The gas flares from the offshore oil rigs light up the night sky over Cabinda and the orange glow silhouettes the crucifixion statue outside the Catholic mission next to the sea. Inside, members of the Catholic Youth of Cabinda are debating the future of Angola’s northernmost province: population just more than 100 000, separated from the rest of the country by a sliver of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and the source of 60% of Angolan oil revenue.
”In the past we were called Portuguese, because we had to be. Now we are called Angolans, again we’re talking about something compulsory — but of our free will we are Cabindans. We are a country, not a province.” (Wild applause.) ”The government is the son of the colonist — and the son of a snake remains a snake.” (Appreciative laughter.)
Some visitors have been astonished at the very idea of an independence movement in a place as tiny as Cabinda, especially since the Liberation Front for the Cabinda Enclave (FLEC) has given rise to three factions: FLEC-FAC (Armed Forces of Cabinda), FLEC-Renovada (Renewed), and one that’s known locally either as FLEC-Original or as FLEC sem adjectivo (without an adjective).
Colonel Francisco Machado spent years as the military commander in chief of FLEC-Renovada. Suntanned white, or possibly pale mixed-race, and in his 50s, he surrendered some years ago, but his convictions remain. He argues that Cabinda and Angola were under separate administration in colonial times and should therefore have constituted two countries on independence.
”History shows us that Cabinda is not Angola and for that reason we could not fight for Angolan independence with the MPLA,” he said. ”So we made resistance — the war in Cabinda continues, its not over yet.”
The thick rainforest of the interior of the province provides cover for the guerrillas, yet FLEC’s activities are not confined to the jungle. I met Machado at the ramshackle restaurant run by his wife on a dusty square in Cabinda town. One of the Angolan environmental activists who were hosting me pointed to another wooden-slatted hut on the same square: ”It’s over there that they captured the Portuguese. They’ve got supporters all around here.”
He was referring to an incident in May 2000 when FLEC abducted a group of Portuguese oil workers. One of them remained in captivity for more than a year before the government of Congo (Brazzaville) managed to negotiate their release. FLEC had tried to use the kidnapping to force the Portuguese government to enter negotiations on the territory’s future.
Then in May this year, also in the town, a missile narrowly missed a vehicle carrying employees of Chevron-Texaco: one of the biggest players in an oil industry worth more than $1-billion a year. The multinational played down the significance of the incident, but is nevertheless now using helicopters rather than cars to take its employees from Cabinda airport to the company compound at Malongo, a few kilometres out of town.
Further out of town, about 500 people are camped out by the roadside, constructing makeshift shelters against the rain.
”We are living here because the troops of the Angolan Armed Forces [FAA] came to our village and captured civilians,” one man explained. ”They came at night, 11pm. It was not the first time this happened, it was the third time — that’s why we had to abandon our village.”
FLEC relies on weaponry left over from the days when it was backed by Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, and on food provided by villagers. Hence there are frequent reports of heavy-handed tactics by the FAA against civilians as they try to flush out the rebels. Soba Kongo, the coordinator of a network of traditional leaders in the province, says the government has been sending more troops into the province since ending the war with Unita in the rest of the country.
”We say the government must stop its actions against Cabindans and enter into negotiations,” he says. ”The fundamental question is a ceasefire.”
Soba Kongo also identifies oil as being at the heart of much of the discontent in Cabinda. Ten percent of the province’s oil revenue is officially earmarked for development in Cabinda itself. Local people dispute whether the real figure is that much. With its busy town centre, and communal taps and new schools in some villages, Cabinda looks better maintained than much of Angola. But it is still far behind what you would expect from a province with a gross domestic product per capita in excess of $10 000 a year.
Attempts to contact the government army for comment were unsuccessful. The Angolan government said little about Cabinda until last month. Then, MPLA secretary general João Lourenço admitted for the first time the possibility of talks aimed at a degree of autonomy for the province, provided Angolan sovereignty remained inviolate. And President JosÃ