https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6835-1163
![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
Suddenly, in the summer of 1960, the map of Africa gained a new political outline, with the proclamation of nine independences. But the majority of Luanda’s newspapers appeared not to see the ‘wind of change’ blowing through the continent. In its pages, the news of Africa would barely mention more than the crisis in one of its neighbours, the former Belgian Congo. The analysis of the news about the proclamation of independences leads us to formulate the hypothesis that the relative invisibility of the smooth transitions and the major emphasis given to turbulent situations in the continent contributed to value the Portuguese colonial model. Crossing the analysis with research made in archive, this article also contributes to the characterisation of the Angolan daily press on the eve of the Portuguese colonial war.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 The declaration of independence of the Belgian Congo, now Democratic of Congo, on June 30, 1960, was followed by a civil war and a temporary fragmentation of the country.
2 First portuguese agency. Founded by journalist Luís Lupi with the support of Marcelo Caetano, Colonies minister, which a quarter of a century later would succeed Salazar. Lusitânia operated between December 1944 and November 1974.
3 Baptista, “Como seiva em tronco forte,” 376.
4 French News agency, now AFP (Agence France Press).
5 The authoritarian Estado Novo was established in 1933, succeeding the dictatorship. Salazar was the head of the regime since 1932 and previously had been minister.
6 The expression ‘winds of change’ was used in a speech about the dynamics in the colonial world that the then British prime minister, Harold McMillan, stated in February 1960 in the South African parliament, in Cape Town.
7 Excerpt of the Acto Colonial [Colonial Act], decree-law 22465, published on 11th April 1933.
8 Pimenta, “Nacionalismo, Oposição e Propaganda Política,” 368.
9 Lemos, “A Propaganda Oposicionista contra,” 389.
10 Garcia et al.,“The Portuguese Empire: An Introduction,” 13.
11 Jerónimo and Pinto, “Modernizing Empire?” 54.
12 The Communist Party would only defend the right to self-determination and independence of the colonies in 1957. Even after the beginning of the colonial war, in 1961, other opposition sectors would support the defence of the ‘province’ of Angola. Only later would the anti-colonial idea become common amongst anti-salazarists.
13 Alexandre, Contra o Vento, 432.
14 Oliveira, “Harold McMillan, os ‘Ventos’,” 26.
15 Bardin, Análise de Conteúdo, 40–41; Krippendorf, Content Analysis, 18.
16 Van Dijk, Discurso, Notícia e Ideologia, 114.
17 The Mali Federation was an ephemeral union between the Sudanese Republic and Senegal. It achieved independence on June 20, 1960, and was dissolved by Senegal’s secession on August 20, 1960.
18 Identified in the scholar literature in the seminal work about newsworthy by Galtung and Ruge (Citation1965).
19 Melo, D., “Imperial Taboos: Salazarist Censorship,” 161.
20 Ferro, Entrevistas a Salazar, 33.
21 Pinto, Segredos do Império da Ilusitânia, 92.
22 Decree-law 27495, art. 66, number 1, published on 27th January 1937 and afterward regulated and applied to the legislation of the colony.
23 Rego, “A censura prévia administrativa,” 167.
24 Lopo, Jornalismo de Angola: subsídios.
25 Adolfo Maria, journalist in the ABC in 1961 and 1962, personal interview in Lisbon, 15th November 2016.
26 Lippmann is the author, among other works in different areas, of Public Opinion, from 1922, in which he suggested, although it is not referred to as such, that the press has an agenda-setting function, concept formalised half a century after by Maxwell McCombs and Bernard Shaw.
27 Melo A., História da Imprensa de Angola, 143–5.
28 Ibid., 161–3.
29 Fonseca, “A Imprensa e o Império na África,” 236.
30 Torres, “Preâmbulo,” 23.
31 Melo A., História da Imprensa de Angola, 173.
32 Adolfo Maria, personal interview.
33 Correia and Baptista, Memórias Vivas do Jornalismo, 52.
34 Ibid., 56.
35 Anniversary of end of the Dutch occupation in the XVII century.
36 Considering that lexicon, a tool used in the Critical Discourse Analysis to identify the underlying ideology, these three newspapers all ‘normalise’, ‘naturalise’, the event.
37 Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado.
38 Secret letter [Ofício secreto] 77/15.009.900.023 (1)/ (77/15.009.900.001) (4), 6 January 1967, Diverse Reports—Angola, 1949–1962, MU/GM/GNP/135/Pt.37, Historical and Diplomatic Portuguese Archive.
39 Underlined in the document.
40 Reference to censure of the 24-12-1963 edition.
41 Memorandum [Apontamento] n. 415, Confidential. ‘Suject: Overseas Press—biweekly report’, unreadable signature, 15 February 1964, Censorship of the Press in Angola, 1959/JAN/09—1968/NOV/14, Y.7.5.. MU/GM/GNP/119/Pt.2., Historical and Diplomatic Portuguese Archive.
42 Ibid.
43 At the end of the decade, without Saldanha, the daily became controlled by the regime (Rocha, Citation2019).
44 Secret letter [Ofício secreto] n° 765-G.U., 6 February 1962, Diverse Reports—Angola. AHD, MU/GM/GNP/135/Pt.37, Historical and Diplomatic Portuguese Archive.
45 Although less common in the Diário de Luanda, which favours information regarding Angola, the metropolis and doctrinal opinion.
46 About 4.8 million people, according the 1960 census. Among the whole, only a litle part was considered civilised: 280 thousand people, white, mixed race and black classified as integrated in Portuguese culture. A great number of whites are illiterate. By the mid-1950s, the number of Angolans living in conditions close to slavery would be around 300,000 (Birmingham Citation2015, 69).
47 One regarding ethnic confrontations in the ex-Belgian Congo, on the 5th of August, the other about the people of the region of Lundas. The latter, the only one about Angolan themes, in a special issue of the holiday of 15th of August.
48 ‘How I took part in the investiture of a traditional African chief’, memorialistic text published on the 2nd August; ‘About Cabinda, Emídio Filipe wrote: I bid farewell with you maamâ cabinda … ’, a chronic which evidences the contrast between an Angola of the interior and that of the colonial city, published on August 20th.
49 Alexandre, “A África no imaginário político,” 48.
50 Fonseca, Imprensa e o Império, na África, 238.
51 Seven if the edition of 31st July is considered.
52 Fonseca and Gomes, Heróis Anónimos [2]. Jornalismo de Agência, 68.
53 Mostly in the case of ABC, some news were attributed to A., an authorship that could not be identified. They are written in ‘agency style’.
54 Mouillaud and Tétu, Le journal quotidien, 116.
55 Van Dijk, Discurso, Notícia e Ideologia, 66.
56 Salazar, Discursos e Notas Políticas, 196.
57 Pinto, Segredos do Império da Ilusitânia, 388.
58 Alexandre, “O Império Colonial,” 39.
59 Garcia et al., “The Portuguese Empire: An Introduction,” 13.
60 Entmann, “Framing: Toward Clarification of a Fractured,” 52.
61 Carvalho, “Media(ted) Discourse and Society,” 169.
62 Hall, “Determination of News Photographs,” 235.
63 Rebelo, “Sobre a dupla e paradoxal função dos media,” 102.
64 Fonseca, “O Intransigente: a imprensa de Angola,” 281.
65 Rocha, “Os jornais diários de Luanda”.
66 Seaton and Pimlott, “Portuguese Media in Transition,” 94.
Additional information
Funding
Notes on contributors
João Manuel Rocha
João Manuel Rocha, ISCTE – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), Lisboa, Portugal and Universidade Católica Portuguesa. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6835-1163