Towards Official Support to MPLA Towards Official Support to MPLA MPLA and the Lund South Africa Committee The Angolan nationalist cause had during the first half of the 1960s primarily been presented to the Swedish public by journalists and writers, as well as by representatives of Swedish NGOs linked to international youth and student organizations. In contrast with South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique,1 no high-ranking Angolan nationalist leader had visited Swe den and no Angolan student authorized to speak on behalf of the liberation movement was resident there. In brief, there was no direct information activity or diplomacy carried out in Sweden by either FNLA or MPLA. The situation changed during the latter part of the decade. At the same time as the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa was given decreasing attention, the struggle in Angola would-together with the issues of Namibia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique-again come to the fore. With FNLA largely absent, the cause of MPLA from 1966 was principally taken up by the South Africa Committee in Lund. The following year, Jonas Savimbi, the President of the newly founded UNITA movement, was invited to Sweden by the Social Democratic Party. Although last on the political scene, Savimbi became the first of the Angolan leaders to directly express his views to the Swedish ruling party.2 Finally, in 1968 the Left Party introduced a parliamentary motion in favour of official Swedish assistance to the CONCP alliance, including MPLA. It was the active Lund South Africa Committee and its Syd- och Sydvdistafrika information bulletin that re-introduced MPLA in Sweden. After exclusive coverage of South Africa and Namibia from the beginning of 1964, two years later the bulletin opened its pages to the struggle in other parts of Southern Africa. In January 1966, the committee was visited by Pedro Gomes Higino, "active within the leadership of one of the main branches of the Angolan liberation movement, MPLA".3 An interview with Higino was published in the following issue of the bulletin. Later that year, Syd- och Sydviistafrika also published a special issue on 'Portugal in Africa',4 an update on MPLA's struggle 5 1 The President of FRELIMO, Eduardo Mondlane, regularly visited Sweden from 1964. 2 Agostinho Neto of MPLA paid his first visit to Sweden in July 1970, while Holden Roberto of FNLA went there for the first time in November 1971. 3 Syd- och Sydviistafrika, No. 1-2, 1966, p. 4. 4 Syd- och Sydviistafrika, No. 4, 1966. 5'Ny Fas i Frihetskampen i Angola' ('A New Phase in the Freedom Struggle in Angola') in Syd- och Sydviiafrika, No. 7-8, 1966, p. 20. Tor Sellstrbm and a profile of the MPLA President Agostinho Neto.1No corresponding attention was given to FNLA or UNITA. In the case of Angola, the Lund South Africa Committee would from the beginning put itself behind MPLA, influencing future opinions of the organized Swedish solidarity movement.2 UNITA, IUEF and the Social Democratic Party Little known is that the Social Democratic Party at about the same time established important contacts with Jonas Savimbi's UNITA. This was mainly a consequence of earlier links with Angolan pro-Savimbi students within ISC/ COSEC and IUEF. One of Savimbi's main constituencies consisted of a core of politically active students within UNEA, the student body formed under his auspices in 1962. The group was led by the UNEA President Jorge Valentim, who in July 1964 had been elected assistant secretary for African affairs of COSEC. While studying in Switzerland, Savimbi had from 1962 served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Holden Roberto's Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (GRAE). However, from the beginning of 1963 an increasing-to a large extent ethnically defined-rift appeared between Roberto's northern Bakongo constituency and Savimbi's Ovimbundu followers from central and southern Angola.3 Several influential FNLA-GRAE politicians and student leaders from the Angolan enclave of Cabinda also supported Savimbi in the mounting conflict.4 This reached its culmination at the OAU Heads of State and Government summit meeting in Cairo in July 1964, where Savimbi during a press conference resigned in a spectacular way from GRAE, charging that Roberto's government-in-exile "far from intensifying military action and regrouping the popular masses-the only way to hasten the liberation of Angola-limits itself 1 Syd- och Sydviistafrika, No. 10, 1966, p. 7. 2 The struggle in the Portuguese African colonies was at the same time brought to the fore by prominent intellectuals. In 1967, the Geran-Swedish writer Peter Weiss published his drama Stmgen em Skrtpuken ('The Song about the Hideous Mask'), a particularly powerful indictment of Portuguese colonialism and Western complicity. It was premiered in Stockholm in January 1967 and partly reproduced by the S6dra Afrika Informationsbulletin in its first issue (No. 1, 1967, pp. 17-18). The Lund South Africa Comnuittee had assisted Weiss with facts for the play (Lund South Africa Comiuttee: 'Medlemsmeddelande'/'Information to the members', No. 1/67, Lund [no date]) (AGA). 