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The Anguish of Angola: On Becoming Independent in the Last Quarter of the Twentieth Century

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

John A. Marcum
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Extract

As the United States approaches its two-hundredth year of independence, Angola is entering upon its first. Fifteen years after most of Black Africa shed colonial rule, and fourteen after Angolan insurgents shattered the myth of multiracial harmony in Iusophone Africa, a total collapse of Portuguese authority has catapulted Angola to an uncertain nationhood born in chaos and civil war.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , Winter 1975 , pp. 3 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1975 

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References

Notes

1 Notably, , The Idea of Nationalism, A Study in Its Origins and Background (New York, 1946); and Nationalism, Its Meaning in History (Princeton, N.J., 1955).Google Scholar

2 For a discussion of the perceptual distortions and dysfunctional behavior commonly associated with involuntary exile and their impact upon nationalist politics, see Marcum, John, “The Exile Condition and Revolutionary Effectiveness: Southern African Liberation Movements” in Potholm, Christian P. and Dale, Richard, Southern Africa in Perspective (New York, 1972), pp. 262–275 and 380-388Google Scholar. Noting that exile tends to trap nationalists into a dependence on external “deals” and models, Agostinho Neto has commented: ” ‘The worst thing the Portuguese did to us,’ said one of my most intelligent friends, ‘was to oblige us to wage a liberation struggle from abroad.’ I agree.” Neto, “Quern é o Inimigo . .. Qual é o Nosso Objectivo” (Confêrencia feita ne Universidade de Dar es Salaam, 7 Feb. 1974, mimeo.).

3 The approximate date of July 1957 is based upon a series of interviews with UPNA co-founders Pinock and Necaca and associates such as Francisco Borralho Lulendo. The date given in party literature is July 1954.

4 Quoted from a “Letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations,” datelined São Salvador, June 1957.

5 Letter from Barros Necaca to George Houser (executive director of the American Committee on Africa), Léopoldville, February 9, 1958.

6 See Holden Roberto, “La vie en Angola” (Accra, Dec. 1958, unpublished typescript). In a book based on interviews and documents given to him by Roberto, a Swiss journalist, Pierre des Siernes, using the nom de plume Pierre A. Moser, suggests that the UPA grew by stages from a regional to a national party under the impact of Roberto’s leadership, the rebellion, and an outflow of Angolan refugees from non-Bakongo areas of Angola. Moser, , La revolution angolaise (Tunis, 1966), p. 67.Google Scholar

7 Notably Nto-Bako Angola, an antirevolutionary group created in 1960 at the initiative of a Congolese (Bakongo) party, Abako; and the Movimento de Defesa dos Interesses de Angola (MDIA), a pacifist, predominantly Bazombo (Bakongo subgroup) movement that split from the UPA on the eve of the 1961 uprising.

8 Ngwizako, Nto-Bako, Parti Progressiste Africain (PPA), Rassemble ment des Chefs Coutumiers du Kongo Portugais (RCCKP) and Union Progressiste de Nso Angola (UPRONA).

9 The manner in which such separatists were manipulated has been detailed by former detainees; see for example five-page letter from the MDIA (cf. note 7) to the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, Stanford, datelined Luanda, Aug. 12, 1974.

10 Noticia (Luanda), June 22, 1974.

11 PDA president Emmanuel Kunzika, for ten years Vice Premier in the FNLA’s Government in Exile (GRAE), was rusticated and replaced at the head of the PDA by Sebastião Lubaki Ntemo. GRAE, Nouvelles Breves (Kinshasa), No. 4, 5-14 July 1972.

12 According to Roberto aide Paulo Tuba, interviewed by George Houser, Kinshasa, August 1973.

13 Contrarily, in times of political and/or military reversals or inactivity, the FNLA’s non-Bakongo leadership fell away and Roberto turned to associates with whom he shared ethnic and familial ties. Such was the case in 1964 when UPA secretary general Jonas Savimbi led an exodus of Ovimbundu and in 1969-71 when UPA Vice President Rosário Neto (from Malange) and other non-Bakongo leaders were purged from FNLA ranks.

