Rapid, Just, and African Solutions, 1974–1980

Abstract

Liberation struggles were just that: struggles. Freedom fighters across southern Africa—FRELIMO in Mozambique; the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA in Angola; ZAPU and ZANU in Rhodesia; the ANC and PAC in South Africa; SWAPO in South West Africa—faced mixed success but even so added pressure on the white regimes. After a military coup in Portugal helped alter the dynamics of the region, the Ford administration and Henry Kissinger became deeply involved as southern Africa came to the front burner with Washington contesting a hot Cold War there. The liberation movements and the involvement of the Cubans and Soviets made the white regimes' existence increasingly tenuous. The extent to which Washington pushed for majority rule mattered, and while the scorecard remained uneven, more than at any previous time the Carter administration, backed by the Congressional Black Caucus and TransAfrica, moved US policy to definitively and meaningfully helped secure majority rule to Zimbabwe. By 1980, Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, covering an area larger than all the former European colonial powers in Africa combined, were independent nations under majority rule. Yet human rights were not so clearly at the fore in engaging South Africa; nor were economic sanctions.