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Africa Notes Number 137 June 1992 CSISAFRICA NOTES A publication of the Center for Strategic and International Studies , Washington, D.C. Angola in Transition: The Cabinda Factor by Shawn McCormick In accordance with the Portuguese-mediated agreement signed by leaders of the governing Movimento Popular de Libertac;:ao de Angola (MPLA) .and the Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNIT A) in May 1991, the 16-year civil war that erupted in Angola as the country achieved independent statehood in 1975 has ended. Efforts to implement the second priority mandated in the agreement-national elections by late 1992-are being assisted by a range of international actors, including the United Nations, the United States, Russia, and Portugal. More than 12 parties are likely to participate in the elections (scheduled for September 29 and 30, 1992). The process of achieving a third key element of the agreement-demobilization of three-fourths of the two armies and integration of the remaining soldiers into a 50,000-strong national force-seems unlikely to conclude before elections are held. Although media attention focuses on developments and major players in the capital city of Luanda, where UNIT A has officially established a presence, analysts of the Angolan scene are according new attention to tiny Cabinda province (where an increasingly active separatist movement is escalating its pursuit of independence from Luanda) as "possibly Angola's last and most important battlefield." The significance of Cabinda-a 2,807-square-mile enclave along the Atlantic Ocean separated from Angola's other 17 contiguous provinces by a 25-mile strip of Zaire-lies in the fact that current offshore oil production, including that from the Takula and Malanga fields, totals more than 310,000 barrels per day (bpd). This is roughly two-thirds of Angola's total daily production of 500,000 bpd. The country's overall oil revenues provide an estimated 95 percent of the government's present earnings, yet only 1 percent of that amount is redirected to Cabinda, whose oil resources are responsible for the majority of this income. The bulk of Angola's 2.1 billion barrels of proven oil reserves lies in and off Cabinda. Initial geological reports on the unexplored deep-water areas off Cabinda's coast estimate additional recoverable reserves of as much as 3 billion barrels. Aside from oil, Cabinda is abundant in hardwoods for timber export (including ebony, rosewood, and African sandalwood), phosphates in excess of 100 million tons, and palm oil. Despite the enclave's vast resource base, economic conditions are among 2/CSIS AFRICA NOTES the worst in Angola, with few jobs available in the formal family out of Porto Rico. sector. A lasting legacy of Portuguese colonialism is the In 1853, Manuel Jose Puna led a delegation of dearth of educated Cabindans. By 1968, there were only Cabindan chiefs to Luanda, requesting the extension of two lawyers, three doctors, and one accountant in Portuguese central administration from Angola to include Cabinda. The situation has improved somewhat since Cabinda. Although the effort initially failed to gain then, but literacy rates remain extremely low. Accurate support, the Portuguese realized the importance of figures are unavailable, but Cabinda's population is maintaining ties to Puna and accepted his request to probably somewhere around 100,000. The last census educate his two sons in Coimbra, Portugal. In 1871, (which was incomplete) took place in 1971 and came up King Luis I and Queen Maria Pia of Portugal not only with an estimate of 81,000. agreed to receive Puna and preside over his baptism, but bestowed upon him the title of "Baron of Cabinda" and Historical Context: 1483 to 1880 provided him with an annual pension. In the fifteenth century, what is now Cabinda lay within When the slave trade collapsed in 186 7 due to the boundaries of the kingdoms of Loango, Kakongo, international pressure and lack of profit, the Cabindan and Ngoyo. When Portuguese explorer Diogo Cao economy feebly struggled to shift toward the far less arrived at the mouth of the Congo River in 1483, profitable export of palm oil and kernels, and general trade. Portugal's interest in the region was purely commercial. This coincided with an increased interest in the region on The focus soon shifted from an initial unsuccessful search the part of various European merchants and whalers. for silver to the lucrative slave trade. At first , Portuguese "control" of the area north of Luanda up to Cabinda was The Scramble for Africa limited. This region could be more accurately described as It was not until the nations of Europe decided in the within Portugal's sphere of influence rather than under its 1880s to delineate specific boundaries between their authority. There was strong competition from British, African possessions that Cabinda became a formal part of Dutch, and French traders