The documentary by filmmaker Margarida Cardoso is a huge contribution to ensure that the story of Sita Valles does not fall into oblivion. Sita was the young doctor who wanted to live in the midst of two revolutions, the Portuguese and the Angolan, and ended up devoured by the latter.
By Luis Leiria. May 26, 2022 - 11:00 am Luís Leiria Sita Valles. Image Midas Films. Margarida Cardoso learned about Sita Valles' story about 11 years ago, and fell in love. The young Angolan woman of Goan origin had experienced two revolutions in her short life -- the Portuguese one, which ended 48 years of dictatorship, and the Angolan one, which gained independence. She ended up being devoured by the latter: at the age of 25, on an uncertain date between June and August 1977. She was shot, in an uncertain place, and without being able to defend herself against the accusations that weighed against her. The Angolan government considered her one of the main leaders of a failed coup attempt, which took place on May 27, 1977. The Portuguese filmmaker saw in this terrible story material for a documentary and started working towards it. But she soon realized the difficulties the project presented. At that time, Sita Valles' name was cursed in Angola. Former president José Eduardo dos Santos, throughout his 38-year term, had never even spoken. Officially, the government did not recognize that the young doctor had been shot. He also denied the existence of the firing squads that murdered thousands and thousands of militants in the hunt for the "fractionists", in an orgy of blood that lasted two years and which resulted in 30,000 dead. TWO REVOLUTIONS OF SITA VALLES For this very reason, the simple allusion to May 27, 1977 could create many complications for anyone who dared. That date, and the events that followed it, were a completely taboo topic. How to find people who agreed to talk to, in Angola, about Sita and her time? On the other hand, in Portugal, the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party), the party of which Sita was a prominent militant before returning to Angola, participated in the taboo and did not speak of the former leader of the communist youth. THE ENIGMA OF MAY 27 In addition, there was the enigma of May 27, 1977 itself. What really happened on that day in Luanda? According to the official version, Nito Alves and his followers tried to carry out a coup d'état against the government of President Agostinho Neto, and failed. On the other hand, there were the survivors of the 27th of May -- MPLA militants who were accused of "fractionism" and, almost miraculously, escaped the slaughter, many of them after prison terms of more than two years and without ever having been accused of anything else. They were to deny the existence of a coup. They say that few military sectors took action in the capture of the S.Paulo jail and Rádio Nacional, and that their objectives were limited: to free their imprisoned comrades and call for a large popular demonstration. To complicate matters further, the decisive forces in the defeat of the Nitistas (supporters of Nito Alves) were the Cuban troops stationed in the country, and more specifically the tanks of the Presidential Guard, a military corps that had been created at the suggestion of Raúl Castro himself. If the Cubans had maintained neutrality, the story could have been different. The Nitistas, in turn, claimed to be communists and raised the flag of the Soviet model, accusing the government's number two, Lucio Lara, of being anti-Soviet. The Soviet Union, however, did not lift a finger to defend them, although it is certain that Moscow took days to make public an official position on the events. Too many complications for a documentary, no? PHOTO: Cuban tankblocks access to Radio Nacional de Angola. Photo published on the first page of O Jornal at the time MAY 27, 1977 IN ANGOLA But Margarida Cardoso did not give up. Time was confirming the correctness of the decision. A small but dense bibliography on the cursed episode gained the light of day, thanks to the work of the survivors themselves, journalists and historians. The theme “27 de Maio” began to be mentioned in the media. An excellent biography of Sita Valles was published, by journalist Leonor Figueiredo (2010). In Portugal and Angola, an association has emerged that brings together survivors. The orphans of the 27th of May organized themselves. Among them ws Sita's son, João Van Dunem ("Che"), now 45 years old. They went on to demand from the Angolan government the recognition of the death of their loved ones, the delivery of their mortal remains after DNA tests and the respective death certificates have been carried out, so that their relatives can finally grieve. This succession of events showed that the conditions for the documentary were already in place. And Margarida Cardoso moved forward. The result, the film "Sita – A vida e o tempo de Sita Valles', can be seen at Cinema Ideal, in Lisbon, and airs on RTP 2, in two parts, on May 26 and 27, 2022. It is available on FilmIn platform and in the video