a person is going to adopt a cause, chances are it will be while they are at university. Before then most are too preoccupied with their maturing bodies. Beyond, the realities of life turn black and white perceptions of youth into shades of grey experience.
Angola was a natural diversion for young, inexperienced and easily influenced minds. South-West Africa as it still was, lay slap bang in the middle of two opposing governments â white-dominated South Africa to the south, and a predominantly communist Angola to the north. By the time Chester arrived at the Academy, the Angolans had been actively seeking independence from Portugalfor something like twenty years. In South-West the people also wanted to break free of South Africa and sever thirty years of administration. Chester had always been aware of these facts but, as he quickly was now discovering, nothing is that simple.
The whole Angolan issue was wonderfully complicated, providing endless hours of student discussion and debate on just about every argument imaginable. Support groups with a variety of political leanings formed within the Academy. And what a choice they had!
The FNLA, or National Front for the Liberation of Angola, had been formed back in 1961 by one Holden Roberto, a bloodthirsty hereditary king of the northern Bakongo tribe. Assistance for the FNLA, largely in the form of military hardware, flowed from Zaire where Robertoâs brother-in-law, Mobuto Sese Seko, was State President. Further help originated from the Chinese and a number of Arab states in north Africa. Open support was not for the faint-hearted. Holden Roberto took no pains to deny that his troops, in the course of liberating Angola from the Portuguese, had murdered around seven hundred whites and more than four thousand of their black supporters. Many had died in unspeakable agony. One favoured method involved tying victims to a board and feeding them through the local sawmill.
Further south was the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA, led by the anti-communist Dr Jonas Savimbi. Backing came mainly from Zambia but, because of his standagainst communism, something the western world noted with approval but did nothing tangible to assist, most African countries distanced themselves from Dr Savimbi and UNITA. Compared to support for the FNLA, Savimbi was a poor relation.
To further confuse matters, yet another group, this time from central Angola, followed Dr Agostinho Neto. The Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, drew its numbers from a large cross-section of Angolans and was backed financially by the Soviets and Warsaw Pact countries. Cuban soldiers arrived to advise the MPLA. With them came a flood of communist arms and ammunition. They became the dominant independence movement.
As with most colonial powers, the Portuguese were reluctant to relinquish control of their mineral-rich territory. In this case it was diamonds. What changed their mind was the systematic slaughter of seven hundred Portuguese nationals and the threat of more violence to come. They finally bowed to the inevitable, declaring that Angola would become independent by the end of 1975. That was all very well, but who would take control? The MPLA seemed more likely than the other two factions, something that was worryingly obvious to South Africa. The last thing in the world they wanted was a communist country practically on their doorstep.
The FNLA was undergoing an interesting spot of bother resulting in the formation of a breakaway faction. Bloodthirsty as they might have been, anddespite Pekingâs support, South Africa quickly set up a training camp for this splinter group. To hedge their bets, and because of Savimbiâs stand against communism, they also established a similar facility for UNITA. But theyâd left their support too late. The MPLA had gone on a power-seizing rampage.
By September 1975, the MPLA had taken control of many towns in
Angola was a natural diversion for young, inexperienced and easily influenced minds. South-West Africa as it still was, lay slap bang in the middle of two opposing governments â white-dominated South Africa to the south, and a predominantly communist Angola to the north. By the time Chester arrived at the Academy, the Angolans had been actively seeking independence from Portugalfor something like twenty years. In South-West the people also wanted to break free of South Africa and sever thirty years of administration. Chester had always been aware of these facts but, as he quickly was now discovering, nothing is that simple.
The whole Angolan issue was wonderfully complicated, providing endless hours of student discussion and debate on just about every argument imaginable. Support groups with a variety of political leanings formed within the Academy. And what a choice they had!
The FNLA, or National Front for the Liberation of Angola, had been formed back in 1961 by one Holden Roberto, a bloodthirsty hereditary king of the northern Bakongo tribe. Assistance for the FNLA, largely in the form of military hardware, flowed from Zaire where Robertoâs brother-in-law, Mobuto Sese Seko, was State President. Further help originated from the Chinese and a number of Arab states in north Africa. Open support was not for the faint-hearted. Holden Roberto took no pains to deny that his troops, in the course of liberating Angola from the Portuguese, had murdered around seven hundred whites and more than four thousand of their black supporters. Many had died in unspeakable agony. One favoured method involved tying victims to a board and feeding them through the local sawmill.
Further south was the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA, led by the anti-communist Dr Jonas Savimbi. Backing came mainly from Zambia but, because of his standagainst communism, something the western world noted with approval but did nothing tangible to assist, most African countries distanced themselves from Dr Savimbi and UNITA. Compared to support for the FNLA, Savimbi was a poor relation.
To further confuse matters, yet another group, this time from central Angola, followed Dr Agostinho Neto. The Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA, drew its numbers from a large cross-section of Angolans and was backed financially by the Soviets and Warsaw Pact countries. Cuban soldiers arrived to advise the MPLA. With them came a flood of communist arms and ammunition. They became the dominant independence movement.
As with most colonial powers, the Portuguese were reluctant to relinquish control of their mineral-rich territory. In this case it was diamonds. What changed their mind was the systematic slaughter of seven hundred Portuguese nationals and the threat of more violence to come. They finally bowed to the inevitable, declaring that Angola would become independent by the end of 1975. That was all very well, but who would take control? The MPLA seemed more likely than the other two factions, something that was worryingly obvious to South Africa. The last thing in the world they wanted was a communist country practically on their doorstep.
The FNLA was undergoing an interesting spot of bother resulting in the formation of a breakaway faction. Bloodthirsty as they might have been, anddespite Pekingâs support, South Africa quickly set up a training camp for this splinter group. To hedge their bets, and because of Savimbiâs stand against communism, they also established a similar facility for UNITA. But theyâd left their support too late. The MPLA had gone on a power-seizing rampage.
By September 1975, the MPLA had taken control of many towns in
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