Several
hundred Angolan peasants and their families reportedly face the
prospect of a state-sponsored famine in the northeastern diamond region
of Lunda Norte thanks to the decision to destroy villages, homes and
crops to expand mining operations.
The Angolan diamond
mining conglomerate, Sociedade Mineira do Cuango (SMC) is accused of
ordering the systematic destruction of hundreds of food crop plantations
in the Cafunfo area (Cuango municipality), with the local MPLA
administration ordering the compulsory removal of the villagers and
destruction of their homes, cash crops and vegetable gardens.
Villagers complain
that compensation for their destroyed harvests is wholly inadequate,
amounting to 60,000 kwanzas (about US $115) in the informal exchange
rate) and some empty water barrels.
"The peasant may
have planted crops in an area of between one and four hectares, but each
only gets a maximum of 60,000 kwanzas sum, regardless of the size of
the area cultivated," says one of the administrative officials involved
in the process.
Data collected by
Maka Angola from the Cuango municipality shows that in the past year,
SMC has ordered the destruction of 402 plantations. And the Cuango
Municipality Agricultural Office has a further 123 plantations on its
list for clearance in the coming days. In this instance, the proposed
clearance involves the demolition of the entire village of Muamuxico,
along with several neighboring homesteads.
"The destruction
orders come from Mike Weir, the SMC Operations Director, but he is
merely complying with orders from the SMC board of directors in Luanda,"
a local official revealed to Maka Angola, on condition of anonymity.
Our source said the
order is sent to the Municipal Administrator, Angélica Umba Chassanga,
who then instructs the official in charge of Agriculture, João Eugénio
to go out and pay the flat-rate compensation to those affected. "People
can't argue with João Eugénio because he is always accompanied by
heavily-armed police, who threaten them if they protest."
Diamond mining in
the Lundas has brought little but violence and misery to local
communities. The precarious way of life of these communities, dependent
on subsistence agriculture in an area that lacks any other form of
employment, has seen many people, young and old, take part in 'garimpo',
the local term for unregulated diamond prospecting. If they are caught
by the private security firms employed by the diamond mining company,
the maverick prospectors are subjected to violent punishments, including
beatings and killings.
The Muamuxico
village chief says "it was José Eduardo dos Santos's government who told
people around here that everyone should dedicate themselves to growing
crops to put an end to famine in the region. They ordered our sons to
stop prospecting for diamonds and become farmers instead."
"Now that same
government is authorizing the SMC to destroy our crops," complains Soba
[traditional authority] Muamuxico. "The man is a hypocrite. His
government has only respect for diamonds not for peoples' lives. We have
to continue growing food - until they come and kill us", he adds.
"When the diamonds
run out, these companies will disappear, leaving only piles of dirt or
holes in the ground behind them," says the Soba who is organizing a
protest march against the demolition of villages and destruction of
crops. He says people are ready to stand up and die.
Razing the village of Muamuxico
"SMC forbade us to
take water from the rivers, even though our village lies between the
Xacanga and Kamaconde streams" says Paulino Mwatxingungo, Soba
Muamuxico's deputy.
"The company
informed us that it will destroy our homes and take over the village.
The Soba tried to speak to the (Municipal) administrator about this, to
say that if the villagers are forced to leave they should be relocated
along with their homes and the trees they planted. Otherwise they prefer
to die there, where they were born and have always lived."
"The diamonds they
find here in the Lundas have brought no benefits to the people.
Muamuxico doesn't even have a health post or a school. Between them the
government and these mining companies just ruin us and steal from us,"
says Mwatxingungo.
From the villagers'
point of view, the land is theirs, regardless of any compensation
offered for it. Their village has 74 homes and is home to some 620
people who have planted 87 fields of crops around it, including 50 mango
trees, 30 avocado trees and 90 palm trees along with other tree species
around their kitchen gardens (where they grow their own food). All of
this is slated for destruction.
"The administrator
[Angélica Umba Chassanga] tried to convince the soba that it is normal
for entire communities to be evicted and that she had witnessed
operations to remove communities in her own village in Nzagi." They
disagree.
For the soba and
his villagers alike, their crops are their only means of subsistence.
"My home and everything I have to support my family comes from my
crops", says Soba Muamuxico. He says the government has never given him
anything but party banners and a hat, failing to deliver on their
promises of a uniform and the wages due to a local chief.
Other peasants in
the region have similar complaints: Paulina Xacole, aged 45 anos, was
recently informed by SMC envoys that her plantation, alongside the
Txameia creek, would be destroyed in the near future.
"The company bosses
and the government must want us all to die of hunger," she says.
Paulina says she will not accept money or empty vessels for her land.
"The land is everything to me, it is my husband. Everything I need comes
from my land, even the schoolbooks for my children to study. I
cultivate and sell yams, millet, peanuts, sweet potatoes, cabbages,
bananas and a whole lot more."
Luzia Joel, aged
38, says SMC already ordered the destruction of her crop fields on along
the banks of Txameia creek, where she grew mainly yams. "I didn't get
anything. When they destroy all that remains of my crops, I'll have
nothing left to grow. God only knows what will happen to me."
source : all africa .com
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