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Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa: Lisbon's Three Wars in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea, 1961-74
Portugal's three wars in Africa in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (Guine'-Bissau today) lasted almost 13 years - longer than the United States Army fought in Vietnam. Yet they are among the most underreported conflicts of the modern era. Commonly referred to as Lisbon's Overseas War (Guerra do Ultramar) or in the former colonies, the War of Liberation (Guerra de Libertaao), these struggles played a seminal role in ending white rule in Southern Africa. Though hardly on the scale of hostilities being fought in South East Asia, the casualty count by the time a military coup d'etat took place in Lisbon in April 1974 was significant. It was certainly enough to cause Portugal to call a halt to violence and pull all its troops back to the Metropolis. Ultimately, Lisbon was to move out of Africa altogether, when hundreds of thousands of Portuguese nationals returned to Europe, the majority having left everything they owned behind. Independence for all the former colonies, including the Atlantic islands, followed soon afterwards. Lisbon ruled its African territories for more than five centuries, not always undisputed by its black and mestizo subjects, but effectively enough to create a lasting Lusitanian tradition. That imprint is indelible and remains engraved in language, social mores and cultural traditions that sometimes have more in common with Europe than with Africa. Today, most of the newspapers in Luanda, Maputo - formerly Lourenco Marques - and Bissau are in Portuguese, as is the language taught in their schools and used by their respective representatives in international bodies to which they all subscribe. Indeed, on a recent visit to Central Mozambique in 2013, a youthful member of the American Peace Corps told this author that despite having been embroiled in conflict with the Portuguese for many years in the 1960s and 1970s, he found the local people with whom he came into contact inordinately fond of their erstwhile 'colonial overlords'. As a foreign correspondent, Al Venter covered all three wars over more than a decade, spending lengthy periods in the territories while going on operations with the Portuguese army, marines and air force. In the process, he wrote several books on these conflicts, including a report on the conflict in Portuguese Guinea for the Munger Africana Library of the California Institute of Technology. Portugal's Guerrilla Wars in Africa represents an amalgam of these efforts. At the same time, this book is not an official history, but rather a journalist's perspective of military events as viewed by somebody who has made a career of reporting on overseas wars, Africa's especially. Venter's camera was always at hand; most of the images used between these covers are his. His approach is both intrusive and personal and he would like to believe that he has managed to record for posterity a tiny but vital segment of African history.
544 pages, Hardcover
First published December 19, 2013
47 people are currently reading
208 people want to read
About the author
Al J. Venter
57 books32 followersAlbertus Johannes Venter is a South African journalist and historian who is arguably the world's foremost expert on the modern military history of Africa. He has been a war correspondent/military affairs reporter for many publications, notably serving as African and Middle East correspondent for Jane's International Defence Review. He has also worked as a documentary filmmaker, and has authored more than forty books.
He has reported on a number of Africa’s bloodiest wars, starting with the Nigerian Civil War in 1965, where he spent time covering the conflict with colleague Frederick Forsyth, who was working in Biafra for the BBC at the time.
In the 1980’s, Al J Venter also reported in Uganda while under the reign of Idi Amin. The most notable consequence of this assignment was an hour-long documentary titled Africa’s Killing Fields, ultimately broadcast nationwide in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service.
In-between, he cumulatively spent several years reporting on events in the Middle East, fluctuating between Israel and a beleaguered Lebanon torn by factional Islamic/Christian violence. He was with the Israeli invasion force when they entered Beirut in 1982. From there he covered hostilities in Rhodesia, the Sudan, Angola, the South African Border War, the Congo as well as Portuguese Guinea, which resulted in a book on that colonial struggle published by the Munger Africana Library of the California Institute of Technology.
In 1985 he made a one-hour documentary that commemorated the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He also spent time in Somalia with the US Army helicopter air wing in the early 1990s, three military assignments with the mercenary group Executive Outcomes (Angola and Sierra Leone) and a Joint-STAR mission with the United States Air Force over Kosovo.
More recently, Al Venter was active in Sierra Leone with South African mercenary pilot Neall Ellis flying combat in a Russian helicopter gunship (that leaked when it rained.) That experience formed the basis of the book on mercenaries published recently and titled War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars.
He has been twice wounded in combat, once by a Soviet anti-tank mine in Angola, an event that left him partially deaf.
Al Venter originally qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers at the Baltic Exchange in London.
