Propaganda in Portugal’s colonies: lessons for the West today
The much-praised progress — roads constructed, homes built, fields tilled — is built on and through big and small acts of violence, writes Marissa Moorman
"Revolt begins where the road ends." This sums up the thoughts of a Portuguese general on the counterinsurgency strategy in the 1960s against nationalist movements in the country’s former African colonies of Angola, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique. When most other African countries had liberated themselves from Europe’s colonial yoke, Portugal, one of the earliest colonisers and the poor man of Europe, insisted on retaining its empire. Drawing on research for my upcoming book Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931-2002, this article looks at the relationship between military radio propaganda of counterinsurgency to draw some lessons for today’s wars. Counterinsurgency has garnered renewed attention in the wake of ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Invading Western powers desperately need the co-operation of local populations to fight Iraqi guerrilla insurgents resisting US occupation and Afghani Taliban (along with a congeries of tribal allies and opium...
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