Portuguese Africa

Mauritius Times – 70 Years

The brutality of Portuguese colonialism is well attested by independent writers who have visited these black spots

By Peter Ibbotson

There has been a lot of childish talk and thought about the tragedy of Congo. Imperialists and colonialists have used it as an excuse to attack the whole idea of colonial emancipation; they say “Look at what happens when you give independence to the Africans — rioting and disorders. You can’t trust the Africans. They’re not ready for independence, they are children who must be told what to do.”

Thus runs the illogical talk of the imperialists. They ignore the fact that the Congo tragedy was the logical outcome of years of Belgian dictatorship and denial of civil rights and liberties. They ignore the fact that the Belgians had never begun to educate the Congolese for political power but had retained all power in the hands of a few thousand expatriate Europeans. They ignore the fact that Belgium, while making a show of granting political independence to the Congo Republic, was nevertheless determined somehow to retain her stranglehold economic power over the wealthy metalliferous Katanga province.

What is needed in the Congo is not cheap unthinking gibes from the imperialists, but people of goodwill, presumably under UN auspices, who will do the job which the Belgians, during years of brutal dictatorship, cynically refused ever to begin — the job of providing the administrators and technicians who will, under a free Congolese Government, teach the Congolese how to run their own affairs. And they must teach all the Congolese; there is no room in the Congo for an independent Katanga.

For an independent Katanga means the perpetuation of colonialism; Belgian economic colonialism in place of Belgian political colonialism. An independent Katanga would be no more independent than the ‘banana’ republics of Central America.

But the Congo is not the only tragic spot in Africa where colonialism is rampant. Worse is the situation in the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, Sao Tomé, and Cape Verde. In Angola, for example, 57 nationalist leaders are being tried in a street military court at Luanda. In June 52, Angolans, mostly civil servants and railway workers, were arrested in parts of central Angola. The well-known poet and doctor. Agostinho Neto, was arrested and flogged (in front of his family and neighbours) by the chief of the Portuguese Gestapo in Angola as well as by the assistant chief.

Father Joaquim da Rocha Pinto de Andrade, Chancellor of the Archbishopric of Luanda and the only Angolan graduate in theology at the University of Rome, has been arrested and deported to Portugal. The police have been raiding African houses in and around Luanda and other towns; every radio set that was found was smashed over the head of its owner. Indiscriminate beatings and shooting in the air have helped to spread terror in the villages. Extra troops have been sent from Portugal, and more are on the way; Portuguese settlers have been armed.

This is just a sample of the atrocities and brutalities to which the peoples of the Portuguese colonies are regularly subjected. A further sample: on August 3, 1959, Portuguese troops shot dead 50 African workers at Bissau. In memory of these workers the second All-African Peoples’ Conference (held at Tunis) decided to commemorate August 3 as the Portuguese Colonies Independence Day. On that day, anti-colonialists all over the world have the opportunity to show their solidarity with the nationalist movements in all Portuguese colonies, in India as well as in Africa.

The brutality of Portuguese colonialism is well attested by independent writers who have visited these black spots in the last few years. Peter Ritner, in The Death of Africa (New York, 1960), says: “Portuguese Africa is one of the worst governed areas of the world.” Professor Marvin Harris, an American anthropologist, says in his Portugal’s African Wards (New York, 1958), “What makes Mozambique an unknown land is the silence of her African people. Overwhelmingly illiterate, carefully insulated against provocative news from abroad, subject to corporal punishment and deportation at the whim of the European authorities, their thoughts are never expressed, their real voice unheard.”

Basil Davidson, in The African Awakening (London, 1955) has this to say, “In 1954, official figures in Angola showed 379,000 forced workers (none being in native industry or agriculture) and another 400,000 voluntary workers… the Government makes universal use of forced labour for its own needs…”

The year before, Alexander Campbell had said in The Heart of Africa, “Any adult male African may be compelled by Portuguese law to work for a white master for at least six months of every year… The same fate awaits Africans who fail to pay their poll taxes.” Finally, in Inside Africa, John Gunther wrote (also in 1955), “The worst thing about Portuguese Africa is forced labour. Not only does this still exist; the Portuguese authorities admit that it exists… and condone it. It is not quite — but almost — a form of slavery. The man becomes a chattel.” He earlier points out that Portuguese Africa is ruled as Portugal itself is ruled: by authoritarian methods, with press censorship, secret police, rigged elections, and all the other trappings of dictatorship.

The people of Portuguese Africa are a bedevilled and well-nigh forgotten people. 50 years ago, English writers such as Nevinson and Cadbury drew attention to the evils of Portuguese rule in her African colonies; and nothing since has been done to improve the fate of the peoples of those colonies. Potentially the colonies are economically rich; and some of the natural wealth is exploited by Portuguese companies who, however, condemn their African employees to exist in a subhuman state of squalor and misery.

The total population of Portuguese Africa is 11 million. For these 11 million people, there are only 380 doctors! Cape Verde is best off, with one doctor to 10,000 people. In Angola, which is better off than Guinea or Mozambique, there is one hospital for every 280,000 people, one doctor to every 20,000 people, and one nurse and 30 hospital beds for every 10,000 people. 99 per cent of the people are illiterate; areas as large as Portugal have no schools at all. Only about one child in 100 attends school! There is a Roman Catholic monopoly of education for the Africans; African education is virtually confined to the primary schools. A few persistent Africans do make an extraordinary effort to complete secondary education, and a mere handful manage to achieve a university education; at present, about 100 Africans are attending Portuguese universities (there are none in the colonies) — 100 out of a total population of 11 millions! Nearly all primary school teachers, and all secondary school teachers, are Europeans; except that in Cape Verde a few Africans teach in secondary schools.

Portugal does not accept the principle of self-determination for the people of her colonies (which she terms ‘overseas provinces’ in order to keep out United Nations Commissions of Enquiry. She denies the right of all peoples to choose their own destiny; she denies the capability of the Africans to govern themselves or to contribute to human progress as independent and sovereign nations. The Fascist Salazar Government, maintained in office by all the trappings which Hitler used to such evil ends, is not yet apparently aware of the most important political reality of the present age: the end of colonialism. It keeps alive the spirit of anti-democracy and colonialism; it does not hesitate to use the weapon of terror and torture against people whose only ‘crime’ — if crime it be — is the desire for freedom. There are savage concentration camps; in the last few years a relentless campaign has been waged against the African patriots, a campaign in which there have been persecutions, deportations, tortures, and massacres of innocent persons.

But there has recently been formed an organisation linking together the various national independence movements. This organisation depends on the support and sympathy of individuals and other nationalist organisations all over the world; that is why I have written at length about the position in Portuguese Africa. Everyone in Mauritius who has at heart the cause of independence will be with the people of the Portuguese colonies in their struggle for freedom from the dictatorial oppression of Salazar and his secret police; everyone will be with me in extending to the Africans of Portuguese Africa the wish and hope that their domination by Portugal will soon be over, and that their appeals for help in their struggle will not fall on deaf ears among the governments of the world and at UNO.

7th Year – No 310
Friday 5th August, 1960

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 4 July 2025