Unita and Ethnic Nationalism in Angola

Linda M. Heywood

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00015627

Unita and Ethnic Nationalism in Angola

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Linda M. Heywood

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Over the last decade or so scholars in the social sciences have been reassessing works on the rise of nationalism in Africa published in the 1960s and early 1970s. These earlier studies, written during the euphoria following independence and the spread of liberation ideology, regarded the transfer of power to the African élite as signalling the end of subjugation to European control and the emergence of modern African states.1 This revision focused on the post-colonial state and its rôle as a mediator between competing groups for power and the allocation of resources.2 Since then, the trend has generated a revival in understanding ethnicity which is again seen as a major force in most of the crises which have troubled Africa.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , March 1989 , pp. 47 - 66

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00015627 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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^{Page 47 note 1} See, for example, Armstrong, John A., Nations Before Nationalism (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1982).Google Scholar For an appreciation of the ethnic factor, see Olorunsola, Victor A. (ed.), The Politics of Cultural Sub-Nationalism in Africa (New York, 1972).Google Scholar

^{Page 47 note 2} Callaghy, Thomas M., The State-Society Struggle: Zaire in comparative perspective (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

^{Page 47 note 3} See, for example, Cell, John W., The Highest Stage of White Supremacy: the origins of segregation in South Africa and the American South (Cambridge, 1982);CrossRef Google Scholar also Marks, Shula and Trapido, Stanley (eds.), The Politics of Race, Class and Nationalism in Twentieth-Century South Africa (London and New York, 1987).Google Scholar

^{Page 47 note 4} Callaghy, op. cit.; and Nzongola-Ntalaja, (ed.), The Crisis in Zaire: myths and realties (Trenton, N. J., 1986).Google Scholar

^{Page 48 note 1} A particularly strong case was made by Saul, John S., ‘Frelimo and the Mozambique Revolution’, in Arrighi, Giovanni and Saul, , Essays on the Political Economy of Africa (New York and London, 1973), pp. 378–405.Google Scholar

^{Page 48 note 2} Cf. the bitter critique of the post-independence situation by Davidson, Basil, ‘Practice and Theory: Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde’, in Munslow, Barry (ed.), Africa: problems in the transition to socialism (London, 1986), pp. 95–113.Google Scholar

^{Page 48 note 3} See, among others, Wolfers, Michael and Bergerol, Jane, Angola in the Front Line (London, 1983), pp. 191–215;Google Scholar and Bhagavan, M. R., ‘Establishing the Conditions for Socialism: the case of Angola’, in Munslow, (ed.), op. cit. pp. 180–2.Google Scholar

^{Page 49 note 1} There can be no doubt that the survival of Unita has also been assisted by its long alliance with conservative forces in the United States. See Holness, Margo, ‘Who are the Angolan Bandits?’, in Action on Namibia: quarterly magazine of the Namibia Support Committee (London), Winter 1988, pp. 10–13.Google Scholar

^{Page 49 note 2} These documents were published in Afrique Asie (Paris), 3–2107 1974,Google Scholar and in Expresso (Lisbon), 17, 24, and 30 11 1979.Google Scholar The author has seen copies of the originals, kindly provided by Minter, William, who is working on an annotated English translation. These agreements are also mentioned in the memoirs of Portuguese officers involved, including Costa Gomes, Sobre Portugal (Lisbon, 1979) 32–3.Google Scholar

^{Page 49 note 3} Sitte, Franz, Flug in die Angola-Hölle (Graz, 1981), p. 137.Google Scholar

^{Page 50 note 1} Bridgland, Fred, Jonas Savimbi: a key to Africa (Edinburgh, 1986), p. 26,Google Scholar citing his interview with Savimbi in Rabat, 1980. Also author's interview with Pedro ‘Tito’ Chingunji, , ‘Foreign Minister of Unita in North America’, Washington, D.C., 3 11 1987.Google Scholar

^{Page 51 note 1} These villages were linked to seven centres run by North American missionaries with Ovimbundu assistance at all levels; Heywood, Linda M., ‘From Osoma to Savimbi: the state and transformation in Central Angola, 1850–1975’.Google Scholar

^{Page 51 note 2} United Council of Churches Archives, New York, ‘Delegation Visit to Angola’, June 1976, p. 60.

^{Page 51 note 3} Heywood, op. cit.

^{Page 52 note 1} Marcum, John A., The Angolan Revolution, Vol. II, Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare, 1962–1976 (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1978), pp. 163–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 52 note 2} Author's interview with Amelia Cardozo, Indian Head, Maryland, August 1986. Her recollections mainly referred to church-sponsored retreats in the central highlands during the late 1950s, before leaving to study in Switzerland in the 1960s.

^{Page 52 note 3} United Nations Archives, New York, DAG 4/4·4–16, ‘Meeting No. 76, May 25, 1962. Robert McGowan’, p. 16.

^{Page 52 note 4} Cardozo interview.

^{Page 53 note 1} Marcum, John A., The Angolan Revolution, Vol. I, The Anatomy of an Explosion, 1950–1962 (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1969), pp. 101–20.Google Scholar

^{Page 53 note 2} Chingunji interview. See also Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 163–5; and Bridgland, op. cit. pp. 80–9, based latgely on Savimbi interviews in London, 1980.

^{Page 53 note 3} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 54 note 1} Eyewitness account of Valentine, Steve in Times of Zambia (Lusaka), 11 and 12 09 1969; also Chingunji interview.Google Scholar

^{Page 54 note 2} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 54 note 3} Bridgland, op. cit. p. 93, based on reports in various newspapers by Sitte.

^{Page 55 note 1} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 55 note 2} ibid.

^{Page 55 note 3} ibid.

