Peter Fry carried out research for his PhD in pre-independence Zimbabwe on religion and politics (Spirits of Protest, CUP, 1979). From 1989 to 1993 he represented the Ford Foundation in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. This  led to his writing extensively on race, culture and politics in Lusophone and Anglophone countries of Africa and the Americas.  He is now Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.