8. The Front(s) for the Liberation of Cabinda in Angola: A Phantom Insurgency

Though often referred to as an “enclave,” Cabinda is technically an exclave since it is entirely separated from Angola, and its territory borders two sovereign countries. This chapter adopts this correct terminology except when referring to the official names of Cabindan separatist movements.

The Kongo region straddles Republic of Congo (RoC), Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Angola. Independence movements historically active in this region include, but are not limited to, the NTO-BAKO (the Angolan chapter of Alliance des Bakongo (ABAKO), independence movement turned ruling party in the then Belgian Congo), the Ngwizako Ngwizani a Kongo (NGWIZAKO), an alliance of former Kongo royalists, the Patriotic Front for the independence of the Portuguese Kongo (FPIKP), which resulted from the merger of a section of NTO-BAKO and NGWIZAKO; the Nso Progressive Union, the Progressive African Party (PPA), the National Union Progressive of Angola (UPRONA) and the Angolan Nationalist Cartel (CNA). See Pereira (2004) and Pélissier (1969). More recent movements, such as Bundu Dia Kongo (BDK) movement in DRC, have also advocated for restoration of the old Kongo Kingdom.

Reuters (2016).

Between 1640 and 1648, the Dutch controlled the territory but were then driven out by the Portuguese. In 1702, French and English navies clashed off the coast of Cabinda. The construction of an English fortress on the coast led to military intervention by Portugal in 1722. As French sailors and Catholic priests began settling in the area some decades later, the Portuguese decided to build a fortress in order to prevent further military incursions, but this led to the sending of a French expedition in 1769. Defeated and decimated en masse by malaria, the Portuguese then fled. It wasn’t until the signing of the Convention of Madrid in 1786 that Portugal’s rights to that territory were formally recognised in exchange for freedom of trade and slave trade for the other European powers.

According to Shawn McCormick (1992), “Present-day Cabinda lies within the boundaries of the former kingdoms of Loango, Kakongo, and Ngoyo, all three of which were in existence when the first Portuguese traders arrived in the late 15th century. These ethnic groups were linguistically and culturally related to the Kongo kingdom (which extended from areas of what is now southern Gabon to northern Angola). At one time Kongo vassals, the three kingdoms had become nominally independent by the end of the sixteenth century. Three subethnic groups—the Kakongo, Vili, and Woyo—reside along the coastal region; these had relatively extensive contact with the Portuguese. Another three—the Lindi, Sundi, and Yombe—dominate the Mayombe interior; they dealt more with the French and Belgians in what are now Congo and Zaire.”

“According to local legend, Cabinda gained some autonomy from the kingdom during a turbulent period in the history of the royal family. A powerful Bakongo queen, Muam Poenha, angered the king and was therefore expelled from the court at Mbanza Kongo. She fled with her triplets to the kingdom’s Ngoyo principality and married a local nobleman. When he had calmed down, the Kongo king divided up part of his territory between the triplets, and one of these areas, Ngoyo, later became Cabinda” (Washington Post2001). In addition, according to local tradition, the Loango, Kakongo, and Ngoyo shared a common ancient ancestress named Nguunu. (McCormick 1992).

In 1665, Portugal allied with a nobleman in the south of the Kongo Kingdom to crush the royal troops in Mbwila. The King Antonio I, also called Nvita a Nkanga, was decapitated and the country was subsequently divided into several kingdoms subject to Portugal. The Kongo Kingdom was thus largely defunct by the time the Conference of Berlin was held (Commission des recours aux réfugiés 2004).

Whilst the Portuguese Constitutions of 1826 and 1836 had enshrined claims to Cabinda as a “Portuguese possession,” Article 1 of the Portuguese constitution of 1933 de facto consolidated the legal foundation to Cabinda’s territorial status as an exclave of Angola. In reality, however, Cabinda was to remain governed as a separate entity until 1956, when it came under the geographic remit of the governor of Luanda.

