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Jan van Eden
bio - biography Stories of our life in the foreign
1974-1975 Angola
[English]
Jumping the timetable to
the 7th April 1974 when I first entered Angola, I want to
enlarge our personal story with the historical events related to the struggle
for independence within Angola and the role of the Cubans. The contribution of
the Cubans to the end of apartheid is acknowledged by
African leaders (but
largely hidden for the European public). Working for a South African Company in
Angola we were finding ourselves on the wrong side of the political divide.
Knowing the country and its people from first hand experience I have observed
the aftermath of the indepence struggle in some detail and the international
solidarity of Cuba has made a deep impression on me.
The chronological account
below is based on extracts from (1) an article by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, first
published in the magazine Tricontinental, edition 53, of 1977 [GGM], (2) letters
written by Pepa to her parents [Pepa], (3) some eyewitness reports of the
battles around Luanda in 1975.
Jan talking with locals during an
orientative field trip (April 1974) [74-Angola-fieldtrip]
4 May 1974
Next week JCI will decide if we have to go to
Angola. They are looking for a sedimentologist/geophysicist and the chief of
Angolan operations Jake de Villiers has decided I am the ideal man for the job.
This will be a countrywide appraisal for uranium. For the first stage until
November of this year there is a budget of Rand 250.000.
Without counting personal friends already made with
the Portuguese, for example with the 2nd head of the Institute of atomic energy
in Lisbon, who it seems that we have known him throughout life, anyway I am not
going to tell everything in detail but people in Angola welcomed us very well
and it is sure that we will live there for them. If we go, furniture will stay
here (in Sourh Africa), and the company will provide housing in Luanda, we will
have a company car and an extra 45% of salary. Jan has to go to the United
States to visit typical uranium deposits [Pepa]
Luanda - boulevard
that runs along the coast (1974) [74-Luanda-boulevard]
(Note the offices of the BCCI bank from Saudi Arabia,
this
fraudulent bank was a cover for
CIA operations in
Afghanistan in the 70ties and 80ties)
7 April 1974 Jan went to
Angola "Luanda" with intentions to return last Wednesday but he is still there
and yesterday the company told me that I will prepare everything I need that I
go two or three weeks... Bibi seems to me to take it to a nursery of dogs
"Cannels" will not think of anything better. Ana was looking after the House and
plants and the office I'm going to give a scare when I tell them that I'm going
on vacation. And this is the story of always going from one side to another...
Angola was a Portuguese colony with problems of terrorists on the border with
Congo (Brazaville), but it has nothing to do with the area where they work and
although within five or ten years Portugal may have to give the independence at
this time there is none of that. U tell you, if you hear something do not worry,
think in terms of a country that is no longer stable companies remove their
capital and geologists will be taken out. [Pepa]
A llegar el dia 7 de abril de 1974
en Angola por la primera vez, habian 3 movimientos de liberacion activos en
Angola.
The
oldest liberation movement of Angola was the MPLA, established in 1956, and was
the only one who was implanted with a wide popular base especially in the
cities. Its President was Agostinho Neto, medical profession. NET, is also
author of poems that exalt the Angolan culture. Contacts between the Cuban
revolution and the Popular Movement of liberation of Angola (MPLA) had been
established for the first time and had been very intense since August 1965, when
Che Guevara participated in guerrillas in Congo. The following year he was in
Cuba the own Agostinho Neto accompanied by Endo, the Commander in Chief of the
MPLA, which had died in the war, and both were then interviewed with Fidel
Castro. The second movement was the national front for the liberation of Angola
(FNLA). Its leader Holden Roberto, married the sister of Mobutu Sese Seko, was
recruited by the CIA Agency since the first half of the 1960's. In 1975, at the
outbreak of the civil war, he received the support of South Africa and USA.
Under the command of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA joined the Portuguese colonialists
years before independence. In 1975, after the fall of the fascist regime in
Portugal, it strengthened its relations with the regime of Apartheid in South
Africa. [MARQUEZ] A few weeks after our entry into Angola, there was an
important change in the political situation with the Carnation Revolution the
name given to the military uprising of April 25, 1974 in Portugal bringing
down the dictatorship Salazar that dominated the country since 1926.
Life in Angola remains quiet the only problem is that with so many strikes of
carriers, providers, etc. Food is scarce and prices skyrocketing, you can not
imagine how everything is going up since we arrived, but in the end it is not
only here, in the whole of Europe inflation is tremendous and if read the
planning for the future it is even worse , and everyone is talking about
doing something and nobody does anything, everyone carries on as if we have
reserves for many years... Well, it is best to not become bitter ... [Pepa]
10 June 1974 Waiting
for visas for Angola and the USA and preparing to stay on a more permanent basis
in Angola. Jan will go several weeks to the USA while Pepa will fly to Madrid
and stay during that time in Huesca and later on in the Netherlands for one
week. We will send to Angola books, Lp’s, personal belongings.
