A Short History of Modern Angola by David Birmingham

Author:David Birmingham [Birmingham, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780190271305
Publisher: OxfordUP
Published: 2015-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

7

THE STRUGGLES OF THE SEVENTIES

The birth-pangs of the new independent nation of Angola were protracted and bloody, compounded by the presence of a multiplicity of midwives: Congolese, Russian, Cuban, South African and American. The colonial war had ended abruptly in April 1974 and by January 1975 the four-power executive was established. The colonial war and the colonial truce were soon followed, however, by a new war, the war of foreign intervention. Each of the three indigenous military movements wanted to establish its own supremacy and each called for support from neighbours and allies. Rivalry led to conflict and the first salvoes of a fratricidal war which led to the war of intervention were fired in July 1975. MPLA troops, summoned from guerrilla camps in the remote east and havens of exile abroad, converged on Luanda. In the ensuing week of violence the Luanda returnees were supported by irregular militias mobilised by the local party leadership which had been organising activist cells of ‘people power’ in the city. Their opponents were the rather smarter army of exiles which came down from the north. Within days the four-way power-sharing executive, established as an interim government, was disbanded. The armies and politicians of both the northern FNLA and the southern UNITA were driven out of the city, leaving the MPLA and the Portuguese in control.

The leaders of UNITA had to make a quick decision. Should they sue for peace, and form a political alliance with the MPLA, or should they re-join their uncomfortable former allies in the FNLA? Savimbi’s initial inclination, as a one-time admirer of Mao Zedong, was to accept the advice of radical Portuguese soldiers and join forces with the MPLA. He soon realised, however, that neither South Africa nor the United States was likely to tolerate the advent of a ‘Maoist’ or ‘Marxist’ regime in independent Angola. Savimbi therefore decided to look for an alternative alliance. He hoped that he and the other southern leader, Daniel Chipenda, might negotiate a deal with the FNLA which would give them significant military purchase and access to foreign support. Chipenda was apparently in contact with South Africa, a neighbour which later became a key supporter of Savimbi. By September 1975 the MPLA was being held at bay in much of the south and UNITA dominated the old kingdoms of Bihé and Huambo.

The MPLA offensive then had to turn to the north but the FNLA had gained the support of General Mobutu, the president of Congo. American policy, governed at the time by Henry Kissinger, in covert association with the secret services, put its faith in the FNLA to install a pro-Western regime in Luanda. The methods adopted were deeply flawed, however, and an incompetent band of multinational mercenaries was soon worsted, leaving the United States angry and embarrassed. Worse was to follow when it emerged that American oil executives had been keeping their own options open by paying petroleum royalties to an interim MPLA administration which the American government had been attempting to overthrow by violent means.

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