(from wikipedia)
He has reported on a number of Africa’s bloodiest wars, starting with the Nigerian Civil War in 1965, where he spent time covering the conflict with colleague Frederick Forsyth, who was working in Biafra for the BBC at the time.
In the 1980’s, Al J Venter also reported in Uganda while under the reign of Idi Amin. The most notable consequence of this assignment was an hour-long documentary titled Africa’s Killing Fields, ultimately broadcast nationwide in the United States by Public Broadcasting Service.
In-between, he cumulatively spent several years reporting on events in the Middle East, fluctuating between Israel and a beleaguered Lebanon torn by factional Islamic/Christian violence. He was with the Israeli invasion force when they entered Beirut in 1982. From there he covered hostilities in Rhodesia, the Sudan, Angola, the South African Border War, the Congo as well as Portuguese Guinea, which resulted in a book on that colonial struggle published by the Munger Africana Library of the California Institute of Technology.
In 1985 he made a one-hour documentary that commemorated the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
He also spent time in Somalia with the US Army helicopter air wing in the early 1990s, three military assignments with the mercenary group Executive Outcomes (Angola and Sierra Leone) and a Joint-STAR mission with the United States Air Force over Kosovo.
More recently, Al Venter was active in Sierra Leone with South African mercenary pilot Neall Ellis flying combat in a Russian helicopter gunship (that leaked when it rained.) That experience formed the basis of the book on mercenaries published recently and titled War Dog: Fighting Other People's Wars.
He has been twice wounded in combat, once by a Soviet anti-tank mine in Angola, an event that left him partially deaf.
Al Venter originally qualified as a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers at the Baltic Exchange in London.
(from wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 27, 2021
A rambling, journalistic narrative of the three separate theaters of the Portuguese war in Africa.
It is written from the perspective of the author's first-hand experience across the continent. Lots of insight into the fine details of life on the ground with the Portuguese army as well as weaving in the broader historical aspects of the huge effort Portugal put into holding onto their African colonies.
This does make the book a little disjointed as it jumps from one narrative to another but once you get familiar with the authors casual style of writing, it is a fascinating recounting of the conflict.
Overall, a good book to keep referring back to as a reference point for future reading, as well as being a interesting personal insight into one of the last great colonials war.
It is written from the perspective of the author's first-hand experience across the continent. Lots of insight into the fine details of life on the ground with the Portuguese army as well as weaving in the broader historical aspects of the huge effort Portugal put into holding onto their African colonies.
This does make the book a little disjointed as it jumps from one narrative to another but once you get familiar with the authors casual style of writing, it is a fascinating recounting of the conflict.
Overall, a good book to keep referring back to as a reference point for future reading, as well as being a interesting personal insight into one of the last great colonials war.
March 29, 2021
A fascinating history of largely forgotten conflicts that parallels the U.S. experience in Vietnam at the very same time, but double the duration, occurring on three separate fronts on a vast continent, and with a fraction of men, arms, and equipment. Venter does a fantastic journalistic job of staying neutral by applauding and criticizing various aspects of both the Portuguese armed forces and the nationalists fighting them.
April 25, 2020
During the height of Cold War, the so-called ‘Winds of Change’ blew throughout Africa. Here and there, European colonial powers relinquished their colonial territories. However, one vowed to stay, and that country was Portugal.
The first European power to colonise Africa and the last one to leave, Portugal stubbornly clung to its African possessions. I find it highly romantic that one of the last dictatorships in Western Europe (the other being Spain) which was also the second poorest country in Europe (after communist Albania), managed to fight in three different countries, in various harsh and unforgiving conditions, even longer than Americans’ participation in Vietnam. But in the end, the tide of history turned against Portugal.
In this book, which was mixture of history, military analysis, and the author’s personal recollections, we learn about Portugal’s Colonial War from 1961 - 1974 in its three African possessions: Angola (where the war most competently fought), Portuguese Guinea (the bloodiest struggles), and Mozambique (where Portuguese fought ineptly and became source of headaches for its South African and Rhodesian allies). Action-packed, the author brings us to some of his exciting experiences, such as driving in an armed convoy in Angola and running on a raiding mission with Portuguese African’s most elite unit, the Comandos Africanos. What interested me the most was Portuguese apparent success in integrating Africans into its military, having some of its most effective and decorated units made up mostly, if not fully, of loyal Africans, such as Captain Bacar from Portuguese Guinea.
