Angola's Colossal

Angola’s Colossal Lie <UN> African History Editorial Board Peter Geschiere (University of Amsterdam) Odile Goerg (Universite Paris-Diderot) Shamil Jeppie (University of Cape Town) VOLUME 4 The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/afh <UN> Angola’s Colossal Lie Forced Labor on a Sugar Plantation, 1913–1977 By Jeremy Ball LEIDEN | BOSTON <UN> Cover illustration: Forced Labor on a Sugar Plantation, 1913–1977 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Ball, Jeremy, author. Angola’s colossal lie : forced labor on a sugar plantation, 1913-1977 / by Jeremy Ball. pages cm. -- (African history ; volume 4) ISBN 978-90-04-30174-0 (pbk. : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-30175-7 (e-book) 1. Forced labor--Angola--History--20th century. 2. Sugar workers--Angola--History--20th century. 3. Sugarcane industry--Angola--History--20th century. 4. Sugar--Manufacture and refining--Angola-- History--20th century. I. Title. II. Series: African history (Brill Academic Publishers) ; v. 4. HD4875.A838B35 2015 331.11734096730904--dc23 2015023731 issn 2211-1441 isbn 978-90-04-30174-0 (paperback) isbn 978-90-04-30175-7 (e-book) Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and Hotei Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill nv provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, ma 01923, usa. Fees are subject to change. This book is printed on acid-free paper. <UN> For os mais velhos [the old ones], who shared their memories ∵ <UN> <UN> Contents Note on Currency ix Acknowledgements xii Illustrations xiii Abbreviations xiv Glossary xv Introduction 1 1 Sugarcane, Aguardente, Forced Labor, and the Founding of Cassequel Sugar Plantation, 1899–1920 23 2 Cassequel and the Estado Novo, 1921 to World War ii 57 3 “I Escaped in a Coffin”: Remembering Angolan Forced Labor from World War ii to 1960 88 4 African Nationalism, War, and Labor Reform, 1961–1973 115 5 Independence and the Nationalization of Cassequel, 1974–1977 139 Conclusion 165 Appendix 171 Bibliography 172 Index 191 <UN> Note on Currency In 1911, in the wake of the Republican Revolution, the Portuguese government adopted the escudo, divided into a hundred centavos, to replace the milréis (a thousand reis). A thousand escudos equaled one conto, a unit of account rather than of currency. Between 1928 and 1958 the government made the angular—which was pegged at parity with the escudo—the currency in Angola. In 1958, as part of its efforts to unify the empire, the colonial government reintroduced the escudo to Angola and discontinued use of the angolar. <UN> Map 1 Angola Chase Langford <UN> Map 2 Sociedade Agrícola Do Cassequel, 1960 Chase Langford <UN> Acknowledgements I am deeply grateful to my advisors and colleagues at ucla, where this project began. As my dissertation advisor, Ned Alpers offered encouragement and support at critical times. William Worger, Judith Carney, and Patrick Geary all offered advice and commented on drafts in ways that improved my thinking. Over the years, I have also benefitted from conversations about Portuguese colonialism and Angolan history with several scholars. In particular, Pedro Aires Oliveiro, Jill Dias, Landeg White, Carlos Damas, Manuel Ennes Ferreira, Maria da Conceição Neto, Rosa Cruz e Silva, Douglas Wheeler, Roquinaldo Ferreira, Marissa Moorman, Todd Cleveland, and Marcelo Borges all provided insightful feedback at different stages of the project. For their support in Angola, I am particularly thankful to José Pires, Orlando and Albertina Monteiro, Precioso Maria Chaves, and Kito Marcelino. A special thank you to Manuel Domingos for his work translating interviews from Umbundu to Portuguese and for his friend- ship during the months of travel in Angola. I also wish to thank two of my earli- est teachers from Boston College, David Northrup and Carol Hurd Green, who first inspired my intellectual interest in Africa and aspiration to become a college professor and researcher. Conducting archival and oral history research in Angola and Portugal is expensive. I am grateful for the generous financial and institutional support that made possible my extended stays in Lisbon, Luanda, and Catumbela. A Fulbright iie award (2000–2001) paid for my research in Lisbon and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2001) supported initial research in Angola. A Young Africanist Award from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars (2002) provided financial support and an environment conducive to writing at a crucial time. A second Fulbright grant (2006) supported additional oral history interviews in the Angolan interior. Dickinson College, my academic home since 2005, provided a full-year sabbatical and research funds to return to Lisbon (2012). The Dickinson College Research and Development Committee also provided necessary subvention support for