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Naip 1 0 0 0 Angolan Insurrections and Swedish Angolan Insurrections and Swedish Reactions Portugal, Africa and Sweden Portugal was the first of the European powers to colonize Africa and the last to leave. 1 Clinging to dreams of imperial destiny and guided by a mystique of luso- tropicalismo2--the idea that the Portuguese had a special faculty and vocation to live in the tropics and to assimilate peoples of all races into a single nation- Portugal would under the dictatorship of Ant6nio Salazar firmly oppose the decolonization process.3 Having constitutionally incorporated its colonies as 'overseas provinces' in 19514-a device to perpetuate colonial rule-Salazar not only opposed decolonization, but viewed the very concept as unintelligible and, at any rate, not applicable to Portugal. In August 1963-almost three years after the adoption of the Decolonization Declaration by the UN General Assembly, more than two years after the outbreak of the war in Angola and months after the first military clashes with PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau-he stated that demands are constantly made for decolonization, [which] is said to be the greatest need of the century and the highest work which mankind in our days could undertake. As no care has been taken to define the term, we do not yet have an idea of the precise content of such a complex phenomenon. [...] However, [...] it [seems] that the essence of decolonization is to be found in [...] the transfer of power from the white man, wherever he holds it, to the negro, who claims it and is said to have the right to it only because of his numerical superiority. [...] Even though this is not a matter which concerns us, it is difficult to admit this thesis, which considers the independence of peoples as containing in itself all the virtualities, so that no account need be taken either of the size of the territories or of the number and 1Formally, the British colonial empire in Africa ended with Zimbabwe's independence in 1980. 2 The theory ot 'luso-tropicalism' was developedby the Brazilian anthropologist Gilberto Freyre. Among its many critics was the MPLA leader, poet and sociologist MArio de Andrade, who-under the pseudonym Buanga Fele-analyzed the theory in an article ('Qu'est-ce que le luso tropicalisrno?'i'What is 'luso- tropicalism'?') in the Paris monthly Presence Africaine in 1955 (No. 4, October- November 1955). 3 Economically backward and dependent upon the colonies, it has been said that Portugal was in no position to decolonize, since-unlike Britain or France-it could never hope to neo-colonize (see Norrie MacQueen: The Decolonization of Portuguese Afrika: Metropolitan Revolution and the Dissolution ofEnpire, Longman, London and New York, 1997, p. 52). 4 In addition to the Asian territories of Macao (China), Goa (India) and East Timor (Indonesia), the Portuguese colonial empire was at the time composed of the African dependencies of Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea (Bissau), Mozambique and Sao Tom and Principe. Tor Sellstrbrn value of the populations or of the resources at the disposal of the rulers to achieve the common good. 1 At the same time, Salazar described multiracialism as "a Portuguese creation, [derived], on the one hand, from our character and, on the other, from the moral principles of which we [are] the bearers".2 However, the myth of Portugal's imperial destiny, unity and multiracialism was in the early 1960s irrevocably crushed in blood3 and its anachronistic colonizing schemes in Southern Africa4- largely based on forced labour-widely denounced. Fascist Portugal was firmly placed with apartheid South Africa and settler Rhodesia as one of the three constituent pillars of a white-ruled regional citadel. With the strategically important Azores islands to offer, Portugal was welcomed as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) at its foundation in 1949 and in 1955 admitted to the United Nations. At that time, there was still disagreement among the UN members regarding the status of the Portuguese 'overseas provinces'. In fact, it was not until December 1960 that the General Assembly ruled that the territories were to be considered 'non-selfgoverning' according to the UN Charter.5 In December 1960, the assembly also adopted the historic Decolonization Declaration according to which "all peoples have the right to self-determination" and "by virtue of that right freely [shall] determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development". The two resolutions would constitute the basic international legal framework for the demands for self-determination in the Portuguese-ruled territories. This study is concerned with Sweden's relations with the nationalist struggle in Southern Africa. At least three dimensions outside the primary focus should in this context be borne in mind, namely that Portugal itself until 1974 was a dictatorship towards which in particular the ruling Swedish Social Democratic Party dedicated considerable efforts for change; that the liberation struggles in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique-albeit nationalist and with particular means and objectives-to a large extent appeared as coordi1 Ant6nio Salazar. 