Word: savimbi
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Joseph Savimbi's organization is difficult to categorize. Originally Roberto's right-hand man, Savimbi split in 1964, charging tribalism, and formed UNITA in 1966 to fight within Angola's borders rather than from adjacent countries as did the other groups. UNITA draws its support from the Ovimbundu of the southeast, who represent 38 per cent of the population, as well as from basically non-aligned tribes in the center. Ovimbundu living in Southwest Africa are so troublesome to South Africa that the Vorster government is considering allowing them to secede and unite with their brethren in Angola...
...Savimbi is a slick and opportunistic politician who seeks to present himself as a moderate and a mediator, the logical compromise choice to become the first president of Angola. He rejects the anti-imperialist rhetoric of the MPLA and FNLA as irresponsible: "Complete independence is impossible. The population must not be misled on this point by propaganda. We must wait long years to attain economic independence." Savimbi favors "democratic socialism" and wants to "build a socialist society in Africa--not one molded on China, Senegal, or Congo, but one that fits in with the history and realities of our country...
...interests. Its chief rival is the Moscow-oriented Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (M.P.L.A.), backed principally by students and intellectuals in Luanda and strongly supported by the Portuguese Communist Party. The third group is the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (U.N.I.T.A.), headed by Jonas Savimbi, a onetime disciple of Che Guevara turned moderate, who controls much of rural Angola and is said to have the backing of Portuguese businesses with interests in the country...
UNITA, which began as a tribal movement eight years ago. Under the guidance of Moderate Jonas Savimbi, UNITA has won the greatest support among Angola's 500,000 whites by advocating multiracial government...
...when the native is ready for independence," the fact of the matter is that thirteen years of fighting have produced a more seasoned leadership than four hundred years of Portuguese colonialism could master. In my opinion such leaders as Samora Machel in Mozambique, Holden Roberto, Agostinho Neto and Jonas Savimbi in Angola and Luiz Cabral in Guinea-Bissau--to mention a few--have demonstrated a capacity for leadership that seems superior to Lisbon's crop of leadership during the past fifty years...