Travel to the USA together
with Jake de Villiers for a study tour of uranium mines in New Mexico and
Arizona.
Flying back over Portugal.
In Lisbon,
apart from a few visits to the Nuclear Energy Board the rest of the time was for
us and as transport by bus and train were good we have got to know nearly
everything along the coast. Portugal is lovely but is still much poorer and
backward than Spain. The Portuguese airliones have been on strike and caught us
just when we had to go back, you must say that in the last two days alone, we
slept five hours and the rest of the time we spend it in the airport, the plane
would leave at 11 but they retarded it untill 1 o'clock, but the control
tower did not give permission, they were striking up to three o'clock in the
morning and then the crew had already made part of their schedule and they can
no longer start with an 8-9 hour flight, at 6 in the morning another crew came
and then we were leaving, at three in the afternoon we arrived in Luanda. [Pepa]
3 Sep 1974 since yesterday we are in
Luanda where everything seems quiet although changes are expected and people
have opinions of all kinds, for the time being the company continues with
all its programs and Jacques and Pam de Villiers were happy to have us here
again. Each person has a different opinion about the future, at the moment
the only change that is noticeable is that censorship does not exist and you
can see phenomenal films that before and in Spain only could be projected in
arthouse cinemas. You must find an appartment and wait til they give it to
us, meanwhile we shall travel to Malange with David Garnett [...] Going to
the field is the best thing you can do. [Pepa]
I have illusions with the House in
Sabayes, if we are there, we will
not run from one side to the other...
Our fieldcrew Dave Garnett (geologist), Jan van Eden,
Domingo, Paolo, Daniel, Curado (assistant), Tono y Voluntad at a location east
of Malange (September 1974) [74-fieldcrew-Malange]
Pepa Santolaria and Dave Garnett on an improvised bridge
(September 1974)
[74-Pepa-and-Dave-Garnett-Malange-area]
14 Sep 1974 are already a week in this town
(Xandel) [is about 150 km east of Malanje] small dry and ugly where we have an
old House which is from where we leave for the field, the idea is to have here maps
tents etc and start from here to camps in different NTS areas. We have two
Portuguese assistants and 11 Africans, two of them working in the house and
kitchen. The chef cooked for two assistants but sometimes I stew for everyone
because it gets me a little sorry...
At end of September we will have an appartment in Luanda, on a hill and looking
out from
there over the port and sea, close to the centre and office and close to the
market, but at the same time it is in a quiet place because of its location in a park the,
the
apartment has three large galleries and two air-conditioned rooms...
View of the city center of Luanda from our apartment
(October 1974) [74-LuandaApartment-01]
Monday 16th we went camping for four days, going with three
landrovers, eight Africans and the two Portugese assistants. We slept in a tent
that is mounted on top of the car, on a wood covered steel roofrack and the our
tent. I take care about what we eat is clean, the water boiled and put through a
filter with a chlorine tablet, all those things in the hands of the chef, who
does not understand why it should be done.
[
...] Bad roads and the towns with phenomenal landscapes, real Africa; It is to
be seen
because you can not describe it with words. Part of the job is to ask for water at each site, to
analyse it and know if there is any uranium near there etc. In each village the people
are curious but they treated us very well. They carry bows and arrows, axes,
ceramic jars and all those things that they make themselves. Friday we visited a camp of
another company we met two young English couples, very nice people, and on
Saturday they visited us at Xandell. In all this area Diamang and another company
exploit the diamonds, there are also many traffickers and people becoming very
rich buying and selling diamonds to Africans who know them all and take them
(from the rivers) without machinery, the police going after them, but many get
what they want. There was a
time that you were shot from helicopters used by the mining company if they saw someone
digging. Angola is rich, the companies are investing and taking much and fearing
that with the change of Government it may not be so easy. The situation here is
quiet...
One
of the English couples
that Pepa mentions above was Kevin Elford who worked as a field
geologist with Condiama and his girlfriend Jane Whitelaw, who was also a
qualified geologist. We came across their camp by chance and as we found Jane
all by herself and not much to do, we employed her on the spot on a part-time
basis to do geological reconnaissance for us.
25 Sep 1974 are still in the hotel, maybe Saturday or Monday
we can go to the appartment,
but for furniture we have to wait...
26 September Jan is in Luanda, he has a meeting with
the heads
of exploration of Rhodesia and South Africa, and he has to talk about his impressions
on his visit to the USA. Our program in Angola will be ciscussed and apart from that
we have to
entertain them... [Pepa]
 25 Sep 1974
are still in the hotel, maybe Saturday or Monday we can go to the appartment,
but for furniture we have to wait...