Portugal during Estado Novo’s rule always occupies a place of interest within me, and the author’s brilliant writing on colonial wars in Africa from the colonialists’ point of view motivates me to highly recommend this book to everyone who is interested in this topic.
The first European power to colonise Africa and the last one to leave, Portugal stubbornly clung to its African possessions. I find it highly romantic that one of the last dictatorships in Western Europe (the other being Spain) which was also the second poorest country in Europe (after communist Albania), managed to fight in three different countries, in various harsh and unforgiving conditions, even longer than Americans’ participation in Vietnam. But in the end, the tide of history turned against Portugal.
In this book, which was mixture of history, military analysis, and the author’s personal recollections, we learn about Portugal’s Colonial War from 1961 - 1974 in its three African possessions: Angola (where the war most competently fought), Portuguese Guinea (the bloodiest struggles), and Mozambique (where Portuguese fought ineptly and became source of headaches for its South African and Rhodesian allies). Action-packed, the author brings us to some of his exciting experiences, such as driving in an armed convoy in Angola and running on a raiding mission with Portuguese African’s most elite unit, the Comandos Africanos. What interested me the most was Portuguese apparent success in integrating Africans into its military, having some of its most effective and decorated units made up mostly, if not fully, of loyal Africans, such as Captain Bacar from Portuguese Guinea.
Portugal during Estado Novo’s rule always occupies a place of interest within me, and the author’s brilliant writing on colonial wars in Africa from the colonialists’ point of view motivates me to highly recommend this book to everyone who is interested in this topic.
June 17, 2023
Al Venter is a veteran South African journalist and war correspondent, who traveled widely in all three war zones profiled here. The book is at its best when it draws on his notes and reporting done over a period of years. The result is some utterly fascinating anecdotes and vivid “no [kidding], there I was…” moments sprinkled through the book. Venter's descriptions of convoying across endless expanses of hostile country, for instance, are gripping. He clearly was able to build good rapport with several of his hosts, and evidently respected many of the soldiers he met.
This does not mean Venter romanticized or was blind to local sources of resentment against the metropole. As he notes at one point, "One can go further and say that with the level of colonial exploitation going on in Lisbon’s colonies– and in this regard the Portuguese were ruthless – there would almost certainly have been some kind of an uprising, as there had been many before, but always ruthlessly dealt with." The other side, though, are portrayed as carrying out their wars just as brutally in practice, however elevated their goals were in principle.
And therein is one of the book's limitations. Portugal’s Guerilla Wars as the title implies, is about Portugal’s side of the wars. Venter is pretty effective showing how they fought and, to some extent, why. Whether from lack of access or lack of interest, the guerilla perspective gets short shrift--to the extent it is presented, it tends to be one-dimensional and very Cold War in outlook. What the guerillas' goals and perspectives actually were isn't particularly clear.
The book's other major flaw is organizational. Events in Lisbon and the “Carnation Revolution” are touched on briefly, but the book is strongest presenting bottom-up reporting from the warzones. As a result, the narrative tends to jump around and is choppy.
Still, there’s not very much available in English on this lusophone parallel to Vietnam, and Venter does a decent job with what he has. This is valuable look at the story of how three African countries, troubled in different ways, came to be what they are.
6/10 (3 stars)
December 31, 2024
“Africa is for us a moral justification and a raison d’être as a power. Without it we would be a small nation; with it, we are a great country.” António de Oliveira Salazar
Tena and will visit Portugal in 2025, and I like to read histories of nations I go to. I had read general histories of Portugal but those titles didn’t go into detail about the colonial wars of the late Sixties and early Seventies, so I picked up Venter’s book.
It isn’t bad for what it is, it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I’d hoped for a military and political history that would give me an analysis of the causes of the wars and why Portugal fared badly in them.
But Portugal’s Guerilla Wars is a journalist’s war memoir. The emphasis is on Venter’s individual experiences and the experiences of the people he interacted with as an embedded correspondent. It held my interest; it just didn’t provide the system-level view I wanted.
There was one chapter, “Why Portugal Lost her Wars in Africa,” that attempted the kind of big picture analysis that interests me. But it didn’t say anything that I hadn’t already read in briefer form in my earlier readings.
