Confrontation in Southern Africa: Zambia and Portugal
| Author | Douglas G. Anglin |
| Published date | 01 September 1970 |
| Date | 01 September 1970 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070207002500304 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Confrontation
in
Southern
Africa:
Zambia
and
Portugal
Douglas
G.
Anglin
The
roots
of
the
present
conflict
between
Zambia
and
Portugal
are
to
be
found
in
the
determination
of
the
Portuguese to
per-
petuate
their
harsh
colonial
rule
in
Angola and
Mozambique
and
in
the
refusal
of
Zambians
to
tolerate
its
continuance indefinitely.
Zambia's
external
interests
and
concerns
have
traditionally
been
oriented towards
the
south,
but
in
recent
years
it
has
been
compelled
to
pay
increased
attention
to
its
neighbours
to
the
east
and
west.
In
the
process
of
disengaging
from
dependence
on
out-
lets
to
the
sea
through
Rhodesia,
it
has
come
to rely
heavily
on
the
Malawi
railway
to
Beira
in
Mozambique
and
especially
on
the
Benguela
Railway
to
Lobito
in
Angola. Moreover,
as
disillusion-
ment
with
developments
in
Rhodesia
and South
Africa
has
deep-
ened,
Portuguese
Africa
has
seemed
to
offer
the
liberation
move-
ment not
only
relatively
greater
prospects
of
success
but
also
the
best
hope
of
an opening
into
the
southern
African
laager.
Zambia
has,
in
fact,
found
itself
very
much
in
the
front
line in
the
nation-
alist
struggles
against
the
Portuguese.
In
1966
fighting
inside
Angola
spread
to
Zambia's
western
boundary
and
also
erupted
in
the
Tete
district
of
Mozambique on
its
eastern
boundary. The
mounting
scale
of
Portuguese
military
operations
in
these areas
resulted
in
a
series
of
border
incidents and
clashes
as
well
as
the
influx
into Zambia
of
thousands
of
Angolan and
Mozambique
refugees.
Admittedly,
Zambia
is
not
alone
in
facing
the
Portu-
guese.
Tanzania borders
Mozambique
and
the
Congo
(Kinshasa)
Angola,
but
Zambia
is
unique
in
sharing
a
common
frontier
with
both
Portuguese
colonies
-
for
a
distance
totalling
a
thousand
miles.
In
addition,
landlocked
Zambia
is
more
vulnerable
than
either
Tanzania
or
the
Congo
to
Portuguese
economic
and mili-
tary
pressure,
weapons
that
Lisbon
is
not
reluctant
to exploit.
Professor
of
Political
Science,
School
of
International
Affairs,
Carle-
ton
University,
Ottawa;
Vice-Chancellor
of
the
University
of
Zambia,
1965-69.
The
support
of
the
Center
of
International
Studies,
Princeton
University,
under
whose auspices
this
article
was
written,
is
grate-
fully
acknowledged.
498
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Portugal's
survival as
the
last
major
colonial
power
in
Africa
is
a
matter
of
particular
pride
in
Lisbon where
this
achievement
is
attributed,
probably sincerely,
to
the
superior
moral
quality
of
the
Lusitanian
civilizing
mission.
Yet,
in
reality,
no colonial
sys-
tem
in
Africa
has
been
characterized
by
more injustice
and
in-
humanity,
more
ignorance
and
neglect, more
ruthless
exploitation
and
sheer
barbarism
-
and
can
claim
so
few
positive benefits
to
its
credit.
It
is
scarcely
surprising, therefore,
that
Zambia,
which
is
committed
to
the
emancipation of
all
Africa,
should
find
Portu-
guese
oppression
particularly
repugnant
and
be
determined
to
strive for its
eradication,
hopefully
by
peaceful
means.
At
the
same
time,
the
Zambian
government
has,
at
least
until
recently,
been more
confident
about
the
possibility
of
an
eventual
negotiated
settlement with
Portugal
than
of
one
with
either
South
Africa
or
Rhodesia. In
part,
this
optimism
is
a
reflection
of
the
limited
contact
between
the
two
countries
in
the past.
The
eco-
nomic
and
political ties
that
bound
Zambia
to
the
south
involved
Portugal
only
marginally.
Also,
compared
with
the
number
of
Rhodesians
and
South Africans
in
Zambia,
the
Portuguese
com-
munity
there
was
very
small,
and
its
economic
power
and
impor-
tance
insignificant.
It
provided
the
carpenters
rather
than
the
captains
of
industry.
As
a
result,
Zambians have
had
little
direct
experience
of
the
Portuguese
mentality.
More
important
in
explaining
their
comparative
optimism
concerning
Portuguese
behaviour
is
the
belief,
which
may
be
more
a
hope
than
a
conviction,
that
the
issue
at
stake
in
Angola
and
Mozambique is
more
traditional
colonialism
than
notions
of
racial
superiority.
As
the
Lusaka
Manifesto claims,
"the
basic
problem
is
not
racialism
but
a
pretence
that
Portugal
exists
in
Africa."
In
Zambian
experience,
British
governments
have
been
more
responsive
to
change and
more
reluctant
to
resort
to
re-
pression
than
British
settlers
with
their
entrenched
privileges
and
vested
economic
interests
to
defend.
Whether
this
principle
ap-
plies
equally
to
the
Portuguese government
with
its
messianic
complex
is
highly
dubious.
In
any
case,
as
a
result
of
postwar
immigration,
it
is
not
at
all
clear
that
settler
influence
in
the
Portuguese
colonies is
as
negligible
as
it
once
was.
Lusaka
is,
in
fact, aware
that
an
incipient
threat
of
a
Rhodesian-style uni-
lateral
declaration
of
independence
exists
and
might
materialize
if
Lisbon
were
pressed
too
far.
The distinction enshrined
in
the
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