Salon and dining corner of our appartment in Luanda
(October 1974) [74-LuandaApartment-02]
1 nov 1974
we just got back from the field to our house of Xandell, we have been all the week out
and tomorrow we go to Malange where we will take the plane to Luanda... The
fields are green
because it rains every day. The grass gets higher by the day and makes it more difficult
to walk out there, we are in the rainy season, now until December there are
small showers and from January to April the are heavy, this is the same as in Zambia where field
work is impossible in these months and camps were closed until the rains
ceases, here we do not close down, but you are limited to do what you can. Apart from the
inconvenience of the life in the field, the heat, mosquitoes, etc. It's great to be there, the
peace and quiet is unmatched. We love it here but I have to admit that life here
is hard work throughout the day with much dirt and the meals not much more than... cod, cans of sausages,
soups from packages and we improve on it taking high concentrated juices and fruit that
sometimes we buy it in the market of Luanda to bring it here. Yesterday we had
a visit of a snake that is called in English "Pofadder" very poisonous and the
worst thing is that it does not move out of the way. It stays motionless under the grass and if
stepped on it, it bites you. The pofadder in the camp was swallowing a toad,
this is something to see.
We were watching it until the toad was almost inside and we killed it before it
had an empty beak. It was very impressive, allready dead and even then you
could see the frog moving inside.... We have serums for treatment, just in
case...
 Lobito - graffitti from UNITA and the MPLA (November 1974)
[74-Angola-Lobito]
Geologists and partners of Cominan in Lobito, November 1974
Alex Meddlecock, Brinden and Don Page Green, Jan van Eden,
Jake de Villiers, Dorien and Pat Cochran, Jenny Page Green,
Bob Ingram, Charlie Hoffman, Steward Comlin
[74-Lobito-geologistsCominan]
The coming week to Lobito to spend three days meeting
with geologists and women and then a weekend at the camp of Novo Redondo. [...]
the days we spend flying, Jacques de Villiers cares much of its staff and makes
our life as pleasant as possible, not only because he always calls us to go out
for
dinner, but it is also the absolute freedom he gives to Jan with his work. Which
makes for a real
friendship with Jan and me. I just hope that things here continue as usual and
that we can stay here in Angola for a long period. [Pepa]
12 nov 1974 this Pepa on Novo Redondo (now called Sumbe) in idyllic camp Don
Page Green and Jenny, while Jan and Jacques de Villiers in Johannesburg talking
with directors of JCI.
 Derek Anderson, Jan van Eden, Jenny and Don Page Green
- Novo Redondo camp on the beach (nov 1974) [74-Novo
Redondo-Jenny-DonPageGreen-01]
From
Novo Redondo Pepa writes: We have radio contact with Luanda and other camps at 6
every day and Luanda has told us that there were many problems last weekend,
but now it seems more relaxed, except that drivers are on strike,
there are no buses and they have barricaded the roads, many things occur but
this does not reaslly affect us, and if we hear the news it sounds much
worse than what we experience. We, even when we are in Luanda hear nothing
of it until the next day.
[Pepa]
9 Dec 1974 after a week in
Xandell, another week in the Lunda province, close to the Congo, visiting
diamond mines, and on Thursday we will return to Luanda where we will stay until
the first days of January. The visit to the mines was very interesting... We visited a mine, a
diamond washing plant and then areas that Jan was interested to see. In Dundo we
visited the Museum and it surprised me of the wonders that I saw there, I could tell you
many things, but what most impressed me were three sculptures, one of a dancer...
if I only could take it with me..., but this, ofcourse, you cannot find or buy.
These
pieces of art have been in Europe allready and have been purchased by Diamang to bring
them back to their
site of origin. As a curious thing, in one of the skeletons of a crocodile they
foud a small bell and a rare flat stone, for those two things a man recognized the crocodile
that had swallowed his wife long before, the poor witch always wore the bell hung on
her waist and the flat stone she used to clean or scrape in the kitchen, she
kept it in her pocket,The crocodiles have stones and even tin cans which are swallowed into
their stomach and they are living with it. [Pepa]
At the start of the civbil unrest the Dundo museum was
looted and several ethnographic objects from centuries past, were lost. The
museum was closed in 1992 but in January 2002 again a
16th century tribal mask was stolen. Unfortenately the
diamond areas were held by the armed gangs of Savimbi UNITA up till his death in
2002. UNITA's ability to mine diamonds and sell them abroad, provided
funding for the war.According to the United Nation's Fowler Report, Joe
De Deker, a former stockholder in De Beers, worked with the government of Zaire
to supply military equipment to UNITA from 1993 to 1997.The UN also estimates
that UNITA made at least $3.72 billion of diamond sales, despite international
sanctions.
