In Angola, the generals will be just fine

Beware the bling of banner headlines announcing free speech victories.

Last week the Portuguese Attorney General’s office dismissed a case of libel and defamation against Rafael Marques and the Portuguese publisher Tinta da China. The criminal case against Marques and Tinta da China was filed by nine Angolan generals, all of whom are part owners in Sociedade Mineira do Cuango, a mining company, and Teleservice – Sociedade de Telecomunicações, Segurança e Serviços, a telecom and security firm, that work in the diamond mining regions of Eastern Angola.

Marques is an investigative journalist and human rights activist. The Portuguese Attorney General’s office decided that Rafael Marques’s book Diamantes de Sangue: Corrupção e Tortura em Angola (Blood Diamonds: Corruption and Torture in Angola) published by Tinta da China in 2011, is protected under constitutionally guaranteed laws of freedom of speech and expression in Portugal.

The book details the involvement of the companies in nearly one hundred killings and hundreds more tortures. And it shows the links between the generals and the companies. Media in the West as well as in Africa heralded this as a victory for free speech in Angola (although the case took place in Portugal). Novo Jornal, part of Angola’s independent press, in their February 15th edition, noted the irony of the closure of two court cases on the same issue, neither one going forward, but for diametrically opposed reasons.

In Portugal, the generals’ case against Marques and Tinta da China was thrown out in the name of free speech and the lack of any public crime committed. In Angola a criminal case filed by Marques against the generals was also closed recently. He had lodged a criminal complaint against the generals at the Angolan Attorney General’s office in June 2011 for acts of torture and homicide in the diamond mining areas where the Sociedade Mineira do Cuango and Teleservice operate. In June 2012, the Angolan Attorney General’s office archived the case for lack of evidence, and in November 2012 they notified Marques of their decision.

But beware the bling of banner headlines announcing free speech victories. Further down on my google news feed for the same day was this announcement: “U.S. Army Delegation Visit Angola.” That’s right. Six high-ranking U.S. Africom officers based in Italy began a three-day visit to Angola last Wednesday, signaling a certain coziness between the U.S. armed forces and those of Angola.

The Generals will be just fine.

Further Reading

Energy for whom?

Behind the fanfare of the Africa Climate Summit, the East African Crude Oil Pipeline shows how neocolonial extraction still drives Africa’s energy future.

The sound of revolt

On his third album, Afro-Portuguese artist Scúru Fitchádu fuses ancestral wisdom with urban revolt, turning memory and militancy into a soundtrack for resistance.

O som da revolta

No seu terceiro álbum, o artista afro-português Scúru Fitchádu funde a sabedoria ancestral com a revolta urbana, transformando memória e militância em uma trilha sonora para a resistência.

Biya forever

As Cameroon nears its presidential elections, a disintegrated opposition paves the way for the world’s oldest leader to claim a fresh mandate.

From Cornell to conscience

Hounded out of the United States for his pro-Palestine activism, Momodou Taal insists that the struggle is global, drawing strength from Malcolm X, faith, and solidarity across borders.

After the uprising

Following two years of mass protest, Kenya stands at a crossroads. A new generation of organizers is confronting an old question: how do you turn revolt into lasting change? Sungu Oyoo joins the AIAC podcast to discuss the vision of Kenya’s radical left.

Redrawing liberation

From Gaza to Africa, colonial cartography has turned land into property and people into populations to be managed. True liberation means dismantling this order, not redrawing its lines.

Who deserves the city?

Colonial urbanism cast African neighborhoods as chaotic, unplanned, and undesirable. In postcolonial Dar es Salaam, that legacy still shapes who builds, who belongs, and what the middle class fears the city becoming.