Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T19:19:14.924Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Language, Names, and War: The Case of Angola

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Inge Brinkman
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article shows the links between naming practices and war. The focus is on MPLA war names used during the Angolan struggle for independence. These names are framed in the wider context of the relations between language and war. In many African contexts, names are not singular and fixed, but may change with every personal transformation. Entering the life of a soldier constitutes just such a drastic change. The article shows that through war names, a kaleidoscope of issues may be addressed, including the relations between language, rank, and power, personal history and popular culture, spirit possession and resurrection, self-description and labeling, writing and legitimacy, and secrecy and identity.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet article met en évidence le lien entre les pratiques nominatives liées et la guerre. Il se concentre sur les noms de guerre employés par le MPLA (Partido do Poder em Angola) pendant le conflit angolais pour l'indépendance. Ces noms sont envisagés dans le contexte plus vaste des relations entre la langue et la guerre. Dans de nombreux contextes africains, les noms ne sont pas singuliers ou définitifs, mais ils évoluent souvent avec chaque transformation personnelle. L'entrée dans la vie de soldat constitue un exemple radical de ce type de transformation. L'article montre comment, à travers les noms de guerre, un éventail de questions peuvent être adressées, y compris les relations entre la langue, la hiérarchie et le pouvoir, l'histoire individuelle et la culture populaire, les phénomènes de possession et de résurrection, l'auto description et le choix du nom, l'écriture et la légitimité et enfin, le secret et l'identité.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 47 , Issue 3 , December 2004 , pp. 143 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2004

