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Media Coverage of the Angolan Elections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 August 2021

Elaine Windrich
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Extract

American media coverage of Angola’s first multi-party elections, held on 29-30 September 1992, was based on a number of misconceptions which were derived from an enduring Cold War perspective, a deference to the Bush administration agenda and a conviction that free and fair elections were synonymous with “democracy.”

Type
Research Article
Information
African Issues , Volume 22 , Issue 1 , Winter 1994 , pp. 19 - 23
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1994

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Footnotes

*

Elaine Windrich, a visiting scholar at Stanford University, is the author of The Cold War Guerrilla: Jonas Savimbi, the US Media and the Angolan War (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992).

References

Notes

1. ‘Incumbent Ahead of Ex-Rebel,” 2 October 1992, A45 and “Angola’s Slow Vote,” 3 October 1992, A13.

2. Gwynne Dyer, “Jonas Savimbi’s Time for New Trousers,” 22 September 1992, F4.

3. Eric Ransdell, “The More Things Change,” US News & World Report, 5 October 1992, p.56.

4. “Angola: King of the South,” 5 April 1991, p.7.

5. “Promoting a Prosperous and Peaceful Angola,” Heritage Foundation, Backgrounder 915, 25 September 1992, pp.1-2.

6. “Finally an Angolan Settlement,” Washington Post, 2 May 1991, A18; “Reagan Doctrine Dividends,” Wall Street Journal, 9 May 1991, A14.

7. See Windrich, E., The Cold War Guerrilla (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1992), pp.45–57.Google Scholar

8. Craig Whitney and Jolliffe, Jill, “Ex-Allies Say Angolan Rebels Torture and Slay Dissenters,” New York Times, 11 March 1989 Google Scholar, Al; Radek Sikorski, “The Mystique of Savimbi,” National Review, 18 August 1989, pp.36-37.

9. “Angola’s Secret Bloodbath,” 29 March 1992, Cl.

10. Letter, 5 May 1992. See also M. Calhoun and Martin James, “Savimbi Is Not to Blame for Angola’s Troubles,” Christian Science Monitor, 16 November 1992, p.19.

11. “What Became of Tito Chingunji?,” Washington Times, 29 April 1992.

12. Quoted in West Africa, 29 June-5 July 1992, p.1082. See also “New Secretary Reaffirms Support of UNITA,” Kwacha News, May-June 1989, p.3.

13. 7 October 1992, A14.

14. “Statesman Savimbi,” 9 October 1992, p.20.

15. “New Voters,” 13 October 1992, A20. See also “Meet Jonas Savimbi,” 8 November 1979, A20.

16. “Don’t Abandon Jonas Savimbi,” 26 January 1993, A17. On the Weymouth article, see E. Windrich, “Saving Our Man in Huambo,” Lies of Our Times. March-April 1993, p. 17.

17. “The Angolan People’s Choice,” 8 October 1992, A20.

18. “Angolan Rebels Threaten to Bolt,” 13 October 1992, p.l.

19. See “The Angolan Elections,” December 1992, pp.50-57.

20. “Trouble Ahead for Angola,” 14 October 1992, G2.

21. “Election Fraud in Angola,” 19 October 1992, E2.

22. 24 October 1992, C2. Another letter from José Patricio, protestsing against the editorial of November 6, appeared on November 10, F3.

23. “The Massacre in Angola,” 6 November 1992, F2. See also “Angola: Who to Blame?” Aida Parker Newsletter, January-February 1993, p. 10, for an extreme right-wing South African account which repeated the allegations of the German election observers; and it also endorsed the verdict of the American Foundation for Resistance International’s Democracy Bulletin (its ideological counterpart) that the Angolan electoral process was “a text book example of Marxist-inspired suppression of the democratic process.” Winter 1992.

24. See Costa, Gustavo, “Operaçoes de charme,” Expresso (Lisbon), 29 August 1992, B5.Google Scholar

25. See Conchiglia, Augusta, UNITA, Myth and Reality (London: ECASAAMA/UK, 1989), p.60.Google Scholar

26. “Farewell to Savimbi,” 30 January 1993, p.19. The Washington Post did likewise that same week (25 January, A16) and again on 23 March 1993, A20. The New York Times followed suit on 10 February, A18 and 14 April, A16.

27. United Press International (UPI) also relied on UNITA’s notoriously fabricated and inflammatory radio broadcasts (as monitored by Channel Africa in Johannesburg) for reporting the war in Angola, occasionally adding that “independent confirmation” was not unavailable.

28. Robert Greenberger, “US Policy Toward Angola,” 22 March 1993, AIO.

29. John Goshko, “US Recognizes Angolan Government,” 20 May 1993, A28.

30. “News Coverage of Six Countries Hosting United Nations Peacekeeping Missions,” Africa News, 22 March-4 April 1993, p.2. In the survey, Angola was mentioned 142 times, compared with 1,192 for Somalia and 1,929 for former Yugoslavia, by major newspapers and television networks during January-February 1993.

31. Paul Taylor, “Angola’s Dual Reign of Terror,” 23 March 1993, Al.