Apartheid’s contras: an inquiry into the roots of war in Angola and Mozambique

Two hidden wars ravaged Angola and Mozambique in the 1980s. This study explores the difficult questions of the original causes of these wars and the reasons for their prolongation. It provides an analysis of the interconnected roles of social structure, external interventions, the particular patterns of military recruitment, conditioning, logistics and strategy that characterize UNITA and Mozambican National Resistance, known at first as MNR and later as Renamo. Ch. 1 and 2 offer a chronological framework covering the period from independence in 1975 up to 1993. Ch. 3 lays out theoretical and methodological questions. Ch. 4 examines the background factors that might have produced conflict regardless of the policies of the postindependence governments or of external intervention. Ch. 5 focuses on the policies and impact of South Africa and other regional powers, while ch. 6 looks at geopolitics and Washington’s Cold War policies in particular. Ch. 7 and 8 examine how the armies of Renamo and UNITA functioned in practice. Ch. 9 and 10 take up the issue of the impact of policies and practices of the postcolonial States in provoking, fuelling or aggravating the conflicts. Ch. 11 sums up the results and reflects on the wider significance of the Angolan and Mozambican experiences.