14 For biographical backgrounds of African ministers see O’Comércio (Luanda), January 31, 1975.

15 See interview with Neto, Mateos in Afrique-Asie (Paris), No. 94, October 20, 1975, pp. 15–17.Google Scholar

16 Marcum, John, The Angolan Revolution: The Anatomy of an Explosion(1950-1962) (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), pp. 23–30.Google Scholar

17 These names refer to such persons as António Pedro Benje and Ilídio Machado (first MPLA president), arrested by the Portuguese security police (PIDE).

18 For the text of the poem, “The Hoisting of the Flag,” see MPLA, Angola in Arms (Dar es Salaam), Vol. 1, No. 2, February 1967.Google Scholar

19 Ibid., Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1967.

20 Neto, Agostinho, “People in Revolution,” in Portuguese Colonies: Victory or Death (Havana, 1971 ), p. 15.Google Scholar

21 Cmdr. Benedito, João Gonçalves, “Five Months of Independence in Angola,” African Revolution (Algiers), Vol. 1, No. 1, May 1963, pp. 26–29.Google Scholar

22 MPLA, First National Conference of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (pamphlet, December 1962), p. 32.Google Scholar

23 MPLA, Angola: Dez Anos de Existencia: Dez Anos de Luta em Prol do Povo Angolanos (Dar es Salaam, February 1967 Google Scholar, mimeo.); and L’Angola (Algiers, 1969), p. 93.

24 Notícia, 14 September 1974.

25 For background interviews with Monimambu and Chipenda prior to their defection see Barnett, Don and Harvey, Roy, The Revolution in Angola (Indianapolis, 1972), pp. 7–28 and 250-263Google Scholar. Monimambu fled to Zaire. Le Monde (Paris), June 7, 1974 and O’Seculo (Lisbon), July 31, 1974.

26 Agostinho Neto blamed “tribalists of Umbundu [Ovimbundu] origin,” as manipulated by Chipenda’s “ambition” and “enemy pressure,” for crippling MPLA operations in Eastern Angola. MPLA, “Note to the Zambian Government Regarding the Counter- Revolutionary Currents within the Movement” (Lusaka, June 3, 1973, mimeo.). Daniel Chipenda countered with charges that “northern militants” refused to work with local, rural people of the East to solve political and military problems. Chipenda, , “Open Letter to the Militants” (Lusaka, July 1973, mimeo.) and Notícia, September 14, 1974 Google Scholar.

27 Zaire (Kinshasa), February 21, 1975.

28 O’Comércio, January 31, 1975.

29 See statement by defecting FNLA military commander, Kalundungo, José, in Davezies, Roberto, Les Angolais (Paris, 1965), pp. 211–213.Google Scholar

30 Notícia, August 24, 1974.

31 See UNITA, Kwacha-Angola (Lusaka), No. 1, 1966.

32 Valentim, Jorge in Angola 66 (Oegstgeest, Netherlands, February 1966, mimeo.).Google Scholar

33 See for example UNITA Central Committee, Angola: Seventh Year (London, 1968), p. 6; and João Chisseva, “Ngau, Ngau, Ngau! O Sino da Liberdade” (April 1966, unpublished typescript).

34 See study written by Vakulukuta, A. at University of Grenoble, 1971, excerpted in UNITA, Kwacha-Angola (London, 1972, mimeo.)Google Scholar as quoted in Neves, Fernando, Negritude e Revolucção em Angola (Paris, 1974), p. 101.Google Scholar

35 UNITA’s first vice president was Smart Chata, a long-time leader of a Chokwe self-help association, Ukwashi Wa Chokwe, in Zambia.

36 For example, UNITA’s chief of staff, Cmdr. Samuel Chitunda, foreign secretary Jorge Sangumba, and political organizer Jorge Valentim.

37 Elima (Kinshasa), December 21, 1974. Also Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, pp. 172-173.

38 Among the Cabindan groups that appeared and disappeared was a Provisional Government of Fiote Revolutionaries in Exile (GPRFE). See UN, General Assembly, Doc. A/AC.109/PET.641, May 25, 1967.

