Our Brother, Maun Bo’t: The Biography of Xanana Gusmão, Leader of the East Timorese Struggle
This thesis contains a political biography of Xanana Gusmão, leader of the East Timorese struggle for self-determination who served as President and Prime Minister of the new nation of Timor Leste. In this biography I have traced his life from his early days as a child in the isolated colony of Portuguese Timor up until his bitter-sweet home-coming after years of imprisonment in Indonesia and the terrifying violence and destruction of the 1999 referendum on the issue of independence. My central argument is that during the brutal 24-year war with Indonesia Xanana was transformed through crisis from an apolitical outsider into a toughened guerrilla commander and political strategist, ultimately becoming the central unifying figure of East Timorese nationalism.