^{Page 55 note 4} Bridgland, op. cit. p. 125.

^{Page 55 note 5} Marcum, John A., ‘The Anguish of Angola: on becoming independent in the last quarter of the twentieth century’, in Issue: a quarterly journal of Africanist opinion (Los Angeles), 5, 4, Winter 1975, p. 8.Google Scholar

^{Page 56 note 1} American Committee on Africa Archives, New York, Angola File, 1974, December C4–1527x4, Louren¸o Marques, 7 July 1974.

^{Page 56 note 2} The New York Times, 8 July 1970, and The Washington Post, 1 November 1975.

^{Page 56 note 3} The New York Times, 24 November 1974.

^{Page 56 note 4} The Guardian (Manchester), 30 12 1974.Google Scholar

^{Page 56 note 5} Marcum, ‘The Anguish of Angola’, p. 8.

^{Page 56 note 6} Chingunji interview. A glimpse of life in those villages can be had from the published notes of Leon Dash, the correspondent for The Washington Post who visited them in 1973.

^{Page 57 note 1} Chingunji interview. Also, Bergerol, Jane, in Financial Times (London), 14 06 1975.Google Scholar

^{Page 57 note 2} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 57 note 3} The Guardian, 30 December 1974.

^{Page 57 note 4} Financial Times, 29 January 1976.

^{Page 57 note 5} Daily Telegraph (London), 10 02 1976.Google Scholar

^{Page 58 note 1} Bridgland, op. cit. pp. 174–5.

^{Page 58 note 2} Evening Standard (London), 10 02 1976.Google Scholar

^{Page 58 note 3} Chingunji interview. Bridgland's description of the ‘Long March’ in op. cit. pp. 194–218 was also based on information from Chingunji in 1983. Bridgland supplemented this with a ‘long interview’ with Savimbi – date not specified, but probably during 1980–1. The documents he quotes there without attribution presumably came from Savimbi's own collection.

^{Page 59 note 1} Chingunji interview; and Bridgland, op. cit. p. 250, also based on interviews with Savimbi and Chingunji.

^{Page 59 note 2} The Guardian, 1 August 1980.

^{Page 59 note 3} The author saw these reports in the Angolan news media while residing in Luanda as cooperante cientifica from August 1979 to August 1980.

^{Page 59 note 4} Bridgland, op. cit. p. 347, presents this information as part of the ‘Unita case’. The M.P.L.A. claims that Unita was responsible for the social disruption, and that the number of refugees was exaggerated.Google Scholar See also Africa Report (Ne Brunswick), 03–04 1988, p. 42.Google Scholar

^{Page 59 note 5} Africa News (Durham, N.C.), 7 12 1987, p. 9.Google Scholar

^{Page 60 note 1} The New York Times, 14 September 1987.

^{Page 60 note 2} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 60 note 3} Schuster, Lynda, The Christian Science Monitor (Boston), 26 08 1988.Google Scholar

^{Page 61 note 1} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 61 note 2} The forced relocation of population is confirmed in the eyewitness account of the attack on Cangonga in 1983 in Bridgland, op. cit. pp. 377–8.

^{Page 61 note 3} Author's interview with a former missionary nurse in Angola, Mary Dewar, New York, May 1987.

^{Page 61 note 4} Chingunji interview.

^{Page 62 note 1} Unita, ‘The Platform for National Reconciliation in Angola and Final Declaration of the VI Ordinary Congress of Unita’, Jamba, 31 08 1986. Participation was described in the Chingunji interview.Google Scholar

^{Page 62 note 2} Schuster, , The Christian Science Monitor, 26 08 1988.Google Scholar

^{Page 62 note 3} ibid. 1 September 1988.

^{Page 62 note 4} Battersby, John D., ‘Angola Lags in Drive on U.S. Backed Rebels’, in The New York Times, 14 09 1987.Google Scholar

^{Page 62 note 5} Liesner, Richard, ‘Impressions of Angola: patriots fighting for freedom’, in Arizona Republic (Phoenix), 2 08 1987.Google Scholar

^{Page 63 note 1} Interview with Aaramacr;o Cornelio, an Ovimbundu living in exile in Grove City, Pennsylvania, 5 July 1986; also Dewar interview.

^{Page 63 note 2} Savimbi, Jonas to the U.S. Congress, ‘A Message from Savimbi’, 3 03 1987, in Kwacha News (Washington, D.C.), 03–04 1987, p. 4; and Chingunji interview.Google Scholar

^{Page 63 note 3} Marcum, , The Angolan Revolution, Vol. II, p. 262.Google Scholar

^{Page 64 note 1} Senate Resolution 174, Congressional Record (Washington, D.C.), 03 1987.Google Scholar

^{Page 64 note 2} Public Law 171, in ibid.

^{Page 64 note 3} Documents cited and quoted in Kwacha News, May 1987 and March–April 1988, p. 6.

^{Page 64 note 4} Broomfield, William S. et al. to Reagan, Ronald, 12 May 1988; copy in author's possession.Google Scholar

^{Page 64 note 5} The Washington Post, 12 January 1989.

^{Page 64 note 6} Laurie Grossman, ‘Savimbi Seeks Black Support in Alabama’, and ‘Savimbi Visit Generates Controversy’, in ibid. 26 and 27 June 1988.

^{Page 64 note 7} Stockwell, John, In Search of Enemies: a CIA story (New York, 1978), pp. 197–8.Google Scholar

^{Page 65 note 1} The Washington Post, 3 and 31 August, and 3 September 1988.

^{Page 65 note 2} ibid. 14 December 1988.

^{Page 65 note 3} The New York Times, 11 January 1989.

^{Page 65 note 4} The Washington Post, 1 and 3 September 1988.

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