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References

Interviews

Interview 1, elderly man at the Civue river; Kaisosi, August 27, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 2, a 28-year-old man born in Cuito Cuanavale; Kehemu, August 3, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 3, a 29-year old woman born in Cuito Cuanavale; Kehemu, September 5, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 4, an elderly woman born by the Namomo; Kehemu, June 21, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 5, a 32-year-old woman born in Mavinga; Kehemu, July 29, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 6, a 54-year-old woman born between Zambia and Angola; Kaisosi, September 5, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 7, a 67-year-old man born in Mwiva; Kehemu, August 29, 1996.Google Scholar
Interview 8, a 33-year-old man born in Cuito Cuanavale; Kehemu, June 23, 1997.Google Scholar
Interview 9, a 49-year-old woman born in Mavinga; Kaisosi, June 28, 1999.Google Scholar
Interview 10, an elderly woman born by the Namomo river; Kehemu, June 25, 1999.Google Scholar
Interview 11, a 70-year-old man born near the Lomba salt pan; Kehemu, June 28, 1999.Google Scholar
Documents of the Portuguese secret police (PIDE), Torre do Tombo archives (IANTT), Lisbon.Google Scholar
SC-CI (2), Pasta 2126, SR 59, Vol 3: 686v: letter found after an attack: report Salazar, March 23, 1970.Google Scholar
Del. A, P. Inf. 110.00.30, Vol. 14: 3: Luso, June 26, 1968.Google Scholar
Del. A., P. Inf. 110.00.30, Vol. 16: 340: Luanda, September. 13, 1968: Tommy Chibaye on MPLA regional conference (August 23–25, 1968).Google Scholar
Del. A., P. Inf. 110.00.30, Vol. 19: 222: Serpa Pinto, August 4, 1970.Google Scholar
Del. A., P. Inf. 110.00.30, Vol. 19: 24–44: Gago Coutinho, August 7, 1970.Google Scholar
Del. A., P. Inf. 11.12.A: 454: Luanda, September 1960.Google Scholar
Del. A, P. Inf. 11.12.B: 26: copy of letter to Tanta, Banza Pumba, October 11, 1961.Google Scholar
Del. A, P. Inf. 11.12.D: 3: PIDE translation ( September 15, 1961) of JUPA pamphlet, “Comportamente a levar no acampamento,” by Casimiro, Garcia and Jorge, Manuel.Google Scholar
Del. A., P. Inf. 12.23.A: 15–16: Gago Coutinho, December 11, 1971.Google Scholar
Del. A., SS Fundo, NT 9084, Serpa Pinto: 13, 19: “Apontamentos extraídos no caderno do terrorista: Zorro.”Google Scholar
Del. A., SS Fundo, NT 9084 Cuito Cuanavale: 415: Relatório, based on statements of Fulai Chihinga, Cuito Cuanavale, July 31, 1968.Google Scholar
Barnett, Don, and Harvey, Roy. 1972. The Revolution in Angola: MPLA, Life Histories, and Documents. New York: Bobbs-Merrill Company.Google Scholar
Behrend, Heike. 1999. Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits: War in Northern Uganda, 1986–1997. Oxford: James Currey.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinkman, Inge. 2000. “Ways of Death: Accounts of Terror from Angolan Refugees in Namibia.” Africa 70: 1–24.Google Scholar
Cardoso, Silva. 2000. Angola. Anatomia de uma tragédia. Lisbon: Oficina do livro.Google Scholar
Chatelain, Alida, and Roch, Amy. 1918. Heli Chatelain, 1851-1908, l'ami de l'Angola, fondateur de la Mission philafricaine d'apres sa correspondance. Lausanne: Mission Philafricaine.Google Scholar
Chimbinda, Simeão. 2003. “Names and Umbundu Identity.” Paper presented at the seminar “Identity as an Aspect of National Unity.” Huambo, 10 23.Google Scholar
Comaroff, Jean, and Comaroff, John L. 1991. Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South-Africa. Vol 1. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Conchiglia, Augusta. 1969. Guerra di popote in Angola. Reportage fotografico realizzato con i partigiani del MPLA. Rome: Lerici.Google Scholar
Coplan, David B. 1994. In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.Google Scholar
Davidson, Basil. 1972. In the Eye of the Storm: Angola's People. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Davidson, Basil. 1981. The People's Cause: A History of Guerrillas in Africa. Harlow: Longman.Google Scholar
Decke, Bettina. 1981. A terra é nossa. Koloniale Gesellschaft und Befreiungsbewegung in Angola. Bonn: ISSA.Google Scholar
Disila, José. 1981. “L'Église catholique portugaise en Angola au bénéfice de la colonisation de 1482-1975. Étude critique de ses activités missionaires.” Ph.D. diss., Protestant University (Brussels).Google Scholar
Drumond, Jaime, and Barber, Helder. 1999 Angola: depoimentos para a história recente, 1950–1976. Vila Nova de Gaia: Rocha-Artes.Google Scholar
Ellis, Stephen. 1999. The Mask of Anarchy: The Destruction of Liberia and the Religious Dimension of an African Civil War. London: Hurst & Co. Google Scholar
Ferme, Mariane C. 2001. The Underneath of Things: Violence, History, and the Everyday in Sierra Leone. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finnegan, Ruth. 1970. Oral Literature in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Finnegan, Ruth. 2003. “Anonymity and Pseudonyms.” Anthropology Today 19 (2): 22–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fussell, Paul. 1990. Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fussell, Paul. 2000. The Great War and Modern Memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gengenbach, Heidi. 2000. “Naming the Past in a ‘Scattered’ Land: Memory and the Powers of Women's Naming Practices in Southern Mozambique.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 33: 523–42.Google Scholar
Grenfell, Jim. 1995. “History of the Baptist Church in Angola, 1879–1975.” BMS archives, Th 87A.Google Scholar
Harries, Patrick. 1994. Work, Culture and Identity: Migrant Laborers in Mozambique and South Africa, c. 1860–1910. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Laidley, Fernando. 1964. Missões de guerra e de paz no Norte de Angola. Lisbon: Tapete Mágico.Google Scholar
Lewin, Kurt. 1917. “Kriegslandschaft.” Zeitschrift für angewandte Psychologie 12: 440–47.Google Scholar
Mabeko-Tali, Jean-Michel. 1995. “La ‘chasse aux Zaïrois’ à Luanda.” Politique Africaine 57: 71–84.Google Scholar
Mabeko-Tali, Jean-Michel. 2001. Dissidências e poder de estado: o MPLA perante si próprio (1962–77). Ensaio de História política. Vol. 1. Luanda: Nzila.Google Scholar
Monard, A. 1930. “Voyage de la mission scientifique suisse en Angola, 1928–1929.” Bulletin de la Société Neuchâteloise de Géographie 39: 6–99.Google Scholar
Mukonda, Zarito. 2002. “Maka de Toponómia.” O Independente 07 27: 11.Google Scholar
Marcum, John. 1969. The Angolan Revolution. Vol. 1: The Anatomy of an Explosion (1950–1962). Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Marcum, John. 1978. The Angolan Revolution. Vol. 2: Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962–1976). Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mpiku, Mbelolo ya. 1972. “Introduction à la littérature Kikongo.” Research in African Literatures 3: 117–61.Google Scholar
Miller, Joseph C. 1972. “The Imbangala and the Chronology of Early Central African History.” Journal of African History 13: 549–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ngũgĩ wa, Thiong'o. 1990. Matigari Oxford: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Pearson, Emil. 1977. People of the Aurora. Seal Beach, Calif: Author's edition.Google Scholar
Pepetela, . 1994. Mayombe. Lisbon: Editores Reunidos.Google Scholar
Richburg, Keith. 1997. Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Rossi, Pierre-Pascal. 1969. Pour une guerre oubliée. Paris: Julliard.Google Scholar
Schottman, Wendy. 2000. “Baatonu Personal Names from Birth to Death.” Africa 70: 79–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, James C. 1990. Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C., Tehranian, John, and Mathias, Jeremy. 2002. “The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States: The Case of the Permanent Family Surname.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 44 (1): 4–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, James H. 1998. “Njama's Supper: The Consumption and Use of Literary Potency by Mau Mau Insurgents in Colonial Kenya.” Comparative Studies in Society and History 40: 524–48.Google Scholar
Sommers, Marc. 2001. Fear in Bongoland: Burundi Refugees in Urban Tanzania. New York: Bergahn Books.Google Scholar
Stanley, Brian. 1992. The History of the Baptist Missionary Society, 1792–1992. Edinburgh: T&T Clark.Google Scholar
Toulabor, C. M. 1981. “Jeu de mots, jeu de villains. Lexique de la dérision politique.” Politique Africaine 1 (3): 55–71.Google Scholar
Van der Geest, Sjaak. 2003. “Confidentiality and Pseudonyms: A Fieldwork Dilemma from Ghana.” Anthropology Today 19 (1): 14—18.Google Scholar
Van Wing, J. 1938. Études Bakongo. Vol. 2: Religion et magie. Brussels: Van Campenhout.Google Scholar
Ventura, Reis. 1981. Sangue no capim. Atraiçoado. Lisbon: Fernando Pereira.Google Scholar
White, C. M. N. 1948. “Notes on Some Metaphysical Concepts of the Balovale Tribes.” African Studies 7 (4): 146–56.Google Scholar
Worby, Eric. 1994. “Maps, Names, and Ethnic Games: The Epistemology and Iconography of Colonial Power in Northwestern Zimbabwe.” Journal of Southern African Studies 20: 371–92.Google Scholar