Resistant Scripts: José Craveirinha and José Ramalho between anticolonial fight and contradictions

Far beyond the militant writing, a wide range of text can be considered as a resistant script or a resistant archive. Poems, letters, and other archival sources demonstrate strengths and contradictions in the resistant discourses of the 1950s and 60s in (and about) liberation in Angola and Mozambique. I will discuss José Craveirinha's poetry in contrast with unpublished prison writing by José Ramalho. Craveirinha's poetry and praxis were intended as dangerous by colonial authorities: soon after the publication of the collection of poems Xigubo (1964), the Mozambican poet was jailed, in a crescendo of repression because of his artistic production and social postures. José Ramalho, later known for collaborating with the newspaper To the Point (Johannesburg) after the independence of Mozambique, was also imprisoned by PIDE and wrote poems supporting the liberation movements. His manuscript Caminhemos Resolutos Insubmissos, which remains unpublished, offers interesting insights into risks and contradictions while approaching prison writing.
Both writers discussed Mozambican freedom and colonial oppression. Their works and epistemological perspectives, though, were extremely divergent. Nevertheless, this case study demonstrates some of the complexities we must consider while approaching archives and discussing genealogies of resistance.