Life in Angola remains quiet the only problem is
that with so many strikes of carriers, and suppliers, food is scarce and prices
skyrocketing, you can not imagine how much everything has gone up since we
arrived, but finally it is not only here in Europe inflation is also tremendous and
if ryou read the plans for the future it will get even worse , and everyone is talking about
doing something and nobody does anything, everyone follows the events as if we
had reservations for many years... Well, it's best to not become bitter in life
Christmas it will spend calmly in Luanda. Jan has holidays until January 9, he
will be painting in the morning, but in the afternoon he goes to the office, because he has to
finish a report on the Karoo, for which he has not had time to do it and they are
waiting for it in South Africa. [Pepa]
Gathering of collegues, Don Page Green,
Pat Cochran, Pepa, Pam de Villiers, Dorien Cochran,
Jake de Villiers (Director of Cominan) and
Derek Anderson at the terrace of our apartment
in Luanda (20th December 1974?)
[74-Luanda-GatheringCollegues]
20 Dec
1974 began the day 20 with lunch. At night all the people Cominan, directors,
assistants, geologists (40 in total) went to celebrate the feast of Christmas
the company Tropico Hotel
,
23 dic 1974
Curado y Rosa, los asistentes de Jan vinieron a cenar.
I remember that, on the occasion of the christmas dinner, Rosa, who’s father had a farm where he
was breeding these animals, brought a life turqey with him. For a start we had
it on the balcony and killing the animal without the right tools was not easy.
Two men to control his powerfull wings and me hacking away at its neck to cause
it to bleed. Only very slowly you felt life drain away. I was amazed at the
strenght of such an animal, and although I think I should be enough man to
slaughter an animal, at the time I did not enjoy the experience.
24 dic 1974
The good night with
Teresa, Eduardo, and three children.
First week of 1975 trip
to Novo Redondo y Benguela (2 or 3 weeks)
5 January 1975
The three 'movimientos de liberación' MPLA, FNLA y UNITA meet again in Mombassa,
Kenya and agreed to stop fighting each other, further outlining constitutional
negotiations with the Portuguese.
Alvor
accords: negotiations held for six days, in 10-15 January 1975, between the
Government of Portugal, in quality of metropolis, the Popular Movement for the
liberation of Angola (MPLA), the only one who truly fought for independence and
a better future for the people, and organizations fantoches of the national front
of liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Integration
of Angola (UNITA), in order to organize the process of decolonization of that
African nation.
They established the formation of a transitional Government composed of
representatives of the four parties, for the January 31, 1975
4 february 1975 you will see
Luanda on TV these days, last week took charge the provisional Government, today
arrived the MPLA President Agostinho Neto (one of the three parties). Tension
and fear in
the streets, people with flags and singing, it is a holiday, shops and
offices are closed, so those who do not want hassles can stay at home, Jan has been
painting. Africans enjoy a big day, as trucks give free tansport to and from the airport
whenever somebody of the politicians arrive, they will get on these trucks, no matter
of which party, they sing and make all the noise that is needed, of course there are also
people who know what is happening but they will not be more than 25%. [Pepa]
A day off "Pintando" at home in Luanda
4th february 1974
[
The MPLA had an
overwhelming majority in Luanda and the arrival of Agostinho Neto must have been
quite an event. Nearly everybody we knew was associated or supported the MPLA. I
knew only one person (a white) who supported UNITA and the FNLA had no support
other than de Angolan refuges in the Congo. I witnessed the entry of the FNLA in
Luanda and it was certainly the most remarkable. They had reserved the entire
hotel Tropica, which was just a block away from our flat and I have seen them
arrive there in luxury Mercedes (?) cars, the women dressed in beautiful
colourful robes with spectacular headdresses in true Congolese style. All
speaking French and not a word of Portuguese. These were true strangers arriving
for a real party.
Offices of the MPLA in Lobito, 1975
[75-Angola-MPLA-offices-Lobito]
Call for a
Constituent Assembly on 30 April and the subsequent celebration of elections to
elect the Executive and legislative branches.
22 March 1975
We went for a meeting to Paris with the executive director in charge of
exploration of JCI, Bernard Smith and the director of the Angolan operations
Jake de Villiers to present our planning for the uranium exploration in
Angola. The European partners were the Instituto de Energía Atómica de
Lisboa (ENUSA?), British Electricity Board, the german Urangesellshaft and
the French Minatom. The presentation went well and the executive director of
JCI congratelated me with my convincing arguments and perseverance. The
project was accepted and could go ahead, but because of the negative future
developments and war in Angola, I am not sure if signatures were ever placed
under the agreement. The whole exercise was of course a blatant infraction
of the United Nations boycot of the Portugese ‘province’ of Angola (but I
did’t know at the time).
