Rusting Doors and Secret Missions

For more than thirty years, Angola was caught in a devastating civil war. It finally came to an end in 2002 when government forces succeeded in killing one single person—Jonas Savimbi, the leader of the rebel movement called UNITA. Within hours of that event, arms were laid down and a new era of peace began.

During this trip of mine to Angola, I’m learning how much influence Savimbi held over the people of this country. Not only did his rebel followers believe he had special powers, but even the opposing government troops were deathly afraid of what he might do to them with his witchcraft ability.

The fear of Savimbi's witchcraft is still demonstrated today by a most unusual memorial set up in the far southeast corner of the country.

It’s the remains of a metal door propped up against a tree—the very tree under which he was killed. In order to prove the famous rebel leader was no longer alive, his body was laid out on a metal door ripped off of a nearby house and paraded around for all to see. So powerful was the news of his death that the entire UNITA rebel force dissolved almost immediately. But, then, people, including the government authorities, began to fear that the powerful witchcraft associated with Savimbi would linger around him infecting even the door his body laid on. Hoping to appease evil spirits, they quickly returned it to the tree where he was killed. To this day, folks give it wide berth as its rusting remains rests up against the tree trunk.

When MAF Canada first got started in Angola back in the late 1980s, there was a major concern that its planes might become targets of a rebel rocket attack by Savimbi’s UNITA militia. Shoulder-fired Stinger missiles had already brought down more than one Soviet cargo plane supplying communist government forces. MAF sent telex messages to a blind address somewhere in Europe before each flight hoping that UNITA contacts would receive the information and inform rebels on the ground that MAF was embarking on another humanitarian and non-political flight. No response was ever received and MAF never had any certainty its flights were being recognized as peaceful.

So I was asked to conduct a secret mission. While on a furlough in the US in 1990, I was asked to attend a prayer breakfast in Washington DC hosted by an ultra-conservative, anti-communist group.  The guest of honor? Savimbi himself! Before the event began, I was ushered into a back room and given five minutes of personal time with the infamous warrior. Using my best childhood Portuguese, I was able to confirm that the MAF telex messages were indeed being received. On top of that, Savimbi told me he knew all about the MAF plane and the service it was offering to the mission hospitals. “You have nothing to worry about from us,” he said, “We know MAF is doing a good job for our people.”

Because of the political sensitivities of that time, I could not share with anyone I had made this secret mission and had contact with Sivimbi...until now!

Even after ten years since Savimbi’s death, people still talk about the war as if it happened just yesterday. Everyone is incredibly grateful for the season of peace Angola now enjoys. It’s also amazing to see the impact MAF flight service has had for all these years. Over the next few days, I’ll be interviewing key church leaders to find out how that service should continue on into the future. 

Stay tuned!