Böcker av Miguel Junior

The world has witnessed several battles since the dawn of time. Whether ancient or recent, they all contain a wealth of data useful for life in several circumstances. These battles, which had a significant influence on the life of mankind and defined the course of history, have been the object of study by many scholars. Besides these and other battles framed in the context of great armed conflicts, the world has long recorded the occurrence of small-scale fighting associated with a number of armed conflicts. One must stress low-intensity armed conflicts. Beyond this fact, however, certain successive military fights in the context of such armed conflicts are called battles. This is the case of fights in the armed conflict of Angola, which took place in the period between 1975 and 1976. It is in this scope that the military confrontation in Kifangondo is called a battle. The fighting caused a shock amongst several military forces.

Antonio Oliveira de Cadornega wrote the book titled General History of the Angolan Wars (15751680) four centuries ago. In the twenty-first century, Miguel Junior analyzes this book from the perspective of Angolan military historiography with the aid of polemology, sociology of conflict, and combat theory. The use of these research and analysis tools makes the reading of the work of Antonio Oliveira de Cadornega more comprehensible and interesting.

By studying FAPLA, we want to make a profound examination on the military edification process from 1976 to 1991. We need to understand the processes of its conversion into a national army and verify the path it has taken during its seventeen years of existence. Thus the aspects of the edification of FAPLA are a precept and the references help explain the present. By analysing the process, we learn aspects of the war conduct and see how they made military campaign against armed insurgency. In addition, we created conditions for an in-depth understanding on how Angola prepared itself to face the aggression perpetrated by South Africa and how it was able to obtain supremacy on some fields over the external enemy, as well as allowed us to understand their military misfortunes.

The present essay is the result of multiple investigations. However, it is important to clarify the reasons on the base of its conception. The transformations operated in Angola allowed the emergence of a political system of liberal democracy. Although that was the case, in practical terms, there are several trends. Some tend to integration, others to disintegration, and the others are in an intermediate position. After all, everything gravitates around the fight to capture and maintain power, with a certain exacerbation and lack of knowledge of certain peculiarities of the pluralist system, as well as a lack of mastery of other aspects. In parallel, there is a trend to ignore common history, life in society, national conquests, etc. There are also many misunderstandings concerning the handling of state life. Some arise from lack of political-strategic culture, others from eagerness to take power promptly, and others still from scarce clarity of some aspects of the functional model and lack of state vision. Likewise, the country sees statements that do not help internal life at all and contribute to increased vulnerabilities, thus forming a potential threat to national interests. All in all, peace, stability, well-being, common good, and security require ways of thinking and acting that are more in line with a contemporary way of life. Still, we face a whole set of demands arising from present challenges, which require adaptation and the imperious need to help solve regional and international problems. But meanwhile, for this to happen, one must catapult to other levels of organization and strive mainly for clarity in the global operation of the state.

After 1974, the South African involvement in the war in Angola begins with the triggering of Operation Savannah, a large-scale military land offensive that began in October 1975. But the military offensive land forces of the South African Defence Forces were faced with the Widespread Popular Resistance and Operation Carlota, military action designed to halt the South African offensive impulse. Under these conditions, the armed conflict in Angola becomes a conventional war because of the dimension of the forces involved and the amount of technical military resources employed by the players. Over the course of the war, there were offensive moves; defensive manoeuvres; and all kinds of fire, friction, resistance, incursions, combat, retreats, and marches until the South African Defence Forces were expelled from Angolan territory on March 1976. In general, this book analyses Operation Savannah and its developments from a strategic-operational and tactical point of view.