On arrival in
Paris the airline had lost the suitcases of Jake and myself, and Air France
gave us blankets to wear in a wintery Paris. It was cold, I recall the
prostitutes posted in front of our luxury hotel wearing furcoats. It took
more than a day to recover our belongings.
25 March
1975 regular Zairian troops, well-trained and supplied, had penetrated into
Angola from the 25 of March. And they had proclaimed
a Government in Carmona, presided by
Holden Roberto, leader of the FNLA and brother-in-law of Mobutu [president of
Zaire, later on Congo], and whose
links with the CIA were public knowledge. [GGB]
7 May 1975 last week when,
here in Luanda, there was trouble, we were very quiet on the job in the Novo-Redondo
beach camp. We
returned to Luanda on Friday and brought lots of food because they said that it
was scarce in Luanda. People of the office were happy to see us, because it
coincided that
Jake was not in Luanda either and they felt somewhat abandoned. They could not leave their
homes because of the trouble and shooting in the streets, but fortunately
all were well. There was much hassle and many
dead, imagine those mortars launched on the suburbs that have no houses but
barracks, where not a single family lives, but three or four in each... As always, the poor
are those who pay, the rest of the city, as if nothing had happened, there is a
large refugee problem, people without jobs and no one sees the solution, it is
very
unfortunate. We are thinking of moving the office to Sa da Bandeira in southern
Angola 4 hours from the border with South West [Africa] at least until after the
elections (November 11) as it is not easy to move the staff it will cost at least a
month and a half before we have everything organized. Jan and I want to get things
there before leaving for Europe on June 26 and by the end of August when we come back, we will directly go
there.
From our flat you could
hear the impacts of mortar shells in the evening hours. During curfew hours in
Luanda there was a strange silence over the city and we enjoyed the music we
produced on our Transcriptors turntable. Our director of the company, Jake
de Villiers loved the Fotheringays LP, so this was
an
obligatory number. [It was an exceptional situation, as women and children had
been evacuated to South Africa, but Pepa had refused to leave. So our appartment
became a hospitable gathering place.] We had nice evenings with collegues and friends who
visited our apartment in the evenings, often ignoring the curfew. One of our
friends, Jeff Watkins, on his way from our appartment to the nearby hotel
Tropico [which already had been abandoned by the FNLA] nearly got arrested for breaking the curfew! One day
Pepa got mixed up in a shooting incident during daytime in the vegetable market
but it was not too bad, but she had to hide under a counter. On another occasion, a few days later, my Landrover was
returned to me with a neat row of 6 or 7 bullet holes of an automatic weapon in
the front door just above the seat. One of my assistants had been on a short
trip just outside Luanda. He survived the incident lying in a ditch alongside
the road when they were shooting.
The
reasons
and
the course of
the
fighting were never very clear, but you would guess that the MPLA could use its
popular support to maintain its hold on the subburbs militarily as well. The
centre of Luanda was quite safe for us as it was controlled by the remaining
Portugese forces.
It was known that much of the
countryside was controlled by the superior armed FNLA, who had a great number of
French Panhard armored cars. There were stories about real public anger of the
local village populations, mostly women, because the MPLA men were concentrated
in trainingcamps, and how they chased the FNLA congolese men away with
kitchenknives. The overwhelming superior arms of the FNLA administered by the
CIA never played a role of importance in the battle for Luanda. Probably because
of poor motivation of these mercenaries.
May 1975 when the Portuguese
were preparing to withdraw from their colonies in Africa, the Cuban Commander
Flavio Bravo met in Brazzaville with Agostinho Neto, and he asked help to
transport a shipment of weapons, and also consulted him about the possibility of a
more extensive and specific assistance. As a result, commander Raúl Díaz
Argüelles three months later, moved to Luanda at the head of a civilian Cuban
delegation and Agostinho Neto was then more to the point although not more
ambitious: requested the sending of a group of instructors to found and direct
four military training centres. 480 specialists who, within a period of 6
months, had to install four training centres and organize 16 infantry
battalions, as well as 25 batteries of mortar and anti-aircraft machine guns. As
a complement, they sent a brigade of doctors, 115 vehicles and appropriate
communications equipment. The first contingent was transported in three
makeshift boats. [source: Marquez]
Three
separate political movements jockeyed for power: the leftist Popular Movement
for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), strong in the centre of the country; the
Front for the National Liberation of Angola (FLNA) based in Zaire; and the
southern-based Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Both the FLNA and UNITA were CIA-funded and UNITA degenerated into simply being
an SADF (South African Defence Force) puppet.