Portugal at the time of the colonial wars was the second-poorest nation in Europe after Albania. Both Prime Minister Salazar and Generalissimo Franco rabidly believed, in this era marking the end of colonialism, that their African possessions must be guarded at all costs to prop up the economy. Both large parts of the general population and, more importantly in the end, the Portuguese military strongly disagreed. This, among other factors, ultimately led to the Carnation Revolution in April 1974 which put an overnight end to Franco, Salazar, and the tattered remains of Portuguese empire.
Tena and will visit Portugal in 2025, and I like to read histories of nations I go to. I had read general histories of Portugal but those titles didn’t go into detail about the colonial wars of the late Sixties and early Seventies, so I picked up Venter’s book.
It isn’t bad for what it is, it just wasn’t what I was looking for. I’d hoped for a military and political history that would give me an analysis of the causes of the wars and why Portugal fared badly in them.
But Portugal’s Guerilla Wars is a journalist’s war memoir. The emphasis is on Venter’s individual experiences and the experiences of the people he interacted with as an embedded correspondent. It held my interest; it just didn’t provide the system-level view I wanted.
There was one chapter, “Why Portugal Lost her Wars in Africa,” that attempted the kind of big picture analysis that interests me. But it didn’t say anything that I hadn’t already read in briefer form in my earlier readings.
Portugal at the time of the colonial wars was the second-poorest nation in Europe after Albania. Both Prime Minister Salazar and Generalissimo Franco rabidly believed, in this era marking the end of colonialism, that their African possessions must be guarded at all costs to prop up the economy. Both large parts of the general population and, more importantly in the end, the Portuguese military strongly disagreed. This, among other factors, ultimately led to the Carnation Revolution in April 1974 which put an overnight end to Franco, Salazar, and the tattered remains of Portuguese empire.
November 2, 2025
This book offers a deeply reported account of Portugal’s wars of decolonization in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau. Written from the perspective of a journalist rather than a national or political one, it provides vivid personal interviews with Portuguese officers and soldiers.
One of the book’s strengths lies in its even-handed portrayal of the Portuguese: tenacious in their efforts to hold on to their African territories, yet increasingly fighting against the inevitable tide of history.
Interestingly, it can be argued that Portugal did not so much lose its colonial wars as it was overtaken by a domestic political upheaval after the 1974 revolution, which forced a rushed and chaotic end to more than five centuries of imperial presence in Africa.
This is a highly engaging and well-written account, essential for anyone interested in the Portuguese Empire, the African wars of decolonization, and their connection to the Cold War. As the book points out, these conflicts remain relatively unknown, largely overshadowed by the Vietnam War. In fact, some even argue that supporting Portugal’s wars might have been a more strategic Cold War investment than backing South Vietnam.
One of the book’s strengths lies in its even-handed portrayal of the Portuguese: tenacious in their efforts to hold on to their African territories, yet increasingly fighting against the inevitable tide of history.
Interestingly, it can be argued that Portugal did not so much lose its colonial wars as it was overtaken by a domestic political upheaval after the 1974 revolution, which forced a rushed and chaotic end to more than five centuries of imperial presence in Africa.
This is a highly engaging and well-written account, essential for anyone interested in the Portuguese Empire, the African wars of decolonization, and their connection to the Cold War. As the book points out, these conflicts remain relatively unknown, largely overshadowed by the Vietnam War. In fact, some even argue that supporting Portugal’s wars might have been a more strategic Cold War investment than backing South Vietnam.
April 10, 2016
The colonial wars in the three African Portugese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea not only went on for a long long time but were succeeded by civil wars that were just as brutal and as long. In Angola the Portugese faced insurgents from Zambia, the Congo and Angola from 1961 to 1974; in Mozambique the insurgents came from mostly from Tanzania and headed south from 1964 to 1974 and in Portugese Guinea in West Africa the ‘freedom fighters’ came from neighbouring Guinea and Senegal between 1963 and 1974. The armed forces and resources that a small country like Portugal put out to attempt to contain and countermand these liberation movements / guerrilla activity drained the European home base and affected the armed forces and colonists in Africa as well as those back on the Iberian peninsula so much that what happened was the armed forces took over in Portugal in 1974 staging what is now known as the Carnation Revolution.
