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rfmcdonaldThe recent coup in the small African country of São Tomé e Principé has received significant attention in the blogosphere--Jonathan Edelstein at Head Heeb and David Adesnik at OxBlog are among the more notable posters. The coup effort (which may now be failing) has attracted significant attention for any number of reasons:
One interesting aspect of the São Tomé coup and worldwide reaction that hasn't received much attention, however, is the role of other Portuguese-speaking ("Lusophone") countries:
The establishment of an institutionalized global Lusophone community very similar to la Francophonie is itself not frequently noted. In part, this is because of the late coalescence of the bloc--Brazil, after its independence in 1822, took care to remain distant from Portugal, while Portugal's former colonies in Africa and Asia took great care to distance themselves from their former colonizer in the generation after independence. Only in the 1990s, after Portugal had become a modern European democracy, Brazil had taken on a wider world and regional role (via Mercosur, for instance), and the vicious fighting in Angola, Mozambique, and East Timor had come to an end, was any sort of cultural association possible.
At least 176 million people speak Portuguese as a first language, mainly in Brazil and Portugal but including large immigrant communities scattered in places as distant as South Africa, France, New England, Venezuela, and Guyana. The number rises sharply once you include countries where Portuguese is a second language in the former Portuguese colonial empire: Cape Verde in the North Atlantic, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tomé e Principé in West Africa, Angola and Mozambique in southern Africa, even East Timor in Southeast Asia.
The situation of Portuguese in Lusophone Africa is interesting (my translation):
In the long term, the future of Portuguese in Africa might be limited. (In East Timor, despite the Portuguese language's service as a badge of collective identity under Indonesian occupation, the language is hardly more likely to endure in an Anglophone region like Southeast Asia than, say, French in Indochina.) Unlike either French or English, Portuguese isn't a regional language of note. Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé e Principé have joined la Francophonie, in fact, while South Africa's intimate involvement in all its neighbours' lives makes English valuable. Conceivably, if a language in these African countries took on the same relative importance as, say, Wolof in Senegal, Portuguese could fade. There is the example (PDF format) of Spanish in Equatorial Guinea, which is important as a badge of identity and as a language for contact with former colonizers but which is less important than French and English and any number of African languages for local
But then, there are all manner of alternative ties which do exist. There was, immediately after independence, an abortive union between Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, while Angola (now fortified with oil money) is carrying on an ambitious foreign policy of its own. For the Lusophone world outside Europe, Portugal is important as a gateway to the European Union. Brazil, in the meantime, as one of the largest industrial economies in the world and as a major generator of popular culture in its own right, is doing quite well in Africa:
The future of the CPLP and the Lusophone community is uncertain: Brazil and Portugal might go their separate ways into their own continental blocs, Portuguese might fade in Africa as native languages on the one hand and French and English on the other expand, Portuguese will fade in Asia. It would be a mistake to assume that the Lusophone community won't necessarily survive. After all, the Portuguese were Europe's first imperialists, and by some measures the most successful.
- As a major potential oil-exporting country significantly located in the middle of West Africa's petroleum-exporting region, São Tomé e Principé is significant as a future target of an American energy policy that would seek to diversify beyond the Middle East as a soil of fuel.
- The São Tomé coup is a test of the young African Union's ability to enforce some measure of constitutional government in its member-states.
One interesting aspect of the São Tomé coup and worldwide reaction that hasn't received much attention, however, is the role of other Portuguese-speaking ("Lusophone") countries:
[I]n Coimbra, a hilly university town in central Portugal, eight foreign minsters of Portuguese-speaking countries were discussing the crisis, which surged to the top of the agenda at the annual ministerial meeting of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Nations (CPLP).
The CPLP ministers "vehemently" condemned the putsch and said they were prepared to help mediate in the crisis in the tiny west African archipelago.
East Timor's foreign minister, Nobel peace prize laureate Jose Ramos Horta, in particular offered his mediation.