The MPLA which was in the least advantageous military
situation. It had Soviet weapons, but lacked trained staff to handle it.
[Marquez]
Pepa next to a
Welwitschia plant in the Cunene
(June 1975)
Cominan camp in the Cunene (June 1975) [75-Angola-Cunene-05]
4
June 1975 Sa de Bandeira is ideally situated, cold compared to the rest of Angola and
there are fruit trees, cows and much agriculture. We will be there for the
weekend and on Monday will go to Pediva where geologists had a meeting on the 4th,
we
are going to a camp in Otchifenga and the 5th to the camp of Cunene again in
Pediva the 6th and the 7th in Sa de Bandeira , from where Jan will fly to Luanda to
collect the chemist that comes from Jo'burg and together will go to Malange on the 17th. We are planning to carry things
like our recordplayer, amplifier,
sewing machine, etc. to Sa de Bandeira before going to Europe for the congrees
and on a vacation, it seems to
be safer there, than here in Luanda. We will be busy until we leave for
Europe. We're very busy moving house (again) our personal things will be sent by plane
to Johannesburg and our furniture, along with the whole office they will take to Sa
de Bandeira.
[Pepa]
 Don Page Green, Jake de Villiers and Pepa Santolaria in a
one way lane (?) - Cunene beach (June 1975)
[75-Angola-Cunene-02]
 Jan - Cunene coastline (June 1975)
[75-Angola-Cunene-03]
 Sanddunes at the Cunene
[75-Angola-Cunene-04]
14 June 1975 We are all very pessimistic about our
future in Angola, the situation is very bad and it is almost certain that by 1
or 2 years it will be impossible to work here, it gives us very sad leaving
employees out of work and especially our people in Xandel, I will tell you
when we are together. [Pepa]
26 June 1975
Leaving for Europe to attend the Sedimentological Congress in Nice and planning
to come back to Angola at the end of August to continue working from Sa da
Bandeira. It wasn’t easy to get out of Angola on a regular flight. There were
masses of people wanting to leave Angola and I remember to line up at the
airport for three days and nights, as necessary we were relieved by personnel of
Cominan (the company I worked for).
It is quite unreal that we were
thinking of the south as being safe to keep our personal belongings. We packed
all our things in improvised wooden crates, prepared for transport by road to
Lobito. As things turned out, the goods never got any further than Lobito, as
the geologist in charge was evacuated at some date in July at very short notice
in advance of a South African Defense Force (SADF) incursion. The cargo of goods
from Cominan personnel was entirely lost. Early on in the war, Lobito was
overrun by troops of UNITA supported by the South African Defence Force (SADF) and in February the next year
it must have been retaken by government troops. Never a trace was found of these
personal belongings, which taught us to give less importance to material
possessions. We did not loose any paintings as we were taking them to the
Netherlands at every opportunity. Hpwever a great deal of geological information we
collected over the last year was lost.
The following remarks on the development of the
independence struggle and the interference of foreign troops from the Zaire,
South Africa and Cuba are taken from press reports.
26th
July 1975 when Cuba had already received the first call for assistance from
the MPLA, Fidel Castro asked the coronel Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho in Havana
that he should manage to get the authorization of the Government of Portugal to send
resources to Angola, and Saraiva de Carvalho promised to get it, but its
response has not yet come. [GGM]
5th
August, 1975 regular troops from South Africa, through the occupied
territory of Namibia, had crossed the southern border of Angola.
4th October 1975 the "Heroic Vietnam" came to
port Amboim at 6:30 in the morning; "Coral Island" arrived the day 7 and "La
Plata" became arrived on the 11th at Punta Negra. They came without permission from anyone, but
also without opposition from anyone. These three vessels are responsible for
transporting the majority of instructors; others make the journey by plane.
There are 480 men, and together there arrive at Angolan soil, 12.000 rifles
Czech R-52, pieces of mortar, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, as well as
uniforms and food, to provide units of the FAPLA (Popular Armed Forces for
the Liberation of Angola).
As planned, Cuban instructors were welcomed by
the MPLA, and put to work immediately four schools of instructors. One in
Delatando, which the Portuguese called Salazar, 300 kilometers east of
Luanda; an other in the Atlantic port of Benguela; an other in Saurino, old
Enrique de Carvalho, in the remote and deserted Eastern Lunda province,
where the Portuguese had a military base that destroyed before it was
abandoned. [GGM]
The 14th of October
the Zulu advance of the SADF penetrated Angola, without that the Governor moved a
finger. The Portuguese garrison in Moçâmedes (a company of paratroopers and a
maritime ship) left the position, coordinated with the South African invaders. Luanda is
increasingly threatened to the North and South alike. It is well clear, the
collusion of the imperialist powers to prevent independence. In that assault,
United States marching forward, flanked by Zaire and South Africa. England and
France formed a support in the rearguard. This was the coalition that was created in the
summer of 1975 behind UNITA and the FNLA". [GGM]
It was a Sunday stroll.
