A Treasure Lost 20 Years Ago Returns-The Book Savimbi's Angola

A Treasure Lost 20 Years Returns-The Book Savimbi's Angola

Wed 6 Jul 2011, 14:15      0  comment(s)    Email article

Report Abuse

In 1991,I had lunch and a long afternoon in Angola with the late UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi. He was a charming and articulate man who spoke English perfectly. He had studied law in Portugal. At that time he was still in a war with the Communist government of President dos Santos. He was recovering from the personal tragedy of the loss of one wife in a lightning atrike.

At the end of our time together he autographed a book and gave it to me. The title was Savimbi's Angola. It had been published in 1980. It was a picture book of Angola torn apart by civil war and all of the death,destruction, and suffering. I was honored to receive the book. It became a treasure for me.

How had I come to be there in Angola with a fugitive rebel leader in the middle of a civil war? It starts with a lady named Maria Neli Pinto Santos. She was born in Luanda, Angola of Jewish/Portuguese parents. When Portugal still controlled Angola, she lead a life of parties, good food, and fun on the beaches. When the Portuguese gave up and left Angola, the Communists took over. Life became very bad. She and her young daughter Sandra fled Luanda in 1975 and came to Johannesburg as refugees.

Neli and Sandra found the same shocking reality that other refugees from Angola, Mocambique, and Zimbabwe found in South Africa. Quite literally the local white population considered all of them cowards who had abandoned their countries. They got little or no help or sympathy. Neli and Sandra ended up living with a compassionate black family. Neli worked hard and got her degree in mechanical engineering. She was able to find work and support her daughter.

Neli also developed a business relationship with the leader of the UNITA rebels in Angola; Jonas Savimbi. Angola was so rich in diamonds that one could literally walk along crocodile-infested river banks and pick them up. As Savimbi nad his men found diamonds in Angola, some of them went to the CIA to finance arms and other military purchases. The rest were smuggled to Neli in South Africa (She never explained how.) It appears that the South African authorities turn "a blind eye" to the whole thing. Neli became an expert jeweler and used her contacts with other jewelers to cut and sell the diamonds. Neli was a lady of strong moral principles. She refused to use the proceeds from the diamond sales to buy weapons or anything that harmed other humans. Rather she used the money to buy food,medical supplies, clothing, etc.

Neli and I met through a Christian introduction service. We began a passionate realtionship. I got to know the details of her secret life. She told me that she had to go to Angola to meet with Savimbi. At that time there was a thaw in the bad relations between Angola and South Africa. One could get an Angola visa and then get on the South African Airways flight from Johannesburg to Luanda. We could not do this as we would have been under surveillance from the moment we landed in Luanda. We could have ended up leading the Communist agents to Savimbi's headquarters.

Neli told me that we would have to fly to Windhoek in what was then South West Africa (Now Nambia) and make our way across the border with Angola. At that time a long insurgent battle between the South African Defense Force and SWAPO (Southwest Africa People's Organization) was coming to a halt. However the border with Angola was a dangerous place to be, Wheb one crossed into Angola it became even more dangerous. If one was unlucky to be caught by a patrol of the Angolan government, the best case scenario was months or years in a vile prison while a deal was struck for your release. The worst possible case was that you could be shot right on the spot for being spies.

Neli was unphased by all of these dangers. We landed in Windhoek and were met by a shadowy African who guided us across the border into Angola. At he border we were met by a patrol of Savimbi's soldiers who drove us to his headquarters. When we arrived I found a simple and spartanical camp. We were told that we were going to have lunch with Savimbi. At the appropriate time he met us and immediatley put us at ease. He was a warm and articulate man who spoke beautiful English. We had a deightful time. At the end of the meal, Jonas Savimbi autograpohed a copy of the book Savimbi's Angola. He gave it to me as a memento of our time together. Neli took a lot of pictures. The next morning a squad of his soldiers escorted us bacak to the border with Southwest Africa. Our guide on that side was there to meet us. We were driven back to the Windhoek airport and flew back to Johannesburg.

The passionate relationship that Neli and I shared burned out quickly thereafter. But the book that Savimbi had given me became a treasure. Late in 1991 all of my goods went into storage at a warehouse run by Thompson Moving And Storage. I fell behind on my storage payments and all of my goods were sold in 1998. I lost some real treasures including that book.

While I was at a trade show in Hannover, Germany in February of 2002, I got the sad news that Jonas Savimbi had been ambused by the Angolan army and killed. I was heart broken. He had entered into a peace agreement with the government of Angola and allowed to remain free and live in Angola. He had got angry with what he considered were violations of the peace agreement. He had started the civil war again.

I always remembered the book that he had given me. I was sure it was a part of my life that had been lost forever. Two months ago I was working with a rare book dealer in Port Elizabeth named Lindsay Christiansen. He had a book with that title. I ordered it not thinking it was the same book that I treasured. A package arrived from South Africa yesterday. When I tore it open I found that it was indeed the book I had lost long ago. Sadly it dd not have Savimbi's autograph. I was so touched that I had tears in my eyes.

Topics:  savimbi's angola