Angola was the former colony that recorded the greatest tensions with Portugal.

University professor and researcher Clara Carvalho singles out Angola as the former Portuguese colony that has recorded the most notable moments of tension with Portugal.

“Angola was a country where there were more settlers of Portuguese origin, so there was a very close relationship with Portugal,” he argues, given that there were several interests at stake, some of them related to the Popular Freedom Movement liberation movements. Angola (MPLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).

ISCTE-IUL Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy Clara Carvalho is the editor of the journal Cadernos de Estudos Africanos and the director of the PhD in Africana Studies.

“The recognition that there were important pressure groups in Portugal that supported UNITA has always been the reason for the Angolan government’s mistrust of Portugal. And this fact is the main source of tension between Portugal and the previously colonized territories. Some more than others,” he describes the situation in detail, emphasizing that such tensions do not exist in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.

“Guinea-Bissau, despite being a colonized territory that fought the most efficient, effective and successful war of all territories, has never had a conflictual relationship with Portugal since independence,” the example cites.

Clara Carvalho argues that it was mainly from the 1990s that Portugal began to invest seriously in developing policies for Africa that would focus on the current PALOP. [Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa] and will go through political support agreements, in 1996 it will go through the creation of the Community of Lusophone Countries (CPLP), “but it will also go through cooperation with Portugal, and this will help significantly strengthen Portugal’s relations with its former colonies.”

“Portugal has never had such a neocolonial perspective. And I say this not from an ethical or moralistic point of view, but purely and simply because this was the country in which the revolution took place. [25 de Abril de 1974, que conduziu ao fim do chamado império colonial]“It had internal problems to resolve, did not have and was not able to maintain economic interests with the decolonized territories, and was a much smaller country compared to the countries that became independent,” he emphasizes.

For Clara Carvalho, “Portugal has always had a minority position,” she said, citing as an example “the discussions that took place around Equatorial Guinea’s accession to the CPLP.”

“Portugal did not have the ability to resist what was the dominant will, especially among the members of PALOP CPLP. And this is a situation that shows that Portugal’s position is more of a negotiating, diplomatic position than one of imposition, as we feel about other countries,” he concludes.

According to economist and university professor Jonuel Gonçalves, Cape Verde, among the former Portuguese colonies, is a country that maintains a closer and stronger relationship of trust with the former colonizer and that is strengthened when its currency, the Cape Verdean escudo, changes to the Portuguese escudo and then euro as the reference base for its monetary policy.

“This is happening with the support and work done in Portugal. And this is a very big responsibility, which allows us to ensure a huge level of integration,” he emphasizes.

In the case of Guinea-Bissau, “everything changes a lot depending on who is in power,” especially because the country’s integration in its region is so great, he says, given that “the presence of the Portuguese language is very weak.”

“The situation is the same in Mozambique. Let’s just say that cultural factors play a big role in all of this, within the overall framework of the CPLP. Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau actually have much more connections, much more similarities with neighboring countries than with countries where the official language is Portuguese, this is no longer the case in Angola,” he states.