South Africans carried equipments of cassettes installed in tanks with party music. At the
end of this week South Africans had penetrated more than 600 km in the territory
of Angola, and advancing towards Luanda about 70 kilometers daily. On November 3
they had attacked the scarce personnel of the training for recruits at the CIR Benguela
Centre. So Cuban instructors had to leave school to confront the invaders with
their apprentices of soldiers, which they gave instructions in the intervals
between the
battles. Even doctors revived their practices of militia and went to the
trenches. The MPLA leaders, prepared to fight guerrillas, but not to a massive
war, understood then, that the conspiracy of their neighbors,
composed by the most violent and devastating forces of the imperialists,
could not be defeated without the help of the international solidarity.
In the North, the head of a mercenary column ran operations
aboard a Honda sportscar, next to a blonde as in the cinema. With an air of
holiday, without an advance party of exploration, and did not even have an idea
where the rocket came from that blew the car to pieces. Of the woman they only
found a dress, a bikini, and invitation card for the festivities of victory that
Holden Roberto had already prepared for Luanda. [GGM]
23 October 1975 with the aim of taking Luanda, the
attackers from the North had tried twice break the defense of the FAPLA in
Quifangondo, located 22 kilometers from the capital.
2 and 3 November at Catengue, Cuban military instructors and their students
located in the South of Benguela, tried to halt the advance of the
South African armoured column, which progressed from Namibia to the North of
Angola from
October 14th Angolan in the
direction of Luanda. That was the first organized resistance
encountered by the invaders, who despite suffering from sensitive loss, can
overcome their situation and continue moving northward because of its superiority
in men and media. Angolan and Cuban blood was shed together for the first time.
[GGM]
In summary, a mechanised
column of Zulu elite troops from the SADF entered Angola from South West on its
way to Luanda. The column was held up at Benguela by Cuban instructors and MPLA
trainies, but they were not prepared and many MPLA youth and dozens of Cubans
lost their lives in this first encounter. I got notice that I had lost one of
our assistants and a dear friend in those encounters. The MPLA was doing what it
could to retard the South African advance, but the column arrived more or less
on schedule at the ‘gates’ of Luanda, a few days before the critical date of
11th november on which the Portuguese were scheduled to leave Angola and its
capital Luanda. The South Africans were shelling the city with their long range
artillery and managed to cut off the water and electricity supply to the town.
On the 8th of November the
Cubans got permission of the Portuguese authorities to land two planes in Luanda
without support of the control tower, without lights and during torrential
showers. Later on the Cubans, with the overwhelming popular support of the MPLA
managed to bring 122 mm mortars and a battery of BM21 through the port of
Luanda, which they could use in the decisive battle the 10th of November. They
must have made a deal with the Portuguese to get the last remnants of their army
out of Luanda safely.
10th November in the third and final
assault offenders prepare a powerful and heterogeneous grouping: the
regular hosts of the FNLA and Portuguese mercenaries were reforced by at least two infantry
battalions and several armored vehicles of the regular army of Zaire, a general
and 25 officers of the apartheid regime well equipped with haevy cannons,
brought by plane from South Africa and several paramilitary officers from the
CIA. Th racists also had a plane to explore the FAPLA positions.
The defense
of Quifangondo was also reinforced. The participants in the defense mentioned
above, were joined by 200 infantry Katangese soldiers and two batteries
of artillery of Cuba: a 120 mm mortar and a battery of reactive BM21 rockets
reached the port of Luanda. [GGM] [ Katanga was a rebellious province of
the Zaire at that time]
Very early on the morning of 10th November
starts the fight. The attackers undergo a crushing defeat. The armoured vehicles are
inactivated and their infantry, under the fire of the BM21,
suffer numerous casualties. This provoked a real panic. [GGM]
A first hand account of the Battle of Quifangodo from a mercenary fighting for
the FNLA tells us that the ability of the BM-21 MLRS to deliver multiple
projectiles at a fast rate of fire was devastating to poorly trained,
inexperienced or poorly motivated troops and this was undoubtedly decisive for
the panic and stampede of the FNLA and Zairian troops in Quifangondo.
http://www.terryaspinall.com/03merc/angola/pedros-story.html
11th November 1975 Luanda was
saved. Just a minute after 12 o'clock of the evening of the 10th, the President
Agostinho Neto proclaimed at a massive rally, the birth of the people's Republic
of Angola. Then, that same day 11, under the orders of Diaz Argüelles unit
special troops March direction South to establish a line of resistance to the
invaders. [GGM]
Crónica: Operación Carlota, por
Gabriel García Márquez
revista Tricontinental,
edición 53, de 1977
After the departure of the Portuguese a fleet of Cuban supply vessels entered
the harbour of Luanda. Agostinho Neto with his characteristical modesty, was
embarrassed to see so much Cuban vessels in the port, which had arrived on his
request for help to his country.
