Liberation wars

In southern Africa, the fortress of white power began to crumble. During the 1960s, nationalist movements launched a succession of guerrilla wars to oust the Portuguese from Angola, Mozambique and Guinea – Bissau, a small west African colony, using neighbouring African territories as bases from which to recruit and train supporters and to gather arms. Guerrilla attacks were confined initially to border areas but steadily spread. The drain of fighting three simultaneous wars sapped Portuguese manpower and morale and led to growing disaffection among the officer corps and army conscripts. In April 1974, the Portuguese militar seized power in Lisbon and promptly opened negotiations to withdraw from Africa. In Guinea – Bissau, negotiations were conducted relatively swiftly. By September 1974, Guinea – Bissau was recognised as na independent republic. But the transition to Independence in both Mozambique and Angola was marked by confusion and chaos.

In Mozambique, the entire colonial administration felt into disarray. As Portuguese forces withdrew from the field, Frelimo guerrillas poured into areas of central Mozambique unopposed. Frightened by Frelimo’s revolutionary rhetoric and fearing revenge attacks, hundreds of white settlers in rural areas abandoned their homes and fled to the coast. A mass exodus of whites was soon underway. In protracted negotiations with the Portuguese, Frelimo demanded recognition as the “sole legitimate representative of the Mozambique people” and the uncondinional transfer of power without prior elections. The outcome was that in September 1974 Portugal agreed to hand over power exclusively to Frelimo after a nine-month transition period. The white exodus gathered pace. By the time that Mozambique gained its Independence in June 1975, the country had lost not only most of its administrators and officials, but also managers, technicians, artisans and shopkeepers. In all some 200.000 whites fled Mozambique, abandoning farms, factories and homes.

Undaunted by the crippling loss of skilled manpower, Frelimo’s leader Samora Machel embarked on a programme of revolutionary action intended to transform Mozambique into a Marxist – Leninist state. In a series of decrees, Frelimo nationalised plantations and businesses; introduced central economic planning; and ordered collective agricultural production. With similar fervour, Machel sought to root out “traditional” customs and land practices and to eliminat the influence of chiefs and headmen. The Catholic Church and its adherents were another target. Frelimo ordered an end to public religious festivals, took over church property and terminated church involvement in education and marriage. Traditional religions were also denounced. The consequences were disastrous. Machel’s policies provoked widespread discontent that eventually helped fuel fifteen years of civil war.

The transition in Angola was even more turbulent. Three rival nationalist factions fought among themselves to gain power, transforming a colonial war into a civil war, causing the flight of almost the entire white population and drawing the Soviet Union and the United States into a perilous Cold War confrontation by proxy. What was at stake was control of Angola’s oilfields and diamond mines.

All three factions relied for support from diferente ethnic groups. The home base of Holden Roberto’s FNLA was Bakongo territory in northern Angola. Agostinho Neto’s MPLA was rooted in Kimbundu areas around the capital, Luanda. Jonas Savimbi’ Unita movement gained a following among the Ovimbundu in the central highland districts of Huambo and Bié. All three factions were weak and disorganised. They made no serious effort to reach a negotiated settlement but instead looked to foreign sponsors to give them supremacy.

In the ínterim, the Portuguese attempted to organize a coalition government to prepare the way for elections and Independence in November 1975. But shortly after it was set up in January 1975, the coalition collapsed amid heavy fighting in Luanda. Supplied by weapons from the Soviet Union, the MPLA drove the FNLA and Unita out of Luanda and gained tentative control of other urban áreas. A mass exodus of 300,000 followed, causing the colapse of government services and the economy. As Independence day approached, the United States and South Africa threw their weight behind the FNLA and Unita in a concerted effort to prevent the MPLA from taking power in Luanda. South African forces invaded from South – west Africa, aiming to link up with the FNLA in an assault on the capital. What saved the MPLA from defeat was a massive intervention by the Soviet Union and the arrival of thousands of Cuban troops. An intermitent civil war continued for the next twenty-seven years.

The colapse of Portugal’s African empire presented new dangers for the white rulers of Rhodesia. Small bands of nationalist guerrillas had been infiltrating across the northern border from basis in Zambia and Mozambique’s Tete province since 1972, but the government’s counter – insurgency mesures had been largely successful in containing them. To help shore up Rhodesia’s defenses, South Africa had dispatched large numbers of combat police to the area, regarding the Zambezi river rather than the Limpopo as its own frontier line. But the end of the Portugueses rule meant that Rhodesia’s entire eastern border, some 760 miles long, was now vulnerable to infiltration by guerrilla groups operating freely from bases in Mozambique.”

Martin Meredith. The fortunes of Africa, a 5,000 year history of wealth, greed and endeavour. Simon & Schuster, London, 2014.