Salazar Statue in Maputo

A life-sized bronze statue of Portuguese dictator António de Oliveira Salazar (b. 1889-1970) currently stands in the courtyard of the National Library in Maputo, Mozambique. Its move to this location in 2002 is part of an eventful prior itinerary, charted below by drawing on various sources while acknowledging the presence of certain gaps in the data. The statue can be seen as part of a political project of the Portuguese Estado Novo (New State) enacted via public monuments. Its history and present setting relate to the tensions inherent in the relationship between this project and Mozambican anti- and post-colonial reality.