clubs of the operators, and it is still for sale in the DVD format. The documentary is about Sita and her time Margarida Cardoso made a point of clarifying that the documentary is not about the 27th of May 1977, although this episode is inevitably very important, but about Sita Valles and her time. Hence the long title. The option for the interview format was practically unavoidable, with the director running the risk of making a "Talking Heads" film, a formula that is already tiring after being used so much. However, the director did a thorough archival research and managed to obtain many images and small snippets of films and street scenes, in addition to the Valles family films recording outings, vacations, party scenes. In addition, she used an interesting resource: dark images, captured from a car that roams the streets, at night, accompany the reading of communiqués from human rights organizations about Sita Valles and her disappearance. The film begins with impact images captured on the 27th of May, a large human mass on the run, with heavy gunfire in the background, soldiers fighting each other, one disarming the other, an armored car patrolling the streets of Luanda, a statement issued on Rádio Nacional, on May 28, 1977, stating that what happened the day before was serious, in the case of a "reactionary attempt" to change power in Angola. Soon the scene switches to the reading of a letter from Sita's mother, addressed to Maria Eugénia Neto, wife of President Agostinho Neto, alleging her condition as a mother, guaranteeing that she doesn't understand anything about politics but asking for clemency for her daughter, because "she deserves to live” (the letter was never answered). Edgar Valles follows, reflecting on the terrible situation of the relatives of someone who disappeared, their suffering being prolonged indefinitely because they were not able to grieve. It will be Edgar who will accompany us throughout the documentary: his speeches are the thread that weaves all the testimonies. Edgar Valles is the sole survivor of the three Valles brothers: Edgar, Sita and Ademar; the latter, an engineer without political intervention, responsible for Heavy Industry at the Ministry of Industry, was murdered after being in prison for ten months. His crime? Just being Sita and Edgar's brother. THREE STAGES OF SITA'S LIVE After this introduction, the documentary becomes chronological, divided into three parts: * Sita in Angola, born in Cabinda, but from a middle-class Goan family, well accepted among white settlers. * Sita, who attains political awareness, moves to Portugal and there embraces activism against the Salazar/Marcelist dictatorship and becomes a militant among the PCP (Portuguese Communist Party) Youth, standing out immediately. * Sita who, in the middle of the "Hot Summer" of the Portuguese PREC, decides to return to Angola, to help the revolution in her country of origin. There, she went through the Angolan turmoil until she was arrested along with her husband, José Van-Dunem, both accused of being the "brains" of the alleged coup d’état to overthrow Agostinho Neto, and shot on an uncertain day, somewhere between June and August of that year. from 1977. MASTER ASSEMBLY In total, the documentary is 2 hours 40 minutes long, but you don't feel the time passing. The voices of the interviewees are very well linked, weaving the story from sentence to sentence, from testimony to testimony. As was inevitable, most of the interviewees live in Portugal and were part of the community of children of white Portuguese settlers. They were born in Angola and embraced Angolan nationality. Arrested in the aftermath of the 27th of May, accused of being "Nitistas", tortured in every way. They were eventually released after more than two years of detention without any specific charges being made against them. In fact, it is curious that there were so many white "Nitistas": they are a living denial of the most repeated accusation by Agostinho Neto's supporters against Nito Alves: that he was a racist. It is also almost unnoticed that there are testimonies of the same interviewee recorded twice, and between one recording and the other ten years have passed. In fact, ten years later, Margarida Cardoso did a second round of interviews and in some cases took advantage of parts of both. A CONFUSING HISTORY OF THE 27TH OF MAY If the reader does not have some notion of what happened on May 27, 1977, he is likely to be a little lost when this topic begins to be discussed. If that's the case, don't be surprised: it's not your fault, and it's not Margarida Cardoso's either. It's just that to this day there is no consensus on what the 27th of May was. The Angolan government and the MPLA have no doubts: it was a bloodthirsty coup that failed because the people did not support the "Nitist fractionists". It was bloodthirsty because seven "commanders" were murdered by Nito and his supporters. Opposing them, the accused respond that there was no coup d'état, but rather a response to the trap orchestrated by the regime's number two, Lúcio