39 Formed in 1963 by a merger of three Cabindan political groups. L’Homme nouveau (Brazzaville), No. 188, August 11, 1963.

40 According to Gilbert Comte of Le Monde (May 17, 1975), MPLA forces were “mercilessly” tracking down and eliminating FLEC militants.

41 For a discussion of “tribalism” and class privilege in independent African states see Sklar, Richard L., “Political Science and National Integration—A Radical Approach,” The Journal of Modern African Studies, Vol. 5, No. 1 (May 1967), pp. 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Bates, Robert, Ethnicity in Contemporary Africa (Syracuse, N.Y., 1973).Google Scholar

42 Henderson, Lawrence W., “Protestantism: A Tribal Religion,” in Parsons, Robert T., ed., Windows on Africa: A Symposium (Leiden, Netherlands, 1971 ), pp. 61–80.Google Scholar

43 These included Agostinho Neto (Methodist, Luanda), Holden Roberto (Baptist, Léopoldville), and Jonas Savimbi (Congregational, Huambo). A greater proportion of FNLA and UNITA, as against MPLA, leadership was educated in rural Protestant schools. MPLA and Portuguese critics of Roberto’s movements sometimes portrayed it as anti-Catholic and desirous of imposing Protestantism on all Angola. (MPLA, Comité Directeur, “Communiqué” [Léopoldville, March 26, 1962, mimeo.]). During the initial uprising of March-April 1962, Catholic missions and schools, perceived as closely associated with the colonial administration by UPA-linked insurgents, were singled out for destruction. (Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, p. 149).

44 Illustrative of such publications: (1) Addicott, Len, Cry Angola! (London, 1962) and Rev.Grenfell, David, Notes (Kibentele, 1962-67)Google Scholar for BMS; (2) “Angola and the MPLA,” Motive (Nashville, Tenn.), Vol. 31, No. 4 (February 1971), pp. 41-61, for Methodists; (3) widely circulated open letters exchanged between UNITA and representatives of the United Church of Christ, 1970-71.

45 For a detailed study of the development of education in Angola see Samuels, Michael A., Education In Angola, 1878-1914. A History of Culture Transfer and Administration (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

46 See article by former MPLA president, Andrade, Mário de, “Et les colonies de Salazar?” Democratie nouvelle (Paris), Vol. 14, No. 9 (September 1960), pp. 34–35 Google Scholar. Also Sidenko, V., “The Last African Colonies: Angola,” New Times (Moscow), No. 50 (December 1960), p. 20 Google Scholar.

47 Cruz, Virato da, “What Kind of Independence for Angola?” Revolution (Paris), Vol. 1, No. 9 (January 1964), p. 15 Google Scholar.

48 Le Monde, November 8, 1961; and MPLA (untitled) questions and replies at Andrade’s press conference, October 30, 1961 (Léopoldville, November 1961, mimeo.).

49 Neto, “Quern é o Inimigo ...”

50 Sparticus Monimambu (Seattle, 1970), pp. 21 and 32.

51 Harvey, Roy, People’s War in Angola (Seattle, 1970), p. 24.Google Scholar

52 Brazzaville, Radio as quoted in Africa Research Bulletin (London), Vol. 5, No. 3, March 1968, pp. 1022–1023 Google Scholar. Dr. Neto and several other MPLA officials have Portuguese wives.

53 Interviews with MPLA militants in Roberto Davezies, Les Angolais, pp. 31-34, 39, 78; and MPLA, Comité Directeur, “Communiqué.”

54 Sparticus Monimambu, p. 33.

55 Neto, Agostinho, “A Message to Companions in the Struggle” (June 6, 1968) (Seattle, 1969), pp. 7–8 Google Scholar.

56 This did not deter them from the expediency of recruiting whites into their armed forces after the coup.

57 For example, UPA sources alleged that the Portuguese armed and used mestiços to kill black Africans during the uprising of March-April 1961. GRAE, Ministère de l’Information, “Aperçu des Organisations Nationalistes Angolaises,” Revue de Presse, No. 22 (Léopoldville, December 1962, mimeo.).

