From: pmmst8+@pitt.edu (Paul M Mweene)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: Angola: See what Savimbi is up to now (was Re: Great Victory in
Date: 9 Oct 92 09:17:02 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

In article <7OCT92.15473772@edison.usask.ca> f54oguocha@edison.usask.ca writes:
>
>Boy, are you a novice in politics? Don't you know that in politics there
>is no permanent enemy and no permanent friend? The Portuguese were a common
>enemy to MPLA, UNITA, and other liberation forces in Angola.

Wrong, again. Jonas Savimbi began as a a minister in MPLA. However,
the weatern imperial powers detected the opportunism in him and used him to
rebel against and reduce the power of MPLA (IN 1964). In the very beginning
he was but a marginal element and Poruguese policy as late as the early 70s
regarded MPLA as the only threat in Portugals most important province Angola.
In those days Savimbi served the interests of the Portuguese in somewhat the
same way that Buthelezi serves that of the Boers. In this light MPLA realized
very early the reactionary disposition of UNITA.

  i> During the 
>independence struggle both capitalist west and communist east were using
>the liberation forces to champion their individual agenda. So, money went
>anywhere it could go. We all know that the real Angolan crisis started 
>when the Portuguese had left. Can you now tell us how much Cuba and the
>estwhile USSR spent in post-independent Angola?

Please show me one liberation movement in Southern Africa that was ever funded
by the west so that it effectively waged a millitary campaigfn against a colo
nial power. Your statements are as incredible and they are naive. How could
anyone ever equate the role the USSR played in the liberation of our subconti
nent to the role of the imperial powers.

You are impossible to understand. Are you implying that the events in Southern
Africa occured in a haphazard manner, that in one instance the west would play
oppressor and in another liberator, with the Soviets taking the opposite side each time? This is logic bears little relation to relity, unfortunately. The even
ts in southern Africa proceeded logically. The west each and every time conspireto exploit and oppress southern Africa. The communist countries for altruist or
other reasons consistently stood on the right side. It was becuase of their
unflinching support that the likes of Zimbabwe are now counted among the free.

The western powers and their churches constituted the colonial order which 
subjugated Africans. The western powers stood to gain more from the continu
ance of colonialism and helped it for as much as it was worth. 

You reveal amazing ignorance by claiming that the problems of Angola began in
1975. Angola and Zaire were the most exploited colonies in Africa.  Angola
was populated by poor uneducated portuguese who were for that reason especiall
y hostile and oppressive. There hundreds of thousands of Portuguese in Angola
whi never dreamed that they would ever leave. In 1961 when MPLA initiated the 
armed struggle by killing 200 portuguese, these people responded by killing 
20 000 Africans and driving 200 000 across the border into Zaire.
The Portuguese who occupied Angola moved African from ther land and killed 

thousands of them. I hope you are not implying that the millitary campaign
by MPLA was unnecessary and that the Africans should have been grateful for
the conditions in which they existed.

The last time you invoked the example of the Nigerian war in order to warn agai
nst the dangers of suach conflicts. It should be pointed out that the conflict
in Nigeria has little relevance to events in Angola. While the conflict in Nige
ria was predicated primarily upon ethnicism, that in Angola was upon opportunismand foriegn imperialism. If any two groups of people engage in a conflict howev
er minor the cause and obscure the location, it does not mean that another c
onflict cannot occur for a different reason somewhere else. Perhaps the only 
lesson lesson we can learn form the Nigerian conflict is that war is bad. But
Savimbi might be teaching us that the alternative can be worse.....

Makala
.

 

P
 
>
>Thanks for the AP info. Let's wait and see whether there is any iota
>of truth in what UNITA is making noise about. There is no smoke 
>without fire. This network cannot tell us all that happened in Angola
>during the election.
>Oguocha           
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african