3 Many Ovimbundu contract labourers working on Portuguese farms-derogatorily called 'bailundos', i.e. people coming from the area of Bailundu in the central highlands-were killed during the UPA insurrections in northern Angola from March 1961. This was not forgotten by Savimbi's Ovimnbundu followers. As a curiosity it could be noted that Savimbi after the 1992 elections set up headquarters in Bailundu. 4 Such as the GRAE Minister of Armaments, Alexandre Taty-who later joined the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC)-Miguel N'Zau Puna and 'Tony' Da Costa Fernandes. Both N'Zau Puna and Fernandes formed part of the initial core group behind the founding of UNITA. Working closely with Savimbi for twenty-five years, they left UNITA at the beginning of 1992, accusing Savimbi of the killings in 1991 of Tito Chingunji and Wilson dos Santos, UNITA's former representatives in the United States and Portugal. Towards Official Support to MPLA to empty speeches".1 Shortly thereafter, Savimbi issued a devastating indictment of Holden Roberto, in particular denouncing "American imperialism" and "flagrant [Bakongo] tribalism" within his movement.2 Equally critical of what he viewed as Mbundu dominance and Communist influence within MPLA,3 Savimbi set about organizing a third Angolan movement, seeking and receiving assistance in Algeria, Egypt and China. Crucial for the initiative was UNEA's support. Savimbi's prot6g6 Jorge Valentim-who in 1963 as FNLA-GRAE representative in Katanga had grown disillusioned with Roberto's leadership-spearheaded the move to break the student body away from Holden Roberto. This was largely achieved through ISC/COSEC. In the words of Marcum, "Valentim decided to use COSEC travel funds and his position as UNEA President in a campaign to detach UNEA from GRAE [...], publishing a series of anti-GRAE student bulletins and pamphlets".4 The campaign was successful and after a special assembly in Utrecht, Holland, in September 1965 UNEA ceased to be part of GRAE. With additional support from a nucleus of experienced FNLA-GRAE military and political leaders,5 in January 1966 Savimbi was in a position to form a Preparatory Committee for Direct Action6 in the Zambian capital Lusaka. This was the forerunner of UNITA, formally founded by some seventy Savimbi followers at a conference near Muangai in the eastern Angolan district7 of Moxico in March 1966. The conference adopted a constitution which laid down that "real independence for Angola only will be achieved through [...] armed struggle [...] against the Portuguese colonial power inside the country".8 Six months later-in September 1966-UNITA held its first congress in Lusaka, where Savimbi was elected President of the Central Committee. Savimbi and UNITA were largely unknown in Sweden. However, in December 1966 Anders Ehnmark-who in 1961 had initiated the 'Angola Help' campaign for MPLA-visited the small UNITA office off Livingstone Road in Lusaka, where he in Savimbi's absence9 met and interviewed the movement's recently elected three Vice-Presidents, Smart Chata, Kaniumbu Muliata and Solomon Njolomba. The presentation of UNITA and the interview with its leaders-one of the very first by the international press-was published by 1 Jonas Savimbi: 'Resignation Statement, 16 July 1964, in Chilcote op. cit, p. 155. 2 Jonas Savirnbi: 'Where Is the Angolan Revolution?', October 1964, in Ibid., pp. 156 and 159. 3 Marcum (1978) op. cit., pp. 165-166. 4 Marcum (1978) op. cit., p. 162. 5 Such as Jos6 Kalundungu, FNLA's military Chief of Staff, and Dr. Jose Liahuca, head of SARA. 6 In Portuguese, Coina Preparat&io da Acqao Directa. 7 As Angola officially was a 'province' of Portugal, the term 'district' formed part of the colonial parlance. The liberation movements in the Portugese colonies normally used the term 'province', but -particularly in earlier documents-also often 'district'. 8 Cited in Marcum (1978) op. cit., p. 166. 9 Savimbi had in October 1966 crossed theborder into Angola, returning to Zambia at the end of March 1967. Tor Sellstrbm Expressen on 22 December 1966, shortly after UNITA's first military actions against the Portuguese in eastern Angola. Savimbi's lieutenants-all three former FNLA members-explained that they had broken with Roberto since he had "become too dependent on the Americans and in addition did not achieve anything inside Angola". In UNITA, they said, "we want to follow an African course, independent of the East and the West", expressing no understanding or mercy towards the Portuguese settlers in Angola: [They] are people of the Stone Age. They ship our soil to Portugal, which is only a heap of stones.