58 UPA Delegation Abroad, “To the Delegates of the 14th Session of the General Assembly” (New York, 1959, mimeo.).

59 See interview with Inacio Mendes (“Fofo”) in Dazvezies, Robert, La Guerre d’Angola (Bordeaux, France, 1968), pp. 38, 40Google Scholar.

60 UNITA, Kwacha-Angola, No. 5 (Lusaka, 1967, mimeo.)Google Scholar.

61 Conciliation efforts produced several ephemeral accords, beginning with a 1960 pledge of cooperation between Roberto and the MPLA (“Declaração de Compromismo,” Tunis, January 31, 1960) and concluding with a formal but empty FNLA-MPLA alliance in 1972 (Conselho Supremo de Libertação de Angola [CSLA], Kinshasa, December 13, 1972).

62 Writing in the Luanda weekly Notícia, February 21, 1970, pp. 44-51, a Portuguese journalist, Fernando Farinha, described MPLA- UPA competition in the forest areas north and east of Luanda as “mortal.” He depicted MPLA forces as “fighting for survival” in the area and concluded: “... we need not concern ourselves about the MPLA. The UPA will take it upon itself to eliminate the MPLA.” See also Davezies, Les Angolais, pp. 38, 78, 232 and passim for accounts of earlier MPLA-UPA clashes in the same general area.

63 See UNITA, Kwacha-Angola (London), No. 4 (June 1970)Google Scholar. Whereas violent encounters between military units of the MPLA on the one hand and the FNLA and UNITA on the other were common, there seems to have been a tacit agreement between UNITA and the FNLA to avoid such clashes. A UNITA “Especial Communiqué” (Central Base, Angola, February 4, 1970, mimeo.) signed by Savimbi described a January 1970 encounter between UNITA and UPA (FNLA) forces north of Nova-Chaves (Lunda district): “As the UPA soldiers did not manifest any aggressive intentions no military clash was registered between our two groups. On our side we register this happening as an encouraging fact towards the total stopping of the senseless fratricide war among Angolan groups.” Earlier on May 30, 1969, Savimbi had written to Zairean Foreign Minister Bomboko charging that MPLA forces were engaged in a “massacre” of civilians in eastern Angola and urging the Kinshasa government to use its influence to convince Roberto of the need for UPA-UNITA unity. In mid-1970, Portuguese officials in eastern Angola disseminated a statement attributed to a former UNITA militant (Tiago Sachilombo), which called upon the populace to join Portuguese forces in fighting against the MPLA, which, it alleged, had been killing members of UNITA since 1966. Diário de Noticias (Lisbon), June 24, 1970. Although the MPLA’s relative military advantage provided its rivals with ample motivation for cooperation, by April 1974 and the coup Roberto and Savimbi had made no apparent progress towards uniting their two movements.

64 Examples include the defection of MPLA vice president Matias Migúeis to the FNLA and his subsequent “arrest” and probable execution by MPLA “loyalists”; the arrest, imprisonment, and probable execution of MPLA executive committee members, Cmdr. João Benedito and Déolinda Rodrigues and an unknown number of other MPLA militants (as well as Bakongo separatists and other anti-Roberto leaders) by the FNLA; and the defection of UPA secretary general Jonas Savimbi and his followers from the FNLA and the alleged slaying of UNITA militant Kangombe Martins and ambush of UNITA patrols by the MPLA.

65 An Mbundu from Catete, Agostinho Neto lived for twelve years in Portugal where he earned his medical degree at the University of Oporto. A Bakongo émigré. Holden Roberto attended Protestant schools in Léopoldville and served for some years in the Belgian Congo administration. An Ochimbundu from Andulo, Jonas Savimbi attended mission schools in central Angola and later earned a licence in social science from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

66 O’Seculo, July 31, 1974; and Le Monde, May 31, 1974.

67 Note: informal, industry-based reports of large discoveries at Santo António do Zaire (Texaco) in the north and the Baia dos Tigres in the south.

68 See speech by Foreign Minister Mario Cardoso at Kinshasa ceremonies commemorating the tenth anniversary of the uprising in northern Angola, GRAE Actualités (Kinshasa), No. 3 (1971).

