The Relationship Between UNITA and SWAPO: Allies and Adversaries
2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/03057070.2014.967505
ISSN1465-3893
Autores Tópico(s)South African History and Culture
ResumoAbstractThe dynamics of the Namibian liberation struggle in the late 1960s and early 1970s prompted the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) to seek comradely relations with all three Angolan liberation movements. These connections enabled SWAPO armed combat units to transit from their Zambian bases into southern Angola and to carry out political and military expeditions into Namibia. Following the collapse of relationships between the União Nacional para a Indepêndencia Total de Angola (UNITA) and SWAPO in 1976, SWAPO refused to acknowledge that UNITA had previously been its closest ally. This article, in challenging this claim, utilises both written sources and interviews with former SWAPO cadres, some of whom operated from UNITA's headquarters in Moxico province in Angola from 1973. As former SWAPO commanders and UNITA allies, their testimonies demonstrate the amicable relationship between the two organisations that SWAPO officially continues to ignore and repudiate. From this understanding, this article argues that the historic relationship between UNITA and SWAPO should be recognised, and suggests that the two liberation movements were united by shared nationalist projects. In fact, as allies and comrades in arms, their unity of purpose emphasised the importance of shared common values and principles: aspirations for independence, and freedom and human integrity for the oppressed people of Namibia and Angola. Notes 1 S. Brown, ‘Diplomacy by other means: SWAPO's liberation war’, in C. Leys and J. Saul (eds), Namibia's Liberation Struggle: The Two-Edged Sword (London, James Currey, 1995), p. 26. There were three liberation movements in Angola: the Movimento Popular da Libertação de Angola (MPLA), União Nacional para a Indepêndencia Total de Angola (UNITA) and the Frente Nacional para a Libertação de Angola (FNLA). 2 ‘SWAPO–UNITA Bond Revealed’, Informanté, Windhoek, 20–26 February 2014, pp. 3–4. Hidipo Hamutenya was a member of SWAPO Politburo from 1976. He headed a number of ministries following Namibia's independence. In November 2007 he resigned from SWAPO. He currently leads Namibia's official opposition party, called the Rally for Democracy and Progress. 3 SWAPO, To Be Born a Nation: The Liberation Struggle for Namibia (London, Zed Press, 1987), p. 222. 4 SWAPO–UNITA Bond Revealed’, Informanté, 20–26 February 2014, p. 4. 5 See, for example, Brown, ‘Diplomacy by Other Means, pp. 21–8; M. Wallace, A History of Namibia (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 279–85; L. Shaketange, Walking The Boeing 707 (Windhoek, Archives of anti- colonial resistance and the liberation struggle, 2009), pp. 27–30; O.O. Namakalu, Armed Liberation Struggle: Some Accounts of PLAN's Combat Operations (Windhoek, Gamsberg Macmillan, 2004), pp. 30–35; P. Trewhela, Inside Quatro: Uncovering the Exile History of the ANC and SWAPO (Johannesburg, Jacana, 2009), pp. 210–13. 6 The province's extended border with Zambia made it the most effective operational area for both UNITA and the MPLA during the war for the independence of Angola. 7 J. Potgieter, ‘“Taking Aid from the Devil Himself”: UNITA's support structures’, p. 256, available at: http://www.issafrica.org/pubs/books/Angola/13Potgieter.pdf, accessed 20 May 2013. 8 Shaketange, Walking The Boeing 707, pp. 27–8. 