Original concession rights to Block Zero were granted in 1957, and exploration began soon afterwards. In 1962, large quantities of oil were found in shallow waters, just 10–25 yards from what was then the village of Malembo on the Cabindan coast. Production started in 1968, and since then Block Zero has produced in excess of two billion barrels of oil, which acted as a catalyst for takeover by various other movements.

Times (August 4, 1975)

The Yombe (also spelled Iombe) of the mountain forests of Cabinda, are a subgroup of the larger Bakongo ethnic group but were not part of the ancient kingdoms of Loango, Kakongo, or Ngoyo. That part of the Yombe living in Congo did join with the Congolese Bakongo in the Alliance of Bakongo (ABAKO) during the period of party formation in the Belgian Congo, but the Cabindan Yombe (and other Kikongo-speaking groups in the exclave), relatively remote geographically and culturally from the Bakongo of Angola proper, showed no solidarity with the latter. Instead, in 1961, the Yombe formed a Cabindan separatist movement, the Alliance of Mayombe (ALIAMA) (Collelo 1991).

Gleijeses (2011: 263).

US National Security Council Meeting Minutes on Angola (1975: 7)

Gleijeses (2011: 262)

Gomes Porto (2003: 4)

Forbes Global Magazine (2002).

Alvor Agreement (1975: Article 3)

Reed (2009: 67)

Telephonic interview with Afonso Massanga, April 2016. The same year, another movement, the National Union for the Liberation of Cabinda (UNLC), led by Luis Carneiro Gimby, was born in Gabon. Also called FLEC-UNLC or FLEC-Union, this movement sponsored by Gabonese President Omar Bongo engaged in negotiations with the Angolan government around a project of autonomy, which caused it to be dismissed as traitor by other tendencies of the FLEC (SEM 1998). UNLC was, however, seen as one of the most credible movements of its time as it was genuinely interested in seeking a negotiated solution to the Cabindan problem (Mabeko-Tali 2001).

Musila (2015)

The case of Francisco Xavier Lubota (chairman) and Norbert Itoula (secretary-general) is probably the most caricatural of the dialectical relationship between the Cabinda issue and the two Congos. This unlikely alliance of Lusophones and Francophones also contributed to disagreement, and seems to have been the main cause in the split of the FDC. Culturally and intellectually, Norbert Itoula and Francisco Xavier Lubota grew up in different linguistic and cultural universes. The former was a pure product of the Congolese intelligentsia and university, an activist of the Congolese student movements in the 1960s and 1970s, notably UGEEC, while the bulk of the combatants of the movement were Portuguese (Mabeko-Tali 2001).

Reed (2009: 147)

Comissão ad hoc para os direitos humanos em Cabinda and Open Society, “Terror em Cabinda. 1o Relatório sobre a violação dos direitos humanos no território,” Cabinda, Luanda, December 2002, and “2o Relatório: Cabinda 2003—Um ano de terror,” Cabinda, 2003; Mpalabanda associação cívica de Cabinda and Open Society, “3o Relatório sobre a situação dos direitos humanos em Cabinda—Cabinda, o Reino da Impunidade 2004,” Cabinda, January 30, 2005, and “4o Relatório sobre a situação dos Cabinda—Cabinda entre a verdade e a manipulação 2005,” Cabinda, April 4, 2006.

Mabeko-Tali (2008)

Reuters (2010) and Agence France Presse (2010)

Amnesty International (2015).

This diasporization was further illustrated by the creation of new movements outside of Angola, such as the Movement for the Rally of the Cabinda People and its Sovereignty (MRPCS, Congo-Kinshasa), and the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Kabinda (FLEK, the Netherlands). But unlike FLEC-FAC, none of these movements seem to have an operational presence in the exclave.

RFI Português (2011) and VOA Português (2010).

Club-k.net (2016).

Diario de Noticias (2017)