Antonio de Figueiredo, who has died of cancer of the oesophagus aged 77, was an activist, journalist and broadcaster who campaigned tirelessly for the liberation of Portugal's African colonies. With the lone exception of his friend Basil Davidson, de Figueiredo did more than anyone to bring the issue of colonial oppression in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea and Cape Verde to the attention of the English-speaking world.
Writing in the Guardian, broadcasting on the BBC, and speaking at countless public meetings in London in the 1960s and 1970s, he ensured that those who worked for liberation in South Africa and Rhodesia did not forget the horrors of Lusophone Africa. Disabled as a young man by ankylosing spondylitis, a rare and incurable disease of the spine, de Figueiredo was an unmistakable figure, whose intensity of stare gained extra authority as it emanated from a stooping figure and upturned face. But he never took himself too seriously, lapsing into jokes and anecdotes, often at his own expense. His physical courage was as remarkable as his passionate determination to effect change.
Born in rural Portugal, de Figueiredo had a harsh childhood. His father had died of malaria in Beira, Mozambique, when his son was less than two months old. His mother died when he was 12. He started work while still at primary school. He loved books and earned money by writing letters and reading newspapers aloud for illiterate adults, a job which shocked him all the more when he began to realise that keeping peasants in feudal backwardness was a deliberate policy of the fascist regime in Portugal.
When, at 17, relatives sent him to Mozambique to live with distant family members, he realised that conditions in the "overseas provinces" were even worse.
De Figueiredo learned English and worked for Barclays Bank in Lourenco Marques (now Maputo) while writing for South African newspapers and magazines under a pseudonym. Increasingly interested in politics, he was inspired by General Humberto Delgado's effort to challenge the Portuguese dictator, Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, in the 1959 election. He joined the committee sponsoring the general's candidacy, a move which brought the first of de Figueiredo's several arrests. He was expelled from Mozambique and detained in Lisbon before managing to escape to London.
He contacted Basil Davidson, whom he knew from his books. Davidson found him a job at the Anti-Slavery Society. De Figueiredo later shifted to better-paid positions at the Greyhound Racing Association and a city bank, before embarking fulltime on writing and broadcasting with the BBC Portuguese service. His book, Portugal and Its Empire: the Truth (1961), helped to put Angola and Mozambique on the ideological map.
He became the London representative for General Delgado who had been exiled from Portugal. When General Delgado later "disappeared" on a clandestine trip in Spain near the Portuguese border, and his body was discovered in a field, de Figueiredo's determination to work for the end of the fascist regime redoubled.
The April 1974 revolution in Portugal by dissident army officers did not surprise de Figueiredo. He always believed fascism would be overthrown by the army itself, and that a revolt within the ranks would be linked to the overseas provinces as officers became radicalised by the brutality of the struggle they were required to wage against the liberation movements.
He threw himself eagerly into the revolutionary chaos, and became an adviser to Portugal's delegation to the UN general assembly in September 1974, helping to set up links between the new government in Lisbon and leaders of the liberation movements.
As his disability got worse, he had to spend several months every year in the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath. He was a co-founder of the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society in the UK. He continued broadcasting a regular Letter from London on the BBC Portuguese service, wrote a weekly column for the New African magazine and for publications in Portugal. Latterly, he also wrote obituaries for the Guardian. He is survived by his second wife, Katherine Shaw, as well as his daughter Isabel.
Alex Gorman writes: In 1959 I was working on the electrical installation of the British exhibition in Portugal, and, unhappy with the interpreters, I advertised for one locally. Antonio de Figueiredo was appointed and proved himself to be excellent. We spent a lot of time together and got to know each other. We discussed politics and our life stories, and he told me he wished to leave Portugal, but this was difficult as he had no passport.
This seemed unreasonable and as I was able to book tickets through the exhibition's organisers, we wrote to them explaining that I needed to take Antonio with me to London for two to three weeks in order to finalise the accounts - so would they please supply official tickets. This they did.
I cannot remember the details of how we moved through the airport. Sufficient to say we were both rather nervous, but there was little security and the only papers we had to show were the tickets. Once we were in the air we were greatly relieved and there was much crying and laughing. We marked the occasion with champagne.
Over the years I wondered what had become of him. It was only just before he died, following the most amazing set of coincidences, that we spoke to each other after more than 45 years.
· Antonio de Figueiredo, journalist and campaigner, born March 18 1929; died November 30 2006