9 Author interview with Nghiyalasha Elise Hauljondjaba, Ongwediva, January 2013. Hauljondjaba is a former SWAPO combatant. He represented SWAPO at UNITA headquarters in Moxico, Angola. He also fought numerous battles alongside UNITA during the war for the liberation of Angola and Namibia. His name appears in variant spellings: for example, Haulyondjaba (see Patricia Hayes’ article in this issue), Hauljondjamba, Haulyondjamba.10 This followed the establishment of the OAU's African Liberation Committee in May 1963. This committee channelled funds from member states to nationalist parties that took up arms against the white regimes in their countries. See Trewhela, Inside Quatro, p. 190.11 T. Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 1: Formation of a Popular Opinion 1950–1970 (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999), p. 411.12Ibid., p. 411.13 Pierre Schori, ‘Befrielserorelsernaoch Vi’ (‘The Liberation Movements and Us’), Tiden, 10 (1968), quoted in Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 1, p. 233.14 Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 1, p. 412.15 Author interview with Hauljondjaba, January 2013.16 R. Hallett, ‘The CIA in Angola’, African Affairs, 78, 313 (1978), pp. 559–62; C.A. Williams, ‘Exile History: An Ethnography of the SWAPO Camps and the Namibian Nation’ (PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 2009).17 Sam Nujoma, Where Others Wavered: The Autobiography of Sam Nujoma (London, Panaf Books, 2001), p. 3.18 Oshiwambo is the language spoken by the Aawambo people, whose traditional home is north-central Namibia and south-central Angola. The name ‘Aambwela’ is Oshiwambo given. It is the preferred Oshiwambo nickname for the Iimbundu people, who were fond of saying, when introducing themselves to the local people in Owamboland, that they travelled from ‘Ombwela’. Ombwela translates as a place very far from Owamboland.19 Nujoma, Where Others Wavered, p. 236. ‘Owambo’ conveys a local accent; ‘Ovambo’ conveys European pronunciation and spelling.20 Tor Sellström, interview with Miguel N'Zau Puna, UNITA Secretary General and Political Commissar of FALA, 17 April 1996, Luanda, Angola, in Tor Sellström (ed.), Liberation in Southern Africa – Regional and Swedish Voices: Interviews from Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zimbambwe, the Frontline and Sweden, (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999), p. 25.21 D. Lush, ‘Brothers in Arms,’ Insight Namibia, Windhoek, February 2011, p. 30.22Ibid.23 Namakalu, Armed Liberation Struggle, p. 30.24 T. Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa,Volume 2: Solidarity and Assistance 1970–1994 (Uppsala, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 2002), p. 250. Quoted from interview with Iwo Dolling, Swedish ambassador to Zambia, Lusaka, 20 August 1975.25 Author interview with Ndarius Shikongo Mbolondondo, Oluno, Oshikoto Region, January 2008.26 Namakalu, Armed Liberation Struggle, p. 30.27 FAPLA was the armed wing of the MPLA.28 Kongwa was an important camp for southern African liberation movements in Tanzania. See C.A. Williams, ‘Living in Exile: Daily Life and International Relations at SWAPO's Kongwa Camp’, Kronos, 27, 1 (2011), pp. 60–86.29 Author interview with Matias Mbulunganga Ndakologhoshi, Iilangati/Eenhango (both names are used for this place), Ohangwena Region, February 2013. The three full names of the three individuals mentioned in this quote are Hifikepunye Pohamba, Mishake Muyongo and Solomon Mifima.30Ibid.31 An agreement fixing the boundary between Namibia and Angola was signed on 22 June 1922 in Cape Town between the Union of South Africa and the Republic of Portugal. See L. Hangula, International Boundary of Namibia (1993), p. 41. See also R. Vigne, ‘The Moveable Frontier: The Namibia–Angola Boundary Demarcation’, in P. Hayes, J. Silvester, M. Wallace and W. Hartmann (eds), Namibia under South African Rule: Mobility and Containment 1915–1946 (Oxford, James Currey, 1998), pp. 289–304.32 See, for example, Basler AfrikaBibliographien (hereafter BAB) AA3, SWAPO Archive, Basel, Switzerland, additional documents: ‘General Reports’ by SWAPO 1976–1978.33 Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 2, p. 249.34 Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 1, p. 411.35 In seeking to repair the strained relationship between the Angolan and Zambian governments, in November 2011 President Michael Sata of Zambia issued a statement to the Government of Angola condemning Zambia's ‘treachery’ in backing the rebel UNITA movement during Angola's 27-year civil war. See ‘New Zambian Leader Apologizes for Country's Historic Blunder’, New York Amsterdam News, 3–9 November 2011, p. 2.36 Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 2, p. 249.37 ‘SWAPO–UNITA Bond Revealed’, Informanté, 20–26 February 2014, p. 3.38 Author interview with Paavo Max, Efindi LyOmulunga, Ongwediva, January 2008. T. Hodges, Angola to 2000: Prospects for Discovery (London, Economist Intelligence Unit, 1993), pp. 1–23.39 Nujoma, Where Others Wavered, pp. 236–7.40 D. Lush, ‘Caught in the Eye of a Cold War Hurricane’, Insight Namibia, Windhoek, February 2011, p. 29.41 Nujoma, Where Others Wavered, pp. 236–7.42 Ndakologhoshi interview.43 Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 2, p. 249.44 Ndakologhoshi interview.45 See notebook titled ‘Cassinga General Report’, held at the BAB and authored by Golden Uhuru and Mocks Shivute, respectively the Camp Secretary and Deputy Secretary at Cassinga, a SWAPO civilian camp in Southern Angola between 1976 and 1978. According to the BAB archivist, these SWAPO documents were captured by the SADF when it attacked Cassinga in May 1978.46Ibid.47 BAB AA3 (SWAPO Collection), additional documents: ‘General reports’ by SWAPO 1976–1978. Source: BAB SWAPO Archive, Basel, Switzerland.48 On 4 May 1978, Cassinga suffered the heaviest single loss of civilian lives during the Namibian armed liberation struggle, when it was attacked by South African forces. For a detailed study of the Cassinga massacre, see V. Shigwedha, ‘Enduring Suffering: The Cassinga Massacre of Namibian Exiles in 1978 and the Conflicts between Survivors’ Memories and Testimonies’ (PhD thesis, University of the Western Cape, 2011).49 A. Heywood, The Cassinga Event: An Investigation of the Records (Windhoek, National Archives of Namibia, 1994), pp. 54–5.50 BAB AA3 (SWAPO Collection), additional documents: ‘General report’ by SWAPO 1976–1978.51 Report by Commissar Ndafongwe Nopoundjuu on 3 December 1976, BAB AA3 (SWAPO Collection), additional documents: ‘General Reports’, SWAPO 1976–1978. See also Patricia Hayes’ interviews with Godfrey Nangonya, SWAPO–UNITA liaison officer (personal communication, Patricia Hayes, 2009), and Hayes’ article in this issue of JSAS.52 BAB AA3 (SWAPO Collection), additional documents: ‘General Report’ by SWAPO 1976–1978.53Ibid.54 Sellström, Sweden and National Liberation in Southern Africa, Volume 2, p. 250.55 L.J. Stylbel and M. Peabody, ‘Friend, Foe, Ally, Adversary … or Something Else?’, MIT Sloan Management Review, July 2005, p. 15.56 See A. du Pisani, ‘The Discursive Limits of SWAPO's Dominant Discourses on Anti-Colonial Nationalism in Postcolonial Namibia – A First Exploration’, in A. du Pisani, R. Kößler and W.A. Lindeke (eds), The Long Aftermath of War – Reconciliation and Transition in Namibia (Freiburg, Arnold Bergstraesser Institut, 2010), pp. 21–23.57 Sellström interview with N'Zau Puna.58 J. Depelchin, Silences in African History: Between the Syndromes of Discovery and Abolition (Dar es Salaam, Mkuki na Nyota publishers, Dar es Salaam, 2005), p. 17.Additional informationNotes on contributorsVilho Amukwaya ShigwedhaVilho Amukwaya ShigwedhaLecturer, Department of Geography, History and Environmental Studies, University of Namibia, Private Bag 13301, 340 Mandume Ndemufayo Avenue, Pionierspark, Windhoek, Namibia. E-mail: vshigwedha@unam.na
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