mozambican history. Cabaço does not distance himself sufficiently from the Front's paradigm of authoritarian modernisation (modernity versus tradition). This paradigm was a veritable political culture that travelled through the transformation from 'nationalism' to 'revolutionary nationalism', from this to 'Marxism-Leninism' and finally to the 'self-esteem' of the current neo-liberal discourse.
Article de discussion sur la thèse de doctorat, soutenue au Brésil et décrétée " meilleure thèse en sciences sociales, 2008 " par l'ANPOCS, de José Luís Cabaço, ancien dirigeant blanc du Frelimo. Cette thèse analyse finement le lusotropicalisme et les relations interraciales sous la colonisation portugaise contemporaine, mais, ne se distanciant pas du paradigme de modernisation autoritaire du Frelimo, échoue à expliquer les crises internes de ce parti et à faire le lien entre le principe du parti unique et l'idée de la nation homogène à créer rapidement