Luanda was
saved. It is important to note that the in the view of some high U.S. officials was,
that the sweep up the Angolan coast in November by the South African and
mercenary mechanized cavalry columns could not be blocked. They were expecting
them to take Luanda and destroy the MPLA forces within a few days. This
apparently accounts for the failure of the U.S. government to intervene more
forcefully at this time. Later in November, after the formal independence of
Angola, the South Africans committed some 4,000 to 6,000 regular ground troops
with air support of two wings of fighter-bombers to battle in the Angola
campaign. The U.S. President Ford authorized the Central Intelligence to
organize "the largest covert operation ever undertaken outside Southeast Asia".
The purpose of this operation was to supply FNLA and UNITA with sufficient funds
and arms to ensure that they would in the end defeat the MPLA. After 15
November, they also flew tactical missions from a carrier task force of the
shore of Angola. However, the government of Angola forces were being supplied
with heavy equipment, in particular Soviet 122 mm rocket launchers and the South
African advance towards Luanda from the south was halted in early December near
Novo Redondo, a number of heavy battles took place in the area, in which the
South African and mercenary forces suffered heavy losses in men and equipment.
It was not until the 27th of March 1976 that the last regular South
African troops retreated to their South West Africa territory.
(Based on a press briefing sponsored
by the American Committee on Africa, at 305 E. 46th St., New York, N.Y. 10017,
by Sean Gervasi on December 19, 1975)
At this time,
we were staying again, much against our liking, in Johannesburg. Pepa went back
to her old job at the Pharmaceutical Company and I started a project on uranium
in the Karroo. It was curious to live under a regime that was at war with the
country and a people that we loved so much – Angola! It also revealed the
machinations of a country at war and the inevitable loss of the truth with the
propaganda in full swing. Officially, South African troops were not engaged in
Angola. The populace including the intellectuals maintained that South
African troops had not entered Angola and occasional victims among the white
elite troops where ascribed to terrorist actions in South West Africa. Reports
to the contrary in the international press were done away as propaganda. Apart
from a group of collegues that had been on the job with us in Angola, you
would find nobody in South Africa that would not accept the government version
of events.
Extracts from the
article by Gabriel García Márquez, taken from the magazine Tricontinental,
53 Edition, 1977, collect only the first stage of "Operation Carlota",
because the author concludes with the defeat of the forces that invaded the
nation Angolan and the beginning of the gradual withdrawal of Cuban troops
in 1976, when it seemed that it was all over.
However, as they had agreed the Presidents Fidel Castro and Agostinho Neto,
a minimum number of troops remained in Angola to ensure its sovereignty. The
situation was complicated and in 1987, when again South Africa got his hands
on Angola, and in this way began a new phase of the "Operation Carlota", [better known as the
battle of Cuito Cuanavale] which, 14 years later, finally
defeated the South Africans. Only then returned the last Cuban soldier, it
was may of 1991. Says Fidel Castro in his biography in two voices [Ignacio
Ramonet, 2006] that there in Angola fell 2,077 compatriots.
The Cuban
intervention was the decisive factor in garanteeing the
sovereignty
of Angola, assuring independence for South West Africa (which became Namibia in
March 1990, under president
Sam Nujoma). It was also a significant contribution to the liberation of
Zimbabwe and the disappearance of the odious apartheid regime in South Africa
(Mandela, 1995).
In summary, the Cubans arrived
in Angola as volunteers, motivated to rescue their "comrades" in the final
battle against apartheid. The cuban airforce of Migs-23s dominated the South
African airspace. The USA government worried about the Cuban presence in
Southern Africa. This turn of events is considered to have been the major
impetus to the success of the ongoing peace talks leading to the
New York Accords, the agreement by which Cuban and South African forces
withdrew from Angola while
South West Africa (now Namibia) gained its independence from South Africa. Mandela was
liberated a few years later and apartheid abolished.
Foregoing part of the story: 1972
South Africa
In August 1975 we were returning to the Republic of
South Africa, after our trip to Europe. I started work on an exploration
program for Uranium in the Karroo. We were waiting for a compensation by
JCI for the considerable loss on personal belongings in the war of Angola, and I
was starting to look for job opportunities elsewhere in the world.
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