Ismael Valigy began his career at the Ministry of Education in the late 1970s. In 1990 he began working as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Two years later, during the Mozambican peace negotiations that spanned the early 1990s, Valigy was invited to represent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a group that the government established to help organize the country’s first election after a 15-year civil war. In late 1993 the ruling party nominated Valigy to serve on the country’s newly established Central Election Commission.  After the elections he continued his career as a diplomat, which included a posting to Washington, D.C. 

At the time of this interview, Bruce Baker was a professor of African security and director of the African Studies Centre at Coventry University, U.K.  He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Sussex and master's and doctoral degrees from Coventry University in the U.K.  He has lectured at Coventry University and been a Research Fellow at Rhodes University in South Africa.  He ran research projects on security issues in a number of African countries and conducted research for government and private organizations in the U.K.  He wrote numerous articles and books, including "Escape from Domination in Africa: Political Disengagement and its Consequences" (James Curry, 2000), “Taking the Law into Their Own Hands: Lawless Law Enforcers in Africa” (Ashgate, 2002), and “Security in Post-Conflict Africa: The Role of Nonstate Policing” (Taylor and Francis, 2009).