Africa-Press – Angola. Domingos da Cruz’s new book, “Tools to Destroy the Dictator and Avoid a New Dictatorship”, was blocked at Luanda airport in Angola by state security services.
This is a more radical version of the work that led to the arrest of the 15+2 activists in 2015 and which would now be presented in Angola. Domingos da Cruz defends civil disobedience as a way to change Angola, criticizes the censorship of his book and denounces the dependence of the opposition on the regime.
RFI: How do you interpret this blocking of your book at the airport by the Angolan authorities? Were you expecting this to happen?
Domingos da Cruz: I never expected anything that would be, let’s say, in accordance with the law, with ethics, with what is normal in a society where those in power act in accordance with the interests of the citizens. Therefore, I expected this to happen, especially because we are faced with an attitude that reveals coherence: it is once again the regime asserting its own nature. It would be extremely naive to expect otherwise. Imagine if we were in Cuba or North Korea and if we expected freedom of the press, the right to demonstrate, freedom of thought, academic and scientific freedom, it would be a contradiction. And the same applies to Angola. Therefore, everything they did simply reveals the nature of the regime itself. For me, it is perfectly expected.
I would like to clarify that I am not speaking to the press about this matter with the intention of presenting myself as a victim or making any kind of complaint. I am not denouncing anything at all. I am simply taking advantage of the opportunity I have been given to report what happened. If I were to denounce, it would be naive and counterproductive, especially because for more than three decades, complaints have been made and nothing has improved. On the contrary, the country has only gotten worse in almost every aspect. In reality, when you live under a dictatorship, under an authoritarian regime, denunciation does not work. What we should do is to build a strategic plan to remove the dictatorship. This is the right path, not the path of victimhood and denunciation.
Let’s talk about that and also about your book, but first I ask you: What do you intend to do by making your book available for free in PDF format and how is this decision being received by the public?
People are pleased that I have made the PDF available. The reason that led me to make this decision is solely and exclusively related to my desire to contribute to this process of liberation, so that we can escape captivity. I believe in the power of ideas, in the creative and transformative capacity that ideas have. I hope that people will adopt the ideas and put them into practice, because it seems to me that this is the path to our liberation. And I would like to take this opportunity once again to say that we are in a society where the situation is getting worse and worse. I see no other way than popular mobilization to transform Angola from a dictatorship to a democracy.
This mobilization is precisely what you present in your book, which includes 168 techniques of civil disobedience, based on the work of the American intellectual and activist Gene Sharp, considered the greatest theorist of nonviolent resistance. Which do you consider most applicable to the current context in Angola and why?
In the current context, it seems to me that the techniques of subversion from an economic point of view are appropriate, because we are in a time of great crisis, which limits the regime financially to buy as many people as possible, as has been the practice. If, for example, citizens are unwilling to pay taxes, to make bank deposits, if they are withdrawing money from the banks, this will deepen the crisis and, in some way, limit the regime in buying people. This is a technique perfectly suited to the current context.
On the other hand, people can stay at home, they can sign petitions, they can stop working with institutions. Those who work in public institutions can pretend to be working and not work. All of this will make it possible for institutions to collapse, and in the face of this collapse, there will come a time when people will rise up in large numbers, no doubt.
I would also like to say that the difference between the edition that led us to prison in 2015 and this one is that this one is a critical edition. A critical edition is a text commented on by several researchers. We have the content of the previous edition, with some new ideas, but now associated with comments from several scholars from Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, and Italy, which make the text much richer. That is the big difference between the previous [edition] and this one.
This is a reissue that takes place 10 years after what was perhaps his most talked about and best-known work, at least in Angola.
Yes, yes. Ten years later. As it happens, it didn’t follow any calculations. After everything that happened, as many of you already know, I had no motivation to return to the book. But, taking into account the degradation of the regime and the general situation of the country, from an economic and social point of view, I thought it would be appropriate to republish the work. It affirms a deep conviction that I have: I believe that the path of non-violent struggle, of civil disobedience, which summarises all the techniques you have just mentioned, seems to me to be the most appropriate path for Angola.
If we were to opt for violence, we would somehow be contradicting ethics, on the one hand, and the democracy we want to build, on the other. Furthermore, we would be putting ourselves in the same position as those in power: we would all be violent, on the same moral level. Those who fight for democracy must place themselves in a position of difference, not only from an ethical point of view, but also from a discursive point of view. It is obvious that there are several paths to liberation, but violence would put us in a position of great disadvantage and there would be little chance of victory. I believe that nonviolent struggle is the most appropriate path. I continue to believe this deeply, although I recognize other possibilities.
Domingos da Cruz, 10 years have passed since the case that led to the arrest of the 15+2 activists, in which you were involved. This trial was probably the most publicized, or one of the most publicized, in Angola. What has changed in the country since then? Do you think that the current regime of João Lourenço represents a continuation or has there been a change in relation to the repression during the time of José Eduardo dos Santos?
Regarding repression, there was clearly continuity. There is no doubt about that. I would like to give some simple examples. Just as José Eduardo dos Santos did, any attempt at protest is now repressed by his successor. And when I say “his successor” , I am referring to what our legal framework says. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Angola, the person responsible for the defence and security services is the President of the Republic. The Minister of the Interior, Defence and the secret services all act under the President’s orders. In fact, we have one of the constitutions that grants excessive powers to the President.
And it’s not just about repression. In the case of João Lourenço, he delved into something unprecedented: killing in broad daylight. We had the death of an activist at a demonstration in Luanda, for example. And then there was the case of the Lundas, where more than 100 people were murdered. There is a report published by Angolan civil society organizations that clearly describes this drama.
Speaking of other rights: political, economic and social, the indicators show that the country’s situation is getting worse every day. There was also an opportunity for civil society to do some self-criticism and realize that the method of reporting is a mistake, even from a historical point of view. Imagine, in colonial times, if our ancestors had limited themselves to reporting, we would probably still be under colonization. What we really need to do is take a stand to put an end to the regime. And non-violent struggle techniques are perfectly suited to putting an end to our captivity. More than three decades of reporting have solved absolutely nothing. The indicators are there, when you look at the reports from institutions such as the United Nations, Freedom House , Reporters Without Borders , the Mo Ibrahim Foundation , among others, they all show that we have not moved on from the same place.
You talk about civil society and the opposition. What, in your opinion, should be the role of the political opposition, civil society and Angolan youth in the fight against repression and in building a real democracy?
We need to establish a clear distinction between the partisan opposition and the civic struggle waged by civil society and the youth, as you have just mentioned. My only sincere hope lies in the people. First, the people must become aware that they are alone in the world, literally abandoned. We live in a country with an elite connected to international capitalism, to large corporations, to Western powers. It is a regime that enables the extraction of resources and benefits the West.
Internally, the regime also benefits the opposition parties, which means that the people are the only victims of all this. Society is the one that must rise up. I don’t see an inch, I don’t see an inch of hope coming from party politics. I’ll give you a simple example: I don’t know of any part of the world where you can form an opposition while financially depending on the regime you’re fighting against. Our law on political parties grants opposition parties funding from the State Budget. And since, in Angola, the MPLA is one with the State, because it has captured it, this means that the opposition parties literally depend on the MPLA to survive. To have rice and beans on the table, to take care of their health, to send their children to school or buy a plane ticket, they depend on the regime. It’s not possible to form an opposition like that.
As Thomas Sankara said: whoever feeds you, controls you, manipulates you. On the other hand, we have a corrupt, corrupt and aging opposition. Psychologically, you can’t expect much from old people. The revolution will not come from old people.
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