Adalberto Costa Júnior grew tired of the North American strategy in relation to Angola, and, for the first time, made immense public criticism of the Biden Administration, as well as Ambassador Tulinabo Muching, for whom he is managing relations between the countries as if it was about “party cooperation”. Meanwhile, some observers are calling on the leader of the brothers to forget the past, improve relations with Moscow and expand cooperation with Beijing.
The attack that the president of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior, made on the North American authorities is being highlighted in different online newspapers, national and foreign. In a courageous and unprecedented way, the leader of the largest opposition party in Angola, which maintains an old tradition of rapprochement with the United States of America (USA), accused the greatest world power of having a double face when it comes to Angola, in which, on one side condemned, and on the other, praised.
Adalberto Costa Júnior made this observation in Benguela, on the sidelines of the launch of the work ´Estado Rico, Estado Pobre´, written by South African Greg Mills.
It should be noted that the present expression of repudiation by Adalberto Costa Júnior in relation to Washington, is corroborated by Abel Chivukuvuku, candidate for Vice-President of the Republic on the UNITA/FPU list, in 2022, a period in which he accused the international community of valuing commercial interests to the detriment of people’s well-being.
In the 1980s and 1990s, UNITA came to act as a kind of long arm of the USA for the defense and expansion of democracy in Angola and the SADC region, having for this purpose benefited from a lot of aid in the form of money and military equipment, aiming to defeat the MPLA, which also had the unconditional support of Cuba and Russia.
However, times changed, and the US established relations with the Angolan authorities in 1993. From then on, the White House no longer provided aid to UNITAalthough it maintained channels of dialogue, given the ties and ideology defended.
In 2022, on the eve of the general elections on August 24, UNITA, with media coverage, in which some national weeklies and foreign media outlets stood out, fueled the false idea that it had the support of the USA.
Skilled players in international politics, North American politicians, individually or institutionally, issued countless negative opinions about the way the electoral process was being conducted, from the appearance of dead people on the lists of older citizens registered to vote, to non-publication of electoral rolls, poor public media coverage of the actions of opposition parties, therefore, these were opinions that were in line with UNITA’s complaints.
At one point, UNITA leaders were invited to the USA, at another they were secretly called to the official residence of the then US ambassador to Angola, Nina Maria Fite. All this movement contributed to the illusion… an illusion that ended abruptly when the USA, without delay, recognized the electoral results just hours after the Constitutional Court had validated the results presented by the National Electoral Commission. And he expressed his desire to work with the new Executive.
Practically abandoned, despite the contacts aimed at presenting its parallel count to Western partners, UNITA appealed to the people to maintain serenity, and not to take to the streets.
In addition to the facts stated, the US and the Angolan Government improved relations, extending the partnership to several areas. The USA promises mutual prosperity, has invested heavily in the clean energy and telecommunications sectors, and may be in the pipeline for support in areas of defense and security.
The White House, whose top boss considered Angola the most important country in Africa, has already publicly expressed support for a possible candidacy of João Lourenço for president of the African Union.
Therefore, UNITA clearly sees that it is losing ground in its relationship with the greatest economic and military power in the world, for whom, for a long time, it was on the other side of the ideological barricade.
Criticism never done before
Reacting to the press in relation to the new normal in the relationship between the Angolan Government and the White House, Adalberto Costa Júnior justified the criticism he directs at the USA with certain behaviors that fall short of what is the profile of the North American stance in the world. And he stressed that he expressed this dissatisfaction to Ambassador Tulinabo Mushingi.
“Less than three weeks ago, we, in a very direct way, told the American ambassador that the United States must change its stance in relation to its approach to Angola’s problems”, he said, having highlighted that, in many cases, the authorities Americans have turned a blind eye to some situations in Angola.
“There is a more courageous, critical, and pressuring stance from the rest of the community on the Government and there has been an American stance that has turned a blind eye to what has been the Angolan disaster,” he said, having also added that, “the United States does not cooperate with the Government of Angola, cooperate with the country (with citizens, with society…). The current embassy runs the party cooperation model”, he concluded.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was also not spared. The president of UNITA accused the entity of producing reports that vary between criticism and praisedespite what he considered a “disaster” of governance.
Suggestions…
Despite all this, as Jonas Savimbi said in the past, that there was no field in which it could cooperate with the Russians, UNITA remains stuck in this perspective. For different observers of domestic politics, it is high time for the ‘black rooster’ to normalize relations with Russia and the Chinese Communist Party.
The Cold War, marked by ideological conflicts, ended more than three decades ago, which The continuous barricade that UNITA has erected against Moscow no longer makes sense. And the practical teachings of Jonas Savimbi, who was associated with Apartheid, about not looking at whether the hands of those who can save him are clean or dirty, should be followed especially in the current context.
For example, although he proclaimed respect for human rights and the fight for the rights of African peoples, Jonas Savimbi, given the context of war he was waging with the MPLA, which was supported by Russia and Cuba, allied himself with Pieter Botha and his Apartheid regime, a regime headed by white people, of racial segregation, imposed on Pretoria between 1948 and 1994.
For Savimbi, the survival of UNITA was at stakeand therefore it was worth the sacrifice.
It should be remembered that in one of the instructions given to Jardo Muekalia, his pupil, who had traveled to London, aiming to get the West to look at the ‘UNITA-Apartheid’ alliance as normal aspects in the context of the time, Jonas Savimbi instructed, among others, the following: ”[convencer] the London circles of influence that [a parceria UNITA-Apartheid] it was a coincidence of interests in the geopolitical framework, and that history had several examples of this type of alliances, such as (…) between Hitler and Stalin, at the beginning of the Second World War, [mas que] did not lead Stalin to join Nazism; the alliance between Churchill and Stalin did not lead the English people and their leader to join communism. It was, above all, a question of survival”, said Jonas Savimbi, in an instruction note, as stated in the book entitled: “The secret services in the History of Angola”, written by Cesaldino Armando Kassuanga.
Contrary to what they were taught by Jonas Savimbi, UNITA cadres are stuck with their old allies and the way of doing politics in the style of the past.
Unlike the MPLA, UNITA, in the international arena, is highly predictable. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the ‘black rooster’ rushed to the National Assembly, seeking a condemnation project against Moscow. Not bad, given that it was a violation of territorial integrity. But the project was fraught with antagonism, given that it did not take into account the security concerns raised by Russia.
In short, UNITA is advised to look at the world as it is todayestablishing relationships and partnerships without prejudice and preconceived ideas.
