Africa-Press – Angola. Just over two weeks ago, the Minister of Culture, Filipe Zau, and the Minister of Territorial Administration (MAT), Dionísio da Fonseca, signed a cooperation protocol for the valorization, regulation and legitimate recognition of traditional authorities in Angola.
According to the document’s signatories, the protocol aims to “requalify and re-register true lineage authorities, combating the proliferation of figures without historical, cultural or community legitimacy”.
The head of the MAT denounced that many of the self-proclaimed authorities “have no connection to the communities they claim to represent”, having called for respect for the principles of consanguinity and tradition.
The Minister of Culture revealed, in turn, that the measure represented a reunion between symbolic power and the power of the State, in a context of a Democratic State and the Rule of Law, where, according to him, the aim is to give voice and legitimacy to those who, in fact, hold a recognized cultural heritage.
The government initiative is commendable in every way, but, truth be told, it is not unprecedented, given that the problem has been dragging on for several years, without practical results.
Over the last few years there has been an exponential growth in the population of sobas and their assistants (sobetas), instead of a reduction, with all the resulting negative consequences, especially in the (re)organization of political-administrative power, as well as in burdening the State with superfluous expenses.
Anyone who has been watching the different political events, especially on the eve of the electoral campaigns promoted by the governing party, will have noticed the massive presence of a vast population of sobas and sobetas, who are officially designated by traditional authorities.
This cyclical phenomenon occurs most frequently in the various trips that João Lourenço has made to the country’s different provinces, both as President of the Republic and as leader of the majority party.
Angola is probably the African country with the most sobas per “square meter”, with an estimated population of 50,000 souls. And, as incredible as it may seem, there are communities in the country with more sobas than police officers.
There are sobas for all tastes and types, many of whom are increasingly younger, which is being seen in some circles as an opportunity for employment or material accommodation.
The exponential growth of the vast population of sobas, according to various sources, was not a coincidence, but was the result of a strategy devised by the ruling party, supposedly aimed at buying political loyalty. It is said that many of them were promoted for political convenience and not for reasons of consanguinity or tradition; others, opportunistically, took advantage of the “facilities” that the system provided and proclaimed themselves sobas.
No one in their right mind can deny or dissociate this growth from the interference of political power.
It is worth remembering that, a few years ago, the jurist Carlos Feijó spoke out against the appointments and politicization of traditional authorities which, according to him, were made “without the observance or legitimacy of customary law, which facilitated the uncontrolled emergence of sovereigns in communities”.
The university professor also made this revelation in 2019, during the III National Meeting of Traditional Authorities, when he addressed the theme “Traditional Authorities in the Modern State”.
At the time, Carlos Feijó warned to be “careful with invented traditions and traditional authorities”, having defended the need for adequate legislation to “inhibit their proliferation”.
The jurist, considered by some to be the “father” of the atypical CRA, revealed that, in 2010, while he held the position of Minister of State, the country “spent around 100 million dollars from the General State Budget (OGE) on traditional authorities”.
Since then, there is no news of any actions aimed at reducing the well-nourished population of sobas to avoid unnecessary spending of public funds.
One of the interferences of political power, that is, of the ruling party in politicizing or interfering in issues of traditional power, became evident when the king of Bailundo, Ekuikui VI, was removed from office for political reasons, in 2021.
The former sovereign of Bailundo, who in a relationship of political promiscuity became a member of the Central Committee of the MPLA, would be humiliated in a trial conducted by a female judge, in which he would end up being convicted for alleged involvement in a crime of homicide and for abuse of power.
It was whispered that the real reasons that led to the removal of the former King of the Central Plateau had to do with the fact that he had received and opened wide the doors of his ombala to the leader of UNITA, Adalberto Costa Júnior, when he visited that municipality in the province of Huambo.
Breaking with a centuries-old tradition, Ekuikui IV’s replacement was done through elections, in a process in which, according to convergent sources, the MPLA will have put its fingerprints and “chosen” its ideal candidate.
Symptomatically, the promiscuous relations between political power and traditional authorities were exposed in the 2017 elections, when Maka Angola revealed, in one of its publications, that the company Logística e Transportes Limitada (LTI) – contracted by the CNE – had distributed electoral kits, including ballot boxes and ballot papers to the homes of sobas linked to the MPLA, in several locations in Lunda-Norte, without any type of supervision.
Rafael Marques’ publication at the time indicated the names of several sobas who had the electoral material in their custody, almost all of them being identified as members of the CAP.
One of the arguments used to justify the sobas serving as trustees of the electoral material, without any supervision, was based on the “duty of cooperation” between official, traditional and private entities, in order to guarantee a successful electoral process. This argument has no legal or electoral support.
Given this web of complicity, is there really a political will to put into practice the protocol signed between the Ministries of Culture and MAT, respectively, or was it just another rhetorical exercise? Wouldn’t it be very risky for the MPLA to disengage from this support group, just over two years before the 2027 elections?
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