Developmentalist Attitudes and Old Habits: Portuguese Labour Policies, South African Rivalry, and Flight in Southern Angola, 1945-1974

Abstract

At first glance, processes of colonial policy and subsequent migratory flows at the Angola-South West Africa border, in the region of the Kunene river, seem to present a straightforward narrative. In the period between the First and Second World Wars, we find an established pattern of Kwanyama/Ovambo leaving Portuguese Angola to escape repressive practices of forced labour, and as a reaction to the mistreatment of political leaders. Flight movements were encouraged by South African officials stationed in the Ovamboland district of South West Africa, directly south of the border, who practised, notably before 1945, a policy of co-optation of local chiefs. However, it has hitherto remained unnoticed that, between 1945 and 1974, changes in the policies of the authoritarian Portuguese empire had highly practical effects with regard to these flows. Until the 1960s, the comparative advantage of South African border policies lost its impact. In the early 1970s, a more liberal tax policy...