who possessed higher-quality Portugal's overseas empire. The status of the territory goods to barter for slaves. It was not until1733 that Lisbon constituting present-day Cabinda was similar to that of decided to solidify its hold over a portion of the Angolan many disputed regions of Africa where a particular coast from Luanda to the Congo River- an area that did European power enjoyed a considerable degree of control not include Cabinda to the north. Cabinda was commonly but did not possess the region through either force or referred to at the time as a series of villages along a natural treaty. In the period preceding the 1884-1885 bay 70 kilometers north of the Congo River. Conference of Berlin, various European powers Only 50 years later did Portugal attempt to assert its scrambled to document their territorial claims by signing dominance over this area in order to guarantee a steady treaties with local chiefs across the continent in exchange flow of revenues from what had become one of the for trade guarantees and protection. largest slave-trading centers in West Africa. In 1783 the In an effort to form a land bridge linking Angola with Portuguese constructed a fort in the port of Cabinda, Mozambique, Portugal undertook to occupy land where it which was destroyed the following year by French forces had not previously maintained a significant with assistance from the Ngoyo and Kakongo kingdoms. presence- along the Congo River, and eastward toward An agreement signed by Portugal, Britain, and France (the Convention of Madrid) in 1786 allowed each of these countries to engage in slave trading in the area CSIS AFRICA NOTES is a briefing paper series designed to north of the Congo River, including Cabinda, in serve the special needs of decision makers and analysts exchange for Portuguese domination south of the river. with Africa-related responsibilities in governments, Three African families- all descended from early corporations, the media, research institutions, universities, Ngoyo rulers-emerged at the end of the eighteenth and other arenas. It is a publication of the African Studies century to dominate local trade in Cabinda: the Nkata Program of the Center for Strategic and International Kolombos in Taffe, the Nsambos in Porto Rico, and the Studies, Washington, D.C. CSIS is a private, nonpartisan, Npunas (commonly known as Puna) in Simulambuco. nonprofit policy research institute founded in 1962. They controlled the trading of local goods (food, fresh EDITOR: Director of African Studies Helen Kitchen water, supplies) with European slave traders. Their virtual monopoly was challenged in the early nineteenth century, SUBSCR IPTION RATE: CS/S Africa Notes is sent however, by Francisco Franque, the son of an African airmail/first class to subscribers worldwide. The annual servant of a French trader; the trader had died during a subscription price for 12 issues and occasional stop in Cabinda and left his wealth to the elder Franque. supplements is $48.00. Please make checks payable to: Francisco Franque was sent by his father to be educated CSIS Africa Notes, Suite 400, 1800 K Street, N.W. , in Brazil and became a highly influential and wealthy Washington, D.C. 20006, U.S.A. Telephone: (202) 775-3219. Telex: 7108229583 participant in the slave trade. He eventually grew so Cables: CENSTRAT. Fax: (202) 775-3199 powerful that the central government in Luanda authorized him to act on its behalf in Cabinda. In 1840, ISSN 0736-9506 Franque assembled a small army and forced the Nsambo CSIS AFRICA NOTES/3 Ethnic Composition of Cabinda Present-day Cabinda lies within the boundaries of the former kingdoms of Loango, Kakongo, and Ngoyo, all three of which were in existence when the first Portuguese traders arrived in the late fifteenth century. These ethnic groups were linguistically and culturally related to the Kongo kingdom (which extended from areas of what is now southern Gabon to northern Angola). At one time Kongo vassals, the three kingdoms had become nominally independent by the end of the sixteenth century. Three subethnic groups-the Kakongo, Viii, and Woyo-reside along the coastal region; these had relatively extensive contact with the Portuguese. Another three-the Linge, Sundi, and Yombe---dominate the Mayombe interior; they dealt more with the French and Belgians in what are now Congo and Zaire. The Loango were primarily a trading people who brought slaves, ivory , tobacco, and a myriad of other goods from as far away as Stanley Pool (near present-day Kinshasa) and Sao Salvador in northern Angola (renamed Uige) . The seat of the Loango kingdom was in the Kwilu Nyari basin but it extended to the coastal regions of present-day Cabinda and northward to Gabon. Just south of the Loango kingdom were the smaller chiefdoms of the Kakongo and Ngoyo. According to local tradition, the Loango, Kakongo, and Ngoyo shared a common ancient ancestress named Nguunu.
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