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‘THE TIME OF THE LEAFLET’: PAMPHLETS AND POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN THE UPA (NORTHERN ANGOLA, AROUND 1961)1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2015

Inge Brinkman
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Abstract

In March 1961, war broke out in Northern Angola. The Portuguese authorities attributed the violence to the UPA – a nationalist movement led by Northern Angolan immigrants resident in Congo. The movement's leadership tried to keep in contact with its (potential) followers in Northern Angola by various means, pamphlets being one of the most important. Written for a local audience, these pamphlets provide an insight into the inner lines of communication – and internal hierarchies – of the nationalist movement. By using Darnton's ‘communication circuit’ model, this article investigates the processes of writing, distributing and reading the pamphlets and analyses their generic characteristics, and their position in a tradition of regional popular literacy. In so doing, an interpretation is offered of the social history of the pamphlets: they are treated as a historical subject in their own right. While they can be read as anti-colonial tracts, it is shown that the pamphlets' main concern is to establish the mandate of a leadership in exile over a constituency in Northern Angola.

Résumé

En mars 1961, la guerre éclata dans le Nord de l’Angola. Les autorités portugaises attribuèrent les violences à l’UPA, un mouvement nationaliste dirigé par des immigrés du Nord de l’Angola résidant au Congo. Désireux de rester en contact avec leurs sympathisants (potentiels) dans le Nord de l'Angola, les dirigeants du mouvement utilisèrent divers moyens pour ce faire, le plus important étant le pamphlet. Rédigés à l’intention d’un public local, ces pamphlets apportent un éclairage sur les voies de communication (et les hiérarchies) existant à l’intérieur du mouvement nationaliste. En utilisant le modèle du « circuit de communication » de Darnton, cet article examine les processus de rédaction, de distribution et de lecture des pamphlets, et analyse leurs caractéristiques génériques et leur place dans une tradition de littérature populaire régionale. Ce faisant, il offre une interprétation de l’histoire sociale des pamphlets : ils sont traités comme un objet historique en eux-mêmes. On peut certes les lire comme des tracts anti-coloniaux, mais l’article montre que la principale préoccupation des pamphlets est d’établir le mandat de dirigeants en exil sur un groupe situé dans le Nord de l’Angola.

Type
Texts, politics and blame
Information
Africa , Volume 85 , Issue 2 , May 2015 , pp. 221 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2015 

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Footnotes

1

This article has been written within the framework of the Wotro programme ‘Mobile Africa revisited’. Thanks to Robert Ross (for moral and academic support) and Wotro (for financial support). At present, research is carried out within the context of the Kongo King project at Ghent University, financed with a European Research Council starting grant (<http://www.kongoking.org/>).

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