All three wars of liberation – and I will call them that because that’s what the insurgents wanted was liberation from Portugese colonial rule and the right to self-rule / independence - were complex affairs which demanded different solutions. There were common elements but the differences were greater than the similarities. Just about all three conflicts were for the most part ignored in the west which seemed to be concentrating on America and Vietnam. All three were classic guerrilla insurgent wars
It seems odd therefore to try and write a book about the three wars including all three in one large and weighty volume and not taking one of them alone from start to finish. This is what Al Venter has done with this book. I wanted to read something about the end of Portugese colonisation having worked in both Angola and Mozambique. The material in English is thin on the ground and Venter’s books are the most accessible. He is South African and a former employee of the South African Navy and Jane’s Defense Review.
What you get is a deeply (for me) frustrating book. Episodic in nature with no real focus on beginnings, reasons, whys, wherefores except as by-products to go with the general gung-ho of a journalist with access to most areas by the fact that he was one of the few there. Venter might be a journalist but he’s not a writer – he’s not Robert Fisk or John Pilger – its more kind of Studs Terkel. I really don’t give a s*** about naming all the armaments (correctly). You pretty much know where its coming from before you start. There is no analysis from the other side and no attempt to understand the concept of wanting your country back from the colonial powers. The opposition are ‘Terrorists’, ‘guerrilla insurgents’, Marxist indoctrinated invaders supported by the new Comintern in insurgencies of Cold War-by-proxy. Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere were the supporters of international terrorism dedicated to throwing over the order of things-as-they-should-be. Leastways thats how he comes across and that appears to be his stance for much of the time.
And just as easily, he suddenly drops into a line of insight which really IS illuminating. His views of the Portugese conscript armies and the native forces within Angola, Moz and Guinea is really excellent. He is best when he is reporting the words of others who are generally more insightful and often even more right wing and conservative. Saying that though, a number of the Portugese officers he talks to went on to be leaders in the Carnation Revolution and were generally left of centre and in some cases far left to anarchist).
I must admit the book troubled me. Parts of it had me despairing at the strongly pro-Portugese support-the-colonialist, pro staus-quo nature of it. Other parts of it had me gripped. That, I suppose, all has to do with where I am coming from in reading the book. That is, the experience of the book is a relativistic one – in that it all depends on where you’re starting from. Its the old Freedom Fighter / Terrorist dichotomy.
I suppose what I should do now is, like one of the Portugese commanders says, go out and read and re-read my Mao and Guevara and Giap and get my political theory shit together. Maybe Al should try it too. One thing’s for sure – after this you really need to find out more about the fall of the Salazar and Caetano and the reasons for and development of the Carnation Revolution - well much of it has to do with the African wars - but it's trying to realise what the climate was in Portugal that would add meaning to the African end too. After that, then I suppose you could try and start to understand the Angolan civil war from 1975 – 2002, the Mozambique civil war from 1977 – 1994 and the various periods of unrest in Guinea-Bissau.
Give the book a try but realise it’s not Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War, probably the best written and researched book I have read on modern wartime conflict, and it's not the whole story – indeed there were times when I wondered if Venter wasn’t in fact some kind of spook for the South African Defense forces – come to think of it, he probably was. But what the hell, you have to read it all and try and see both sides even though one may be either obscured by clouds or even sitting on the dark side of the moon whilst the other basks in glorious technicolor. And he has written an excellent book on South Africa in the period of apartheid which comes with great recommendations.
Keep the aspidistra flying, Colonel Blimp. But lets see what else is out there on anti-colonial war.
All three wars of liberation – and I will call them that because that’s what the insurgents wanted was liberation from Portugese colonial rule and the right to self-rule / independence - were complex affairs which demanded different solutions. There were common elements but the differences were greater than the similarities. Just about all three conflicts were for the most part ignored in the west which seemed to be concentrating on America and Vietnam. All three were classic guerrilla insurgent wars
It seems odd therefore to try and write a book about the three wars including all three in one large and weighty volume and not taking one of them alone from start to finish. This is what Al Venter has done with this book. I wanted to read something about the end of Portugese colonisation having worked in both Angola and Mozambique. The material in English is thin on the ground and Venter’s books are the most accessible. He is South African and a former employee of the South African Navy and Jane’s Defense Review.