Sao Tome's foreign minister, Mateus Meira Rita, was already in Portugal for the meeting at the time of the coup.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Antonio Martins da Cruz said Lisbon was working "quietly" in a quest for dialogue "and building bridges" between the military junta and the deposed government through the Portuguese and US ambassadors in Sao Tome.
The CPLP, which has been deeply divided in the past on issues involving its members such as the Angolan civil war, joined in an international chorus of protest against the coup.
Analysts said the crisis was an opportunity for the seven-year-old CPLP, whose member states have a total population of some 220 million, to find a greater role on the world stage.
In 1995 mediators from CPLP member state Angola persuaded army officers who ousted the then Sao Tome government to return to their barracks a week later.
The CPLP comprises Portugal and its former colonies Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and Sao Tome and Principe.
The establishment of an institutionalized global Lusophone community very similar to la Francophonie is itself not frequently noted. In part, this is because of the late coalescence of the bloc--Brazil, after its independence in 1822, took care to remain distant from Portugal, while Portugal's former colonies in Africa and Asia took great care to distance themselves from their former colonizer in the generation after independence. Only in the 1990s, after Portugal had become a modern European democracy, Brazil had taken on a wider world and regional role (via Mercosur, for instance), and the vicious fighting in Angola, Mozambique, and East Timor had come to an end, was any sort of cultural association possible.
At least 176 million people speak Portuguese as a first language, mainly in Brazil and Portugal but including large immigrant communities scattered in places as distant as South Africa, France, New England, Venezuela, and Guyana. The number rises sharply once you include countries where Portuguese is a second language in the former Portuguese colonial empire: Cape Verde in the North Atlantic, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tomé e Principé in West Africa, Angola and Mozambique in southern Africa, even East Timor in Southeast Asia.
The situation of Portuguese in Lusophone Africa is interesting (my translation):
Like most other African countries, the former Portuguese colonies included people of multiple ethnic backgrounds. It generally seemed most cost-effective and more viable to maintain Portuguese and to rebuild the educational structures put in place by the Portuguese. More, Portuguese served as an instrument of national unity.
But the maintenance of Portuguese as an official language in these five [African] countries with a total population of more than 30 million people has not made national languages disppear. The administration of each of these states uses Portuguese, the schools teach in Portuguese, the media is in Portuguese and in several national langauges, et cetera. With its 11.5 million inhabitants, Angola continues to be the first Lusophone country of Africa even if the entire population continues to use Bantu languages along with Portuguese learned in school. The language is less present in Mozambique (17.4 million inhabitants), the second Lusophone country: the use of Portuguese spreads along with literacy campaigns amidst an essentially agricultural and Bantuphone population.
In the long term, the future of Portuguese in Africa might be limited. (In East Timor, despite the Portuguese language's service as a badge of collective identity under Indonesian occupation, the language is hardly more likely to endure in an Anglophone region like Southeast Asia than, say, French in Indochina.) Unlike either French or English, Portuguese isn't a regional language of note. Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé e Principé have joined la Francophonie, in fact, while South Africa's intimate involvement in all its neighbours' lives makes English valuable. Conceivably, if a language in these African countries took on the same relative importance as, say, Wolof in Senegal, Portuguese could fade. There is the example (PDF format) of Spanish in Equatorial Guinea, which is important as a badge of identity and as a language for contact with former colonizers but which is less important than French and English and any number of African languages for local
But then, there are all manner of alternative ties which do exist. There was, immediately after independence, an abortive union between Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau, while Angola (now fortified with oil money) is carrying on an ambitious foreign policy of its own. For the Lusophone world outside Europe, Portugal is important as a gateway to the European Union. Brazil, in the meantime, as one of the largest industrial economies in the world and as a major generator of popular culture in its own right, is doing quite well in Africa:
Bossa Nova Beat Helps Foster Brazil-Angola Ties
Mon June 30, 2003 08:31 AM ET
By Zoe Eisenstein
LUANDA (Reuters) - Wearing a flamboyant orange shirt and white trousers, Brazil's new culture minister danced his way across the stage of a Luanda nightclub, singing one of his most popular songs to Angola's rich and famous.
