Bernardino Antonio

Bernardino holds an MA in History from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa and an honours degree in Political Science from Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique. For a decade, he has worked as a researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic Studies (IESE) in Maputo, where he has conducted extensive fieldwork research on decentralisation, local governance, elections, and social cohesion.

Bernardino is a DPhil student in International Development at the Oxford Department of International Development. His doctoral research analyses the role of spiritual mediums in the Mozambique civil war, with a particular focus on the Naparama phenomenon, an independent peasant militia formed in Mozambique’s central and northern regions between 1988 and 1990. The research explores the intersections of religion, popular resistance, and post-conflict memory in shaping locals' responses to violence. It also analyses how the Naparama phenomenon has evolved over time, from the civil war to the post-1992 peace agreement, exploring its reemergence in the Cabo Delgado insurgency and the 2024 post-electoral protests.