Dr Colin Darch
Honorary Research Associate
Colin Darch, B.A., M.A. (Oxon.), Ph.D. (Bradford), A.L.A., worked as a librarian and documentalist at universities and research institutions in Ethiopia (1970-1974), Tanzania (1975-1978), Mozambique (1979-1987), Zimbabwe (1987-1990), and Brazil (1991-1992) before moving to Cape Town as Director of Libraries at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in late 1992.
His doctorate was in Russian revolutionary history and focused on an anarchist movement in Ukraine between 1917 and 1921. Since retiring, he co-founded and actively participated in the international research network CopySouth, which adopted a critical perspective on the political economy of intellectual property in the Global South. He has published several articles and book chapters on this subject. In addition, he has published a co-authored monograph and several articles on freedom of information, particularly the citizen's right to access information held by the state without having to provide any justification.
His long-term research interests focus on contemporary Mozambican history, as well as the development of African Studies in the former Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia.
He has supervised postgraduate students at universities in Mozambique, Brazil, and the University of Cape Town (UCT). He is fluent in Portuguese, has a reading knowledge of Russian, and some knowledge of Kiswahili. In 2008, he founded the website Mozambique History Net, which provides researchers with access to documents relating to the country's history from the 1960s through to the end of the war with RENAMO in 1992-1994.
Academic and Research Appointments
- Honorary Research Fellow, Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), 2017-2023
- Honorary Research Associate, Development Governance and Rights Unit (DGRU), University of Cape Town, 2013-2023
- Visiting Professor, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Brazil, April-October 2016
Recent Publications
- With David Hedges (ed.), Samora Machel, Leader and Liberator in Southern Africa (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2024). (Voices of Liberation series).
- With Amélia Neves de Souto, A Dictionary of Mozambican History and Society (Cape Town: HSRC Press, 2022).
- With Teresa Cruz e Silva and Amélia Neves de Souto (eds.), Identidades, Lembranças e Esquecimento: Quarenta Anos de História do Centro de Estudos Africanos (Maputo: CEA/UEM, 2021).
- Nestor Makhno and Rural Anarchism in Ukraine, 1917-1921 *(London: Pluto Press, 2020).
Recent Chapters and Articles
- “Afrikanístika: as origens dos ‘Estudos Africanos’ na União Soviética, 1929-1945,” Afro-Ásia [Salvador, Brazil], no. 70 (2024), pp. 193-244.
- “Colocando africanos e afrodescendentes de volta dentro da história: experiências de descolonização curricular em Tanzânia e na África do Sul,” in Felipe Paiva, Moisés Corrêa and Núbia Aguilar Moreno (eds.), África em Contextos Globais: experiências de ensino, estratégias de pesquisa (Rio de Janeiro: CD Comunicação, 2024), pp. 75-99.
- With Paolo Israel, “Mozambique’s Teachers of the Negative: The Confessions of FRELIMO Dissidents at the Nachingwea Camp, March-May 1975,” International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 56, no. 2 (2023), pp. 159-190.
- “Soviet Intelligence Gathering in Africa in the 1960s and Early 1970s: A Review Article,” Review of African Political Economy, vol. 50, no. 176 (2023), pp. 272-289.
- With David Hedges, “Liberation and Biographical Narrative in Mozambican Historiography: The Struggle in Cabo Delgado, 1962-1974,” Journal of Southern African Studies, vol. 47, no. 4 (2021).