What you get is a deeply (for me) frustrating book. Episodic in nature with no real focus on beginnings, reasons, whys, wherefores except as by-products to go with the general gung-ho of a journalist with access to most areas by the fact that he was one of the few there. Venter might be a journalist but he’s not a writer – he’s not Robert Fisk or John Pilger – its more kind of Studs Terkel. I really don’t give a s*** about naming all the armaments (correctly). You pretty much know where its coming from before you start. There is no analysis from the other side and no attempt to understand the concept of wanting your country back from the colonial powers. The opposition are ‘Terrorists’, ‘guerrilla insurgents’, Marxist indoctrinated invaders supported by the new Comintern in insurgencies of Cold War-by-proxy. Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere were the supporters of international terrorism dedicated to throwing over the order of things-as-they-should-be. Leastways thats how he comes across and that appears to be his stance for much of the time.
And just as easily, he suddenly drops into a line of insight which really IS illuminating. His views of the Portugese conscript armies and the native forces within Angola, Moz and Guinea is really excellent. He is best when he is reporting the words of others who are generally more insightful and often even more right wing and conservative. Saying that though, a number of the Portugese officers he talks to went on to be leaders in the Carnation Revolution and were generally left of centre and in some cases far left to anarchist).
I must admit the book troubled me. Parts of it had me despairing at the strongly pro-Portugese support-the-colonialist, pro staus-quo nature of it. Other parts of it had me gripped. That, I suppose, all has to do with where I am coming from in reading the book. That is, the experience of the book is a relativistic one – in that it all depends on where you’re starting from. Its the old Freedom Fighter / Terrorist dichotomy.
I suppose what I should do now is, like one of the Portugese commanders says, go out and read and re-read my Mao and Guevara and Giap and get my political theory shit together. Maybe Al should try it too. One thing’s for sure – after this you really need to find out more about the fall of the Salazar and Caetano and the reasons for and development of the Carnation Revolution - well much of it has to do with the African wars - but it's trying to realise what the climate was in Portugal that would add meaning to the African end too. After that, then I suppose you could try and start to understand the Angolan civil war from 1975 – 2002, the Mozambique civil war from 1977 – 1994 and the various periods of unrest in Guinea-Bissau.
Give the book a try but realise it’s not Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War, probably the best written and researched book I have read on modern wartime conflict, and it's not the whole story – indeed there were times when I wondered if Venter wasn’t in fact some kind of spook for the South African Defense forces – come to think of it, he probably was. But what the hell, you have to read it all and try and see both sides even though one may be either obscured by clouds or even sitting on the dark side of the moon whilst the other basks in glorious technicolor. And he has written an excellent book on South Africa in the period of apartheid which comes with great recommendations.
Keep the aspidistra flying, Colonel Blimp. But lets see what else is out there on anti-colonial war.
March 31, 2016
Cold War creeping into dying Colonialism
It’s hard to grasp that Portugal had African colonies up to the 1970s, when pretty much the entire world had left the Colonial bandwagon and was more preoccupied with the Cold War. While the eyes of the world were on Vietnam, Portugal, one of the poorest countries in Europe, was waging three different wars at the same time: in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (today’s Guinea-Bissau).
The book Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa meticulously analyzes the period. South-African journalist Al Venter is a veteran war correspondent in Africa and the Middle East, and witnessed first hand Portugal’s fight against it’s former colonies. The book has a very good combination of factual research and the author’s own perspective on the conflicts. That was essential for the understanding of someone like me, who knew squat about it. The book also comes with several photographs and maps that help a layman make sense of the conflict.
“It is difficult to tell a man’s age in the bush: a 13-year-old often looks 18 or older and it was no secret that many of those captured were barely 14 or 15, all of them armed. It was the same in old Stanleyville (today Kisangani) in the Congo: some of the worst brutalities were perpetrated by children not yet into their teens.”
It is a conflict in a different scale than Vietnam. Helicopters and bombings were rare, as were direct confrontations. The norm were cat and mouse skirmishes, of slow and constant attrition. More than all, those were wars of wills. The books defends that the Portuguese pride, that wanted to keep a self-image of a colonizing powerhouse, kept Portugal for decades stuck in a war it couldn’t win. There was a crucial imbalance of determination between the colonies and Portugal.
The book describes several atrocities, perpetrated both by the government and the revolutionary groups. The first traces of distress date back to 1961, when Angolan peasants revolted because they had to sell their cotton by a price fixed by Portugal, a lot lower than the international market price. The Portuguese commanders simply bombed dozens of villages with napalm, killing 7 thousand locals.
“During bush operations, everything in their path would be destroyed; livestock slaughtered, crops and villages burnt, the local people rounded up for questioning and anyone acting in a suspicious manner arrested and hauled back to base. Tribesmen who attempted to escape this treatment were regarded as “fleeing terrorists”, and shot. The death would then be formally listed as a “terrorist kill”.”