the project. Archival work was key to Angola’s Colossal Lie, and I am thankful to the archivists at the Arquivo Histórico de Angola (Luanda) and in Lisbon, the Biblioteca Nacional, the Sociedade de Geografia, the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, the Arquivo do Banco Espírito Santo, the Centro de Intervenção para o Desenvolvimento Amílcar Cabral (cidac), and the Arquivo de Fotografia de Lisboa. Finally, this book would not have been completed without the unwavering support and love of my wife, Amy Wlodarski. Thank you for believing in the project and providing me the time and intellectual space to write and re-write. <UN> Illustrations Maps 1 Angola x 2 Sociedade Agrícola do Cassequel, 1960 xi Tables 2.1 Contratados from Bailundo at Cassequel, 1941 80 2.2 Official mortality at Cassequel, 1937–1948 85 2.3 Cassequel’s average annual expense per European employee, 1927–1933 85 2.4 Cassequel’s average annual expense per African employee, 1927–1933 86 3.1 Age distribution of contract workers from Quipeio at Cassequel, 1947 98 3.2 Age distribution of contract workers from Balombo at Cassequel, 1948 99 Images 1.1 New sugar refinery under construction at Cassequel, 1914 48 1.2 Workers planting sugarcane 53 1.3 Workers carrying cane 54 1.4 Factory workers 54 1.5 Family 55 2.1 Portugal náo é pequeno 65 2.2 Silva Porto Monument in Silva Porto [Kuito] 66 3.1 Interview, Bocoio February 16, 2006 96 3.2 Capatazes watching workers cut cane, 1954 102 4.1 Bailundo guia 116 4.2 Visit of Angolan Governor General Rebocho Vaz (1966–1972) to the district of Benguela 120 4.3 Balombo guia 126 4.4 Chinguar guia 127 4.5 Bairro indígena 132 4.6 Semimechanized sugarcane harvest Cassequel, 1973 136 5.1 Cassequel, circa 1970 141 5.2 Fidel Castro visit to Cassequel, 1977 158 <UN> Abbreviations adra Acção para o Desenvolvimento Rural e Ambiente aha Arquivo Histórico de Angola ahbes Arquivo Histórico do Banco Espírito Santo ahp Arquivo Histórico-Parliamentar ahu Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino ams Arquivo Mário Soares antt Arquivo Nacional de Torre do Tombo bn Biblioteca Nacional cfb Benguela Railway Company cidac Centro de Informação e Documentação Amílcar Cabral cwihp Cold War International History Project fapla The People’s Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola fnla National Front for the Liberation of Angola fo Foreign Office ges Espírito Santo Group ilo International Labor Organization mpla Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola nsa National Security Archive pro Public Records Office sac Sociedade Agrícola do Cassequel unita National Union for the Total Independence of Angola usna United States National Archives wnla Witwatersrand Native Labor Association <UN> Glossary A bem da nação For the good of the nation. Aguardente (de cana-de-açúcar) Rum; also known as cachaça. Ambaquista African merchant(s) and traders who spoke some Portuguese and dressed in European clothes. Assimilado Assimilated person. Under the indigenato system instituted in the 1920s, assimilados were those mixed race and African individuals who met the colonial government’s criteria for citizenship. Cacimbo The cool period on the Angolan coast between June and September. Caixa Box. Documents at the ahu and the aha are organ ized in caixas. Chefe de posto Colonial official in charge of a posto; head of the administrative post. Cipaio (pl. cipaios) African policeman, generally employed in garri- soning the posts and collecting hut tax. Contratado An individual fulfilling a term of forced labor, labeled euphemistically by colonial authorities as “contract labor.” Cubata Thatched mud hut. Curador dos indígenas Guardian of the natives. Duties included oversee- ing contracts for forced labor and hearing workers’ complaints. Rarely a full-time position, the duties of the curador were usually assigned to a local administrator. Empreitada A task or job. Contratados at Cassequel worked by empreitada. Funge Angolan staple porridge made from either maize or cassava. Garapa Sugar-cane juice distributed to workers at Cassequel. Guia(s) Work gang(s). Imposto indígena Native tax. Under the Indigenato all indígenas had to pay an annual tax to the government in Portuguese currency. Indígena Indigenous person. The vast majority of the popu- lation that could not prove assimilado status were referred to as indígenas. They had no rights under <UN> xvi Glossary colonial law and were subject to forced labor. The indigenato system was abolished in 1961. Kimbo African homestead, or small village. Liberto Emancipated slave. Mão-de-obra indígena Native labor. Mestiço Person of mixed racial descent. Muçeques Shantytowns outside Angola’s cities and towns. Palmatórias A palmatória is a wooden paddle with holes in the striking surface; it was used for corporal punishment.

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