From Solidarity to Subjugation: Brazil, Mozambique, ProSAVANA, and the Twenty-First-Century Scramble for Africa

The twenty-first century has marked a shift in employing rights-based language and the right to development to facilitate new power dynamics and emphasize a decolonial approach to development. As a result, the rise of South-South cooperation, a horizontal development model, has been an attempt to shift foreign investment dynamics away from Western-aid dependencies. Yet many of these cooperations are reproductions of colonial power structures. This article examines ProSAVANA, a triangular cooperation launched in 2009 between the nations of Japan, Brazil, and Mozambique (Funada-Classen 2019). While ProSAVANA claimed to represent a decolonial approach to development, it dismissed local voices and applied a one-size-fits-all approach to Mozambique’s development, eventually leading to its failure in the implementation stage and announced termination in 2020 (Mokai and JVC 2020). This article examines the historical complexity and structures that led to ProSAVANA’s creation, as well as the lack of integration of the right to development into its mission. In theory, South-South cooperations decolonize development by promoting more equitable, mutualistic relationships. As ProSAVANA undermined the right to development and reproduced colonial dynamics, the case complicates the narrative of a South-South cooperation, exemplifying a cooperation counter to the goal of dismantling inequitable power structures.