Oliver Tambo: Racists Humiliated
(Oliver Tambo, President of the African National Congress of South Africa, spent two weeks in the People’s Republic of Angola as a guest of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola – MPLA. In Luanda, the capital, he gave an inclusive interview to Michael Wolfers, representing Sechaba, on the reasons for his visit, which included a journey to Southern Angola at the time when the last South African racist troops were being expelled from Angolan territory, March 1976).
“The MPLA has always had the closest relations with the ANC – for well over ten years – and together with FRELIMO of the People’s Republic of Mozambique, PAIGC of Guinea-Bissau and MLSTP of Sao Tome and Principe worked closely as part of an alliance of liberation movements bound by the same objectives in their struggle. The victory of these liberation movements over Portuguese colonialism is a victory for the people of South Africa, for the continent of Africa and for progressives the world over.”
“It was clear ever since 1964 that MPLA faced special problems in Angola because of the much greater imperialist involvement in the economy of the country. The fact that the independence of Angola under MPLA was proclaimed with the capital ringed round by invading forces was for that reason hardly surprising. The emergence of the People’s Republic of Angola, despite this racist and fascist offensive, was the triumph of the struggle of the Angolan people