Gilberto Gil spent most of his recent official visit to the vast African nation in state meetings with Angola's President Eduardo dos Santos and its culture minister, Boaventura Cardoso.
But with official business out of the way, the dreadlocked Gil -- one of Brazil's most famous singing stars -- took up an equally important job: fostering Brazil's growing cultural influence over Portuguese-speaking Africa.
Gil, who has released more than 40 albums and helped found the counterculture Tropicalist movement that revolutionized Brazilian music in the 1960s, said he saw no conflict between his roles as a government minister and a feel-good ambassador for Brazilian joie de vivre.
"The arrangement that I made with the president and the government in Brazil is that I dedicate 80 percent of my time to the ministry and 20 percent of my time to my music, to my profession," the star said, perched on a leather armchair after his show.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva appointed Gil to head the Culture Ministry in Dcember.
Gil's visit to Angola and the enthusiastic audience at his Luanda concert underline the growing transatlantic links between Brazil and Angola, a Portuguese colony until 1975 and only now emerging from almost three decades of civil war.
Official contacts are on the upswing. Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim was here in May and Lula is expected on an official two-day visit in August.
"The African Portuguese-speaking countries relate a lot to Brazil, it's a reference for them," Gil said.
"Because it's big, it has the largest black population out of Africa, it's a mixed society...so African countries are watching Brazil all the time, not only culturally but also in terms of commerce, diplomacy, science and technology."
TUNING IN TO RIO
Brazilian culture, largely transmitted through television soap operas, has had a huge impact on Angola in recent years. Many Angolan households gather round their TV sets every evening to watch "Clone," the latest soap to be rebroadcast on state television.
For those equipped with satellite dishes, there is Brazil's largest broadcaster Globo with yet more soaps, plus news, views and Portuguese-language chat shows from the other side of the Atlantic, 24 hours a day.
Even Angolans without access to television can swing to the Bossa Nova beat thanks to the Brazilian music played on local radio stations.
Most Angolans say they like all things Brazilian -- from the music to the fashion -- and some teen-agers are reportedly beginning to speak Portuguese like the Brazilians.
"We have many relations with Brazil, from culture, to dancing, to way of life. And we in Angola, we like Brazil, we're united with him. We're like brothers," said Edson Miranda, a student of Capoeira -- a fusion of martial art, dance and gymnastics that originated in Africa, evolved in Brazil and is making a big come-back in Angola.
BUSINESS FOLLOWS CULTURE
Brazil is already Angola's fourth biggest trading partner and last year, Angola imported more goods from razil than ever before -- around $142 million worth.
While Angola's top three purchases from Brazil were sugar, poultry and spare parts, its exports to Brazil, mainly crude oil, earned around $175 million.
There are several big Brazilian companies operating in Angola, including construction company Odebrecht and the state oil firm Petrobras, and the number of Brazilians living here is 3,000 and rising.
One local independent newspaper complained recently that the relationship left Angola's 13 million people culturally overwhelmed by the Brazilian behemoth, more than 10 times its size. Gil, however, does not agree.
"It's just admiration and identification. In Portugal now they say the same -- that they have Brazilian films, Brazilian TV, Brazilian costumes -- and the Portuguese complain a little," he said.
"But this is history. We were given their things and now we're giving them some things. In Africa it's the same and Brazil is big enough, interesting enough, to be referential for Africans."
The future of the CPLP and the Lusophone community is uncertain: Brazil and Portugal might go their separate ways into their own continental blocs, Portuguese might fade in Africa as native languages on the one hand and French and English on the other expand, Portuguese will fade in Asia. It would be a mistake to assume that the Lusophone community won't necessarily survive. After all, the Portuguese were Europe's first imperialists, and by some measures the most successful.
