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Angola Salazar's Racial Politics
Until 1940 Portuguese constituted less than 1 percent
of
Angola's population, and it was not until 1950 that their
proportion approached 2 percent. This increase in the
number of
Europeans and the continuation of forced labor (not
abolished until
1962) and other labor abuses led to an intensification of
racial
conflict. Before 1900 mestiços had been engaged in
a variety
of commercial and governmental roles, but as the white
population
came to outnumber them, the status of mestiços
declined. In
the first two decades of the twentieth century, laws and
regulations requiring a certain level of education to hold
some
government positions effectively excluded mestiços
from
access to them. In 1921 the colonial administration
divided the
civil service into European and African branches and
assigned
mestiços and the very few African
assimilados to the
latter, thereby limiting their chances of rising in the
bureaucratic hierarchy. In 1929 statutes limited the
bureaucratic
level to which mestiços and assimilados
could rise to
that of first clerk, established different pay scales for
Europeans
and non-Europeans in both public and private sectors, and
restricted competition between them for jobs in the
bureaucracy.
Given this legal framework, the immigration of increasing
numbers
of Portuguese led to considerable disaffection among
mestiços, who had hitherto tended to identify with
whites
rather than with Africans.
Beginning in the 1940s, the system of forced labor came
under
renewed criticism. One particularly outspoken critic,
Captain
Henrique Galvão, who had served for more than two decades
in an
official capacity in Angola, chronicled abuses committed
against
the African population. The Salazar government responded
by
arresting Galvão for treason and banning his report.
Despite the
introduction of some labor reforms from the late 1940s
through the
late 1950s, forced labor continued.
Legislation that was passed in Portugal between 1926
and 1933
was based on a new conception of Africans. Whereas
Portugal
previously had assumed that Africans would somehow
naturally be
assimilated into European society, the New State
established
definite standards Africans had to meet to qualify for
rights. The
new legislation defined Africans as a separate element in
the
population, referred to as indígenas (see Glossary). Those
who learned to speak Portuguese, who took jobs in commerce
or
industry, and who behaved as Portuguese citizens were
classified as
assimilados. In accepting the rights of
citizenship,
assimilados took on the same tax obligations as the
European
citizens. Male indígenas were required to pay a
head tax. If
they could not raise the money, they were obligated to
work for the
government for half of each year without wages.
The colonial administration stringently applied the
requirements for assimilation. In 1950, of an estimated
African
population of 4 million in Angola (according to an
official census
that probably provided more accurate figures than previous
estimates), there were less than 31,000
assimilados. But
instead of elevating the status of Africans, the policy of
assimilation maintained them in a degraded status. The
colonial
administration required indígenas to carry
identification
cards, of major importance psychologically to the Africans
and
politically to the Portuguese, who were thus more easily
able to
control the African population.
The authoritarian Salazar regime frequently used
African
informants to ferret out signs of political dissidence.
Censorship,
border control, police action, and control of education
all
retarded the development of African leadership. Africans
studying
in Portugal--and therefore exposed to "progressive"
ideas--were
sometimes prevented from returning home. Political
offenses brought
severe penalties, and the colonial administration viewed
African
organizations with extreme disfavor.
Data as of February 1989
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