Jamba, Cuando Cubango

Jamba, Cuando Cubango

Jamba is a town in Angola, located in the southeastern province of Cuando Cubango, just north of the Namibian border along the Caprivi Strip. [cite book|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=bT1pn2HUjhcC|title=A Certain Curve of Horn: The Hundred-Year Quest for the Giant Sable Antelope|isbn=0802140688|pages=p177|author=John Frederick Walker|date=2004|publisher=Grove Press] (Not to be confused with Jamba, Huíla)

Jamba is best known as the former military headquarters of UNITA, a rebel movement supported by South Africa and the United States that fought the Soviet-aligned government in the Angolan Civil War, a Cold War conflict.

The name of the town means "elephant" in Ovimbundu, a language spoken in southern Angola, and presumably refers to the number of elephants in the area.

Geography

Location map+|Angola|width=300|caption=Jamba shown on a map of Angola|places= Location map~|Angola|lon_dir=E|lat_dir=S|lat_deg=17|lat_min=30|lon_deg=22|lon_min=40|label=Jamba|position=bottomJamba is located at coord|17|27|21|S|22|36|47|E|region:AO_type:city|display=inline,title

UNITA headquarters

Jamba served as UNITA's headquarters from 1976 until 1992. The headquarters itself was an elaborate military encampment, with radar capabilities and sophisticated anti-aircraft weaponry that protected the headquarters throughout 16 years of war. UNITA also maintained a large military airstrip in Jamba.

Author Paul Hare described Jamba as "a spread out, well-organised guerrilla encampment, carefully planned and camouflaged to protect against air attacks".

On December 24 1999, Jamba was captured by the military of Angola.cite journal|url=http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/OCHA-64CPQB?OpenDocument|title=Jamba falls to FAA following heavy fighting in border region|date=2000-11-18|accessdate=2008-07-09|journal=Angola Peace Monitor|volume=Issue No.5, Vol.VI]

Jonas Savimbi

UNITA was led by Jonas Savimbi, a charismatic political and military leader who is generally considered one of the more important figures in the history of Angola. Savimbi forged close relations with the U.S. and ultimately became an important figure in support of the West during the Cold War.

Savimbi's critics allege that his military campaign was hugely costly and destructive to modern Angola and that, during the Civil War, human rights were violated by Savimbi and UNITA. Similar allegations, however, also were made against the government of Angola during the war.

Jamba under UNITA

Jamba was believed to be mostly a creation of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, which constructed and sustained Jamba to serve as a sophisticated rebel headquarters for Savimbi's UNITA.

Under the U.S. administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Jamba grew as a major center of UNITA rebel activity, with the construction of elaborate air defense capabilities and air runways designed for the replenishment of U.S. war supplies, which were shipped to UNITA. [cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE1DD123BF932A35751C1A96F948260|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2008-05-07|author=Robert Pear|date=December 1, 1989|title=C.I.A. Crash Called Problem in Angola] Both Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and South Africa's apartheid regime cooperated with the U.S. in supporting Savimbi and UNITA in their war against the Marxist Angolan government.

In 1985, Jamba was the host of the Democratic International or "Jamba Jamboree", a meeting of global anti-communist insurgents organized by United States conservatives, including Jack Abramoff. At the conference, the participants signed a communiqué declaring "our solidarity with all freedom movements in the world and ... our commitment to cooperate to liberate our nations from the Soviet imperialists" [http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030818&s=foer081803] . Other participants in the conference included:

*Adolfo Calero, Contra leader.
*Pa Kao Her, Laotian resistance leader.
*Lewis Lehrman, American businessman and politician.
*Abdurrahim Wardak, Afghan mujahideen leader.
*Jack Wheeler, American conservative.

In later years, Savimbi was visited regularly in Jamba by some of his closest American advisors and advocates, including Michael Johns, Grover Norquist, and others.

Reagan doctrine

The policy of support for anti-communist resistance movements, which was supported by the Heritage Foundation and other influential conservatives, ultimately came to be known as the Reagan Doctrine and was a central component of the foreign policies of the Reagan and (to a lesser extent) George H. W. Bush administrations.

ee also

*Jamba, Huíla

References

External links

* [http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r101:E26OC9-320: "Savimbi's Elusive Victory in Angola"] , by Michael Johns, "Congressional Record", October 26, 1989 (Heritage Foundation policy analyst Michael Johns article on one of his visits to Jamba).
* [http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=12019&R=ED88868F "My Dinner with Jack,"] by Mark Hemingway, "The Weekly Standard", April 3, 2006 (provides some history on the "Democratic International" meeting in Jamba, including the involvement of lobbyist Jack Abramoff).


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Cuando Cubango — Basisdaten Staat Angola …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Cuando Cubango Province — Cuando Cubango is a province of Angola and it has an area of 199,049 km² and a population of approximately 140,000. Menongue is the capital of the province. The governor of the province is General Eusebio de Brito. According to 1988 US… …   Wikipedia

  • Mavinga, Cuando Cubango — Mavinga is a town and municipality in the Cuando Cubango province of Angola. The area spans 44,347 km² and contains about 30,000 inhabitants. It comprises the communes of Mavinga, Cunjamba/Dime, Cutuile and Luengue. The strategically important… …   Wikipedia

  • Jamba, Huíla — Jamba is a town in the Huíla province of Angola.Location map+|Angola|width=300|caption=Jamba shown on a map of Angola|places= Location map |Angola|lon dir=E|lat dir=S|lat deg=14|lat min=41|lon deg=16|lon min=4|label=Jamba|position=bottomJamba… …   Wikipedia

  • Jamba — Places *Jamba, Cuando Cubango, Angola, former base of rebel group UNITA *Jamba, Huíla, Angola, location of the airport with the IATA code JMBPeople *Almerindo Jaka Jamba, an Angolan politician *João Pereira Jamba, an Angolan football… …   Wikipedia

  • Angolan Civil War — Part of the Cold War and the South African Border War …   Wikipedia

  • Cuban intervention in Angola — Location of Cuba (red), Angola (green) and South Africa (blue) In November 1975, on the eve of Angola s independence, Cuba launched a large scale military intervention in support of the leftist liberation movement MPLA against United States… …   Wikipedia

  • Rivungo — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda 17°53′S 19°46′E /  17.883, 19.767 Rivungo , en idioma portugués Santa Cruz do Cuando …   Wikipedia Español

  • Angola–South Africa relations — Angola South Africa relations are quite strong as the ruling parties in both nations, the African National Congress in South Africa and the MPLA in Angola, fought together during the Angolan Civil War and South African Border War. They fought… …   Wikipedia

  • Batalla de Cuito Cuanavale — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Batalla de Cuito Cuanavale Parte de Guerra de la Frontera de Sudáfrica Guerra civil de Angola …   Wikipedia Español

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”