Savimbi, Angola's Fallen Villain

Savimbi, Angola's Fallen Villain

New Vision (Kampala)

OPINION
February 26, 2002
Posted to the web February 26, 2002

Gawaya Tegulle

At the hands of Jonas Savimbi, over a million Angolans have died and two generations lost

If they had known that the baby of the station master and evangelical church pastor, Loth Malheiro Savimbi, and his wife Helena Mbundu Sakato. would bring misery to Angola, the people of Munhango in Bie Province would not have celebrated the birth of Jonas Savimbi

He looked perfectly harmless, a bouncing baby boy who made everyone laugh. No one knew he would make Angola cry as he bathed his people in their own blood years later.

Savimbi attended his primary school education in the centre of the country. In 1950, he attended the Curie Institute of Dondi and in 1955 continued his secondary school studies at the Marist Brothers College in Silva Porto (Bie). His schoolmates remember him as "intelligent and hard working".

In May 1958, Savimbi left for Portugal and concluded his studies at Passos Manuel Secondary School in Lisbon. Afterwards, he pursued medical studies for two years but decided to abandon this profession some time later.

In October 1959 in Lisbon, he participated in the independence movement of Portuguese colonies. He was detained for 15 days at a PIDE (secret police) prison. He met with Agostinho Neto, founder member of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) as well as with other Angolan nationalists.

In February 1960, Savimbi secretly left Portugal for Switzerland. He enrolled at the then Social Science Institute of the Legal Faculty of Lausanne where he obtained a degree in Political and Juridical Science. At this time, he continued with his militant activities while seeking which among the country's revolutionary movements to join.

In December 1960, Savimbi arrived in Kampala where he attended an international students' conference at the then Makerere College. Whilst there, he held a decisive meeting with Tom Mboya, the Kenyan economy and Planning minister and adviser to President Jomo Kenyata. Savimbi then signed up with UPA (the Union of Angolan People) led by Holden Roberto.

Around 1961/1962, Savimbi was appointed UPA Secretary General. He ensured that the Angolan Democratic Party (PDA), together with UPA formed the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA). Following this fusion, the Government teh Republic of Angola in Exile (GRAE) was proclaimed. Savimbi was appointed Foreign Minister of GRAE. During his visits, he met with all "progressive" African leaders namely Ahmed Sekou Touré, President of Guinea Conakry, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the Egyptian President and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, the three leaders of African nationalism.

On July 15, 1964 at the OAU summit in Cairo, Jonas Savimbi announced his withdrawal from the FNLA, intending to form his own party. In 1965, Savimbi and eleven of his companions left for the China where they were trained by the Chinese in guerrilla warfare and advised to carry out guerrilla warfare inside Angola. On March 13, 1966, Savimbi clandestinely entered Angola and created at Muangai, in eastern Angola, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). He was then elected by the First Congress as the Movement's President with an army of "12 people with knives" at the beginning. In July, 1967, after being detained by Zambian authorities, Savimbi was forced into exile in Cairo. In July 1968, upon his return to Angola, he installed himself deep in the bush from where he waged war against Portuguese colonialism.

On June 14, 1974, the Portuguese military overthrew the Salazar and Caetano regime. Savimbi signed a cease fire agreement in the bush with a Portuguese delegation. On January 3, 1975, the Mombasa Conference was held. The three Angolan nationalist leaders, Jonas Savimbi, Agostinho Neto and Holden Roberto met in Kenya and decided to make an independent Angola a democratic country.

On January 15, 1975, Portuguese Republican President, Costa Gomes, and the three Angolan leaders, Jonas Savimbi, Agostinho Neto and Holden Roberto, signed the Alvor accords which granted Angola independence.

But on June 16, 1975, as the situation in the new state deteriorated, Savimbi took the initiative to hold the Nakuru summit aimed at overcoming differences among the three liberation movements, unsuccessfully. On February 8, 1976, Savimbi, along with thousands of UNITA militants abandoned the city of Huambo, where he had been installed and once more returned to the bush, setting up base in the extreme south-east of Angola, with Jamba as the political, diplomatic, administrative and military capital of UNITA.

In December 1981, Savimbi visited the US, where UNITA was recognised as a political force, and in 1986, he met US President Ronald Reagan who distinguished him as a "Freedom Fighter".

The US supported UNITA because of the "cold war", even though they knew they were nothing but murdering thugs. And they called it "protecting the free world" against Communists who were supporting the Luanda regime.

It is thought he only fooled the West that he was anti-Communist and pro-capitalist for the money and military support he got, earning the nickname "Dollar Savimbi".

But with the demise of the Soviet Union, Savimbi was no longer crucial as a cold war player. The Angolan government had begun to shed its Marxist cloak and move close to the US. But it was too late. The US had created a monster when it suited them, but now they could not destroy him. Those close to him describe him as "a charming, erudite and intellectually interesting guerrilla leader on the surface but in reality a maniacal megalomaniac, thoroughly manipulative."

Wholly governed by his ambition to become President of Angola, Savimbi continually shifted alliances when it suited him. That is why he started as a marxist, then supported capitalists. He abandoned his Pan-African ideals to side with apartheid South Africa. He initially joined the MPLA liberation movement, then the FNLA, and finally formed Unita in eastern Angola in 1966.

A succession of U.N. peace plans led to elections in September 1992. UNITA lost. Savimbi denounced the elections as rigged and resumed war on a higher and more bitter scale. His resistance to democracy cost him international respect and from then on, he was isolated and destined for disaster.

The legacy of Savimbi is gruesome. More than a million Angolans have died. Two generations are already lost. Several hundred thousands have been maimed and millions are orphans and widows. Life expectancy in Angola is now only 44 years, and declining. One in three children dies before age 5.

Four million have been displaced, poverty reigns, industry has been destroyed and agriculture rendered largely impracticable because landmines keep blowing up people.

Many were kidnapped by Unita to swell its ranks and provide labour.

He had many of his close collaborators murdered. These included once leading Unita officials and all members of their families, including small children.

A ghastly crime at Unita headquarters in 1983 was when a group of women and children accused by Savimbi of 'witchcraft' were burnt to death on a giant bonfire. Savimbi is said to have had five of his own wives killed. His sexual practices have been described as 'beyond most usual concepts of lust' and included the 'right of the first night' with wives he chose for his senior officers.

In the months before his death, UNITA had weakened greatly, losing important positions to government forces and several senior officers were either killed or defected. U.N. sanctions designed to choke off support for the Angolan rebels had seriously weakened UNITA.

In the end the "Black Rooster" died the way he lived - by the gun. Big shame that a pastor's son turned out to be the worst thug that ever lived in Angola.

That news of Savimbi's death was greeted with celebrations instead of commiserations said it all: Jonas Savimbi is a man Angola and the world will not forget; a butcher no one will miss.

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