Most of the Portuguese soldiers, young and poor, felt like they were dragged into a meaningless conflict and did the minimum necessary until their campaign was over. It is sad to see how, like in any conflict, the local population suffered the hardest blows. They were pushed both by the government and revolutionaries. It is very interesting how the book explains the guerrilla’s backgrounds, many insurgents were trained in China and incorporated tactics by Mao Tse Tung and Che Guevara in the African context, like using propaganda and mobility. It’s the beginning of the Cold War creeping into dying Colonialism.
It is also sad to know how these revolutions would end up after Portugal packed away from Africa. The former colonies were taken by even bloodier conflicts, that echo to this day in the continent because of the arbitrary divisions set up by the European nations.
Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa is at the same time an informative and personal book about an obscure period of our recent history.
It’s hard to grasp that Portugal had African colonies up to the 1970s, when pretty much the entire world had left the Colonial bandwagon and was more preoccupied with the Cold War. While the eyes of the world were on Vietnam, Portugal, one of the poorest countries in Europe, was waging three different wars at the same time: in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (today’s Guinea-Bissau).
The book Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa meticulously analyzes the period. South-African journalist Al Venter is a veteran war correspondent in Africa and the Middle East, and witnessed first hand Portugal’s fight against it’s former colonies. The book has a very good combination of factual research and the author’s own perspective on the conflicts. That was essential for the understanding of someone like me, who knew squat about it. The book also comes with several photographs and maps that help a layman make sense of the conflict.
“It is difficult to tell a man’s age in the bush: a 13-year-old often looks 18 or older and it was no secret that many of those captured were barely 14 or 15, all of them armed. It was the same in old Stanleyville (today Kisangani) in the Congo: some of the worst brutalities were perpetrated by children not yet into their teens.”
It is a conflict in a different scale than Vietnam. Helicopters and bombings were rare, as were direct confrontations. The norm were cat and mouse skirmishes, of slow and constant attrition. More than all, those were wars of wills. The books defends that the Portuguese pride, that wanted to keep a self-image of a colonizing powerhouse, kept Portugal for decades stuck in a war it couldn’t win. There was a crucial imbalance of determination between the colonies and Portugal.
The book describes several atrocities, perpetrated both by the government and the revolutionary groups. The first traces of distress date back to 1961, when Angolan peasants revolted because they had to sell their cotton by a price fixed by Portugal, a lot lower than the international market price. The Portuguese commanders simply bombed dozens of villages with napalm, killing 7 thousand locals.
“During bush operations, everything in their path would be destroyed; livestock slaughtered, crops and villages burnt, the local people rounded up for questioning and anyone acting in a suspicious manner arrested and hauled back to base. Tribesmen who attempted to escape this treatment were regarded as “fleeing terrorists”, and shot. The death would then be formally listed as a “terrorist kill”.”
Most of the Portuguese soldiers, young and poor, felt like they were dragged into a meaningless conflict and did the minimum necessary until their campaign was over. It is sad to see how, like in any conflict, the local population suffered the hardest blows. They were pushed both by the government and revolutionaries. It is very interesting how the book explains the guerrilla’s backgrounds, many insurgents were trained in China and incorporated tactics by Mao Tse Tung and Che Guevara in the African context, like using propaganda and mobility. It’s the beginning of the Cold War creeping into dying Colonialism.
It is also sad to know how these revolutions would end up after Portugal packed away from Africa. The former colonies were taken by even bloodier conflicts, that echo to this day in the continent because of the arbitrary divisions set up by the European nations.
Portugal’s Guerrilla Wars in Africa is at the same time an informative and personal book about an obscure period of our recent history.
October 19, 2016
Very insightful, though rather one sided as the only people the author interviewed are Portuguese soldiers and officers, with the exception of Amilcar Cabral, who only gets a few paragraphs. Surely it wouldn't have been that hard to find former African guerrillas.
He covers the colonial oppression that drove the guerrillas, and the war crimes carried out by both sides, yet to author, these crimes only merited the label of terrorism when they were carried out by the guerrillas.
He covers the colonial oppression that drove the guerrillas, and the war crimes carried out by both sides, yet to author, these crimes only merited the label of terrorism when they were carried out by the guerrillas.
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