69 See Mohamed Aissoui, “Roberto Holden m’a dit,” Révolution Africaine, No. 83 (August 29, 1964), p. 13; and interview with Holden Roberto in Continent 2000 (Paris and Kinshasa), No. 12 (September 1970), p. 18. Referring to a UNITA encounter with UPA troops in early 1970, Savimbi commented: “These [UPA] men displayed a total ignorance of a consequent political line to be followed in any correct struggle against any form of oppression, be it Colonialism or international Imperialism which explains the constant setbacks that UPA is meeting despite the huge external support that it enjoys.” UNITA, “Especial Communiqué” (Central Base, Angola, February 4, 1970, mimeo.).

70 FNLA, Actuality (Kinshasa), No. 5, Sept. 1973 Google Scholar.

71 Diàrio de Noticias, 20 March 1972.

72 The Observer (London), August 24, 1975; and FNLA, Flash Nouvelles (Kinshasa), No. 15, December 12, 1973 Google Scholar.

73 Re Libya see O’Seculo, August 8, 1974; re India see African Diary (New Delhi), Vol. 7, No. 30 (July 23-29, 1967), p. 3489; Africa Quarterly (New Delhi), Vol. 7, No. 2 (July-September 1967), p. 195; and Navhind Times (Goa) September 30, 1972; re Rumania see FNLA, Amitié Roumano-Angolaise (Kinshasa, January 23, 1974).Google Scholar

74 The New York Times, September 25, 1975. Leslie H. Gelb reported that U.S. government officials had confirmed to him that American assistance to Roberto, begun in 1962, was renewed (presumably on a higher order of magnitude) after a hiatus of six years (1969-1975).

75 The Washington Post, September 26, 1975.

76 The New York Times, September 25, 1975.

77 Ibid.; and Le Monde, September 13, 1975.

78 Pravda (Moscow), April 22, 1966.

79 See MPLA, First National Conference of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (11), The Guardian (New York), May 2, 1968, p. 16 Google Scholar; and MPLA, Report of the MPLA to the UN Committee on Decolonization (Seattle, 1969), pp. 44–48 Google Scholar, which describes the MPLA’s Center of Revolutionary Instruction.

80 Davidson, Basil in “Dans la Brousse de l’Angola avec les Guerilleros du MPLA,” Le Monde Diplomatique (Paris), No. 198, September 1970, p. 19 Google Scholar, described MPLA ideology as revolutionary and Marxist but not Communist. See also Centro de Estudos Angolanos, Historia de Angola. Apontamentos, Caderno No. 2 (Algiers, 1965)Google Scholar.

81 Le Monde, September 25, 1975. New leadership unscarred by the experience of exile and free from external commitments was rising within the MPLA, e.g., Nito Alves who led an MPLA resistance group near Luanda.

82 Le Monde, October 23, 1975; The Washington Post, October 25, 1975; and FNLA, “A Statement on Soviet Intervention in Angola” (Angola, September 1975, mimeo.)Google Scholar.

83 UNITA, Angola, Document 2 (London, July 1971)Google Scholar; Kwacha-Angola (London), No. 6, January 1971; Kwacha-Angola (Stockholm, Sweden), No. 2, 1971.

84 Afrique-Asie, No. 61 (July 1974) as reprinted in Facts and Reports (Amsterdam), Vol. 4, No. 15-16, August 3, 1974, pp. 15-19.

85 See Savimbi, Jonas, Comunicação ao Povo Angolano (Luanda, 1975)Google Scholar.

86 Expresso (Lisbon), October 11, 1975.

87 According to René Lef ort of Le Monde (October 22, 1975), South Africa has assumed a “determinant” role in the training and arming of UNITA troops.

88 O’Seculo, May 19, 1975.

89 Philippe Pons in Le Monde, September 25, 1975.

90 Ibid.

91 Ibid., September 10, 1975.

92 Department of State, Bureau of Public Affairs, Office of Media Services, “Interview,” Secretary Kissinger, Henry A. in The Secretary of State, PR231 (Washington, D.C.), May 5-8, 1975, p. 6 Google Scholar.