'Declaration on Overseas Policy', 12 August 1963 in Marctun op. cit., p. 289. 2 Ibid., p. 285. 3 Large-scale massacres hadbeen carried out by the Portuguese in Sao Tom, in 1953, in GuineaBissau (Pijiguiti) in August 1959 and in both Mozambique (Mueda) and Angola (Catete, Icolo eBengo) in June 1960. As in the case of the Sharpeville shootings in South Africa, the events were decisive for the nationalists' resolve to launch the armed struggle. 4 Portugal continuedto settle poor and middle-dass citizens in Angola and Mozambique right up to the 1974 Lisbon coup. Between 1950 and 1974, the number of white settlers in Angola more than quadrupled, increasing from 78,000 to 335,000. In Mozambique, the corresponding numbers were 50,000 to almost 200,000 (James Ciment: Angola and Mozarfique: Postcolonial Wars in Southern Africa, Facts on File, New York, 1997, p. 34). In Guinea-Bissau, the number of European residents was, however, marginal. There were never more than about 2,000 Portuguese civilians in the country. The anti-colonial struggle in Guinea- Bissau was, thus, not further complicated by a settler dimension. 5 United Nations: A Principle in Tonnent: The United Nations and Portuguese Administered Territories Office of Public Information, New York, 1970, p. 11. Angolan Insurrections and Swedish Reactions natedl; and that PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde at the end of the 1960s played a prominent role for both the official and the organized solidarity movement's involvement on the side of the nationalist organizations. While the struggle for democracy in metropolitan Portugal will only be referred to in passing, the early links between the African movements will be obvious throughout.2 When the Swedish government in 1969 decided to support PAIGC of Guinea- Bissau, it was the first time that an industrialized Western country extended direct official assistance to a national liberation movement engaged in armed struggle against another Western country. Furthermore, Sweden and Portugal were allied partners of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA). The process leading up to the decision will be outlined below. In the meantime, it could be noted that few Western European countries were as different as Portugal and Sweden in the post- war period and that the economic links between the two were initially weak. Although both had stayed outside the Second World War, the gulf separating the fascist dictatorship of Catholic Portugal from the social democracy of Protestant Sweden was huge. On the international arena, Portugal viewed itself as an important bearer of imperial destiny and had joined NATO, while Sweden made a virtue of its non-colonial past and had chosen a policy of nonalignment. Nationally, the Lisbon regime followed an ultra-protectionist path, administering a backward and stagnating agro-based economy, while the Social Democratic government of Sweden registered rapid economic growth and increasing export proceeds as a result of a policy of skills-intensive industrial processing. In the social sphere, the elitist policies of Portugal had led to rates of illiteracy and public disease that placed it more in the Third World,3 whereas the egalitarian policies of the 'Swedish model' placed Sweden in the highest rank regarding education and health. The commercial relations between Sweden and Portugal were quite marginal until the middle of the 1960s. In 1950, the value of Swedish exports to Portugal amounted to 28.3 million SEK, representing 0.5% of total exports. The 1 In the case of Angola, it is less relevant to speak of a single national struggle. Evenbefore the collapse of the Portuguese regime in 1974, the conflicts between the three main movements often reached an intensity suggesting civil war rather than a joint national liberation effort. 2 The important role played by PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde will be commented upon in the second volume. The decolonization process of Sao Tom6 and Prfncipe-led by MLSTP (Movimento de Liberfagao de Sdo Tomi e Principe Liberation Movement of Sao Tom6 and Principe)-will, however, not be discussed. It could, nevertheless, be noted that there were early contacts between Sweden and the nationalist opposition on the small islands. For example, in 1961 Joachim Israel and the Maundy Thursday Committee against Racial Persecution in South Africa 'adopted' the Santomean student Miguel Graga and arranged a scholarship for him at the Lillsved folk high school ('Protokoll f6rt vid sammantride med Skfrtorsdagskommittfn'/'Minutes from meeting of the Maunday Thursday Conunittee', 22 January 1962) (JIC). The future President of Sao Tom6 and Prfncipe, Manuel Pinto da Costa, attended the Afro-Scandinavian Youth Congress in Oslo in August 1962. 3 Through SIDA, the Swedish government granted official development assistance to Portugal after the collapse of the dictatorship in 1974.
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