Moral Leadership
and Cultural Values José Chipenda All Africa Council of Churches, Angola We have recently been reminded that South Africa was colonised for 350 years; Angola, my country, was colonised for more than 400 years. South Africa suffered from Apartheid; in Angola the Portuguese used the policy of divide and rule in a different though not unrelated way. Whites were the rulers, and the mulatos , people of mixed blood were next to the whites with noticeable advantages in society. Blacks, by contrast, were either indigenas or assimilados . The assimilados were allowed to sell their labour; the indigenas provided cheap and forced labour. /end p. 67/ I have a book at home called No Life Without Roots. The title does not question our given identity but affirms it, and with you I am also reminded of my own roots. I belong to the Ovimbundu, who live in the central plateau of Angola covering the provinces of Benguela, Huambo, Bie, part of Moxico and Lubango. This group makes up 38% of the Angola population. I belong to a family that in colonial Angola was considered assimilado , by which it gained Portuguese citizenship. My brother and I therefore had the privilege of studying in Portugal early in the fifties, an opportunity which gave us the benefit of being considered children of the two countries. Throughout our lives these two cultures have been at odds with each other. Yet our collective consciousness has always been identified with Angola and the struggle for independence. | |
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