Apartheid's Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.crp20005 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Apartheid's Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique Author/Creator Minter, William Publisher Zed Books Ltd, Witwatersrand University Press Date 1994-00-00 Resource type Books Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Southern Africa (region) Coverage (temporal) 1975 - 1993 Rights By kind permission of William Minter. Description This book explores the wars in Angola and Mozambique after independence. It analyzes the interconnected roles of social structure; external intervention; the particular patterns of military recruitment, conditioning, logistics and strategy that characterize Unita and Renamo; and the vulnerability and mistakes of the new Angolan and Mozambican states. Format extent 323 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.crp20005 http://www.aluka.org W W LULI A M MINTER APARTHEID'S CONTRAS AN INQUIRY INTO THE ROOTS OF WAR IN ANGOLA AND MOZAMBIQUE About the author William Minter is a leading US specialist on the southern African region, and on Angola and Mozambique in particular. Minter's extensive experience of southern Africa includes teaching at the secondary school of the Mozambique Liberation Front in Tanzania and Mozambique in the i96os and 197os and work with the anti-apartheid movement in the United States. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin (Madison), with a concentration in political sociology and African studies. He is currently the Associate Director for Education at the Washington Office on Africa and a visiting scholar at the School of International Service, the American University. 'Minter's book could not be more timely. With the ANC victory in South Africa, the world is ready to forget southern Africa, and forgive the near destruction of Angola and Mozambique in defence of apartheid South Africa. Minter reminds us of how the wars there were nourished and largely incided to prevent human liberation. It is a sobering tale with lessons for the immediate future.' Immanuel Wallerstein 'Minter handles the extremely fragmentary and controversial material on the wars in southern Africa in a remarkably lucid, dispassionate yet committed way. His book takes account of the many different views and attempts to weigh the evidence systematically and judiciously. It should be read by all those with an interest in contemporary southern Africa, or whatever persuasion.' Shula Marks, Professor of the History of Southern Africa, School of Oriental and African Studies 'By far the most comprehensive analysis of racist South Africa's destabilization campaigns in Angola and Mozambique. A renowned specialist on the region, William Minter drawn on an extraordinary array of sources to offer both experts and general readers an outstanding volume.' Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja, Professor of African Studies, Howard University 'All those responsible for the 'contra' subversions in Angola and Mozambique will be cursed by history for enormous and terrible crimes, which will long weigh heavily on the whole of southern Africa. William Minter gives us the factual and balanced record; it is, for all of us, an indispensable contribution.' Basil Davidson Books by William Minter Portuguese Africa and the West (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972 and New York: Monthly Review Press, 1973). Imperial Network and External Dependency: The Case of Angola (Beverly Hills: Sage Professional Papers in International Studies, 1972). Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy (with Laurence Shoup) (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1977). King Solomon's Mines Revisited: Western Interests and the Burdened History of Southern Africa (New York: Basic Books, 1986). Operation Timber: Pages from the Savimbi Dossier (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 1988). Reviews King Solomon's Mines Revisited (New York: Basic Books, 1986) 'An invaluable work, elegantly organised and written ... I have named it one of my choices for "Books of the Year"' - Nadine Gordimer 'The most challenging of recent books on Southern Africa' Professor Leonard Thompson, The New York Review of Books 'Well researched and soberly reflective, typical of Minter's scholarly background ... Recommended for all university libraries' Library Journal 'An original, highly readable study ... a very important new book that warrants wide readership' - Choice 'Indispensable ... probably the best historical overview yet published' - Victoria Brittain, Guardian 'Compulsory reading for anyone seriously interested in South Africa' - Donald Woods, Third World Qjuarterly 'A must for scholars and analysts of South Africa and the U.S. stance towards that country' - Foreign Affairs A rich mine of essential historical information, shrewd political insights and comments' - The Black Scholar 'A powerful, wide-ranging and ambitious book' - Professor Shula Marks, Southern African Review of Books 'A big, important book, deserving of the attention it has already received. Authoritative in academic terms, it is readily accessible to a general readership' - International Journal of African Historical Studies 'A substantial achievement of scholarly synthesis' - Dr Ian Henderson, Journal of Southern African Studies Apartheid's Contras An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique WILLIAM MINTER Witwatersrand University Press JOHANNESBURG 0 Zed Books LONDON & NEW JERSEY Wi? Apartheid's Contras was first published by Zed Books Ltd, 7 Cynthia Street, London NI 9JF, UK and 165 First Avenue, Atlantic Highlands, NewJersey 07716, USA, and in the Republic of South Africa by Witwatersrand University Press, i Jan Smuts Avenue, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa, in 1994. Copyright © William Minter, 1994. Cover designed by Andrew Corbett. Cover photograph by Carlos Guarita/Reportage. Maps reproduced from Africa Recovery by kind permission of United Nations, Africa Recovery. Set in Monotype Baskerville by Ewan Smith, London E8. Printed and bound in the United Kingdom by Biddles Ltd, Guildford and King's Lynn. The right of William Minter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him according to the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. All rights reserved. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. us Cip data is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 1 85649 265 6 Cased ISBN 1 85649 266 4 Limp In South Africa ISBN 1 86814 277 9 Limp Contents Acknowledgements viii List of Abbreviations ix Maps: Angola x Mozambique xi Southern Africa xii Introduction I From Colonial Rule to Liberation I I To the hour of victory 13 Institutionalizing hope 21 Cross-border operations, 1976-79 27 Military outlook on the eve of the i98os 34 2 Total War and its Aftermath, 1980-93 37 South Africa's total strategy 37 Unleashing the dogs of war, 1980-82 39 Talk, talk, fight, fight, I983-84 42 Stoking the flames of violence, 1985-87 45 Winding down the conventional war: war and negotiations, 1988-89 49 Promises of peace: war, negotiations and war, 1990-93 52 3 Explanations - Theories, Facts and Arguments 56 Why explanations matter 57 State, nation, ethnicity and race and the boundaries of'civilwar' 61 State, revolution and counter-revolution 65 Theory and practice of unconventional warfare 70 Logics of comparison and historical explanation 74 Piecing together the evidence 77 4 Nationalism, Ethnicity and Decolonization 81 Historical roots of ethno-regional distinctions 82 Inventing the nation 86 Organization and hegemony in the nationalist movement 89 Decolonization scenarios 93 The ancien rigime and other losers 99 Ethnicity and regionalism in the post-colonial wars 102 5 Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Regional Perspective io8 Initial responses to insecurity 109 The cross-border option 112 The regional line-up "17 Institutional instruments of total strategy 120 Proxies, clients or allies? 126 Continuity and change on the western front: Angola and Namibia 128 Continuity and change on the eastern front: Mozambique 134 Summing up the South African intervention 139 6 The Cold War Connection: Crusaders and Conflict Managers 142 Cold War and national liberation 143 The curious course of constructive engagement 147 The Unita lobby: at home in Reagan's Washington 151 Renamo's American connection 155 Geopolitics, diplomacy and the Reagan doctrine in Angola 159