Lara, who the night before, on behalf of the Political Bureau, accused Nito Alves and José Van Dunem of being the leaders of a coup d'état already underway, which led the "Nitistas" to react and convene a popular demonstration. They tend to devalue the pro-Nito military actions that also marked that journey. And they remember that nothing, absolutely nothing, justifies the slaughter that followed this episode, with thousands and thousands of MPLA militants, many with responsibilities in the MPLA Youth, in the women's organization of the party, in the UNTA trade union central, in the provincial governments, to be arrested and summarily executed in firing squads. Agostinho Neto said on the 26th of May: "We are not going to waste time with judgments!" The carnage would eventaally reach 30,000 fatalities. Sita Valles; murdered without being given the slightest chance of defense Edgar Valles: there will be no reconciliation in Angola without identifying those responsible for the killing Finally, there are those who claim that there was a combination of military action and popular insurrection that failed. The main military actions were the assault on the São Paulo jail, to free the "Nitistas" who had been arrested in the meantime, and involved armored vehicles from the female battalion of the 9th Brigade, the most important military detachment in the capital. There were those who said that Nito and Van Dunem would be among those arrested, but everything indicates that they are not. Soldiers loyal to Nito also took over the National Radio by force, which began to broadcast in line with the "Nitistas", making appeals to the people’s demonstration, announcing "a new Marxist-Leninist revolutionary process" and the end of the "collusion of the social-Leninists, Democrats and Maoists" of the government. The radio was reconquered for Agostinho Neto by the Cubans, who took action after the Angolan president asked Fidel Castro directly for help. The tanks of the Presidential Guard, commanded by Colonel Rafael Moracén Limonta, had no one to oppose them: not even the 9th brigade, whose tanks were much inferior. INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT The story of the 27th of May becomes more confusing if we look at international support for the fighting factions. Who decided the outcome of the 27th of May were the Cuban troops stationed in the capital. They dispersed the mobilization in front of the Presidential Palace (to this day it is not possible to know from a reliable source whether the killing started there or not, that is, if the Cubans fired into the air or to kill). Then they engaged in combat with the soldiers who guarded Rádio Nacional and regained control of the radio for the supporters of Agostinho Neto. They will also have negotiated and obtained the surrender of the 9th Brigade. In the afternoon they would have advanced through the Sambizanga musseque, where Nito had enormous support. This last information could never be confirmed, although they are mentioned in telegrams from several embassies, including the Portuguese one. There is no doubt that Agostinho Neto had the support of the Cuban leadership. Fidel had already said, during his visit to Angola on March 27 of the same year, that "Imperialism often conspires to liquidate the revolutionary leaders because it knows that the people need leaders, they need leaders in the revolutionary struggle. (...) In the phase in which the people of Angola are living, the leaders have a fundamental role and that is why I say that it is necessary to support comrade Neto, it is necessary to defend and protect him." And the "Nitistas" were supported by whom? Nito Alves and José Van Dunem, as well as Sita Valles, made no secret of being Soviet communists, who followed Moscow's guidelines. And they accused the "social democratic wing" of the MPLA of being anti-Soviet. However, on the 27th of May, the Soviets were quiet and certainly did not support the "Nitistas". From Cuban documents, we know that an employee of the Soviet embassy would have given shelter to a “Nite”. And this is it. Finally, the first cables from Yugoslavia's Tanjung news agency showed sympathy for the insurgents, whom they called "consistent MPLA militants", who freed "fighters of the People's Revolution" from the chain. In short, the "Nites hoped to have the support of the Soviet Union, but they did not; and the sympathy of Yugoslavia's official news agency was of little use to them when the Cubans started the engines of their tanks. And they stifled military actions and the attempt at popular insurrection. SHORTCOMINGS In the documentary, Margarida Cardoso tries to report the events in the best way, but ends up collecting more testimonies saying what the 27th of May was not, than saying what it really was. And here the film's first shortcoming occurs: there is no reference to one of the main military actions of the "Nitistas", the assault on the São Paulo jail. The statement that it was the Cubans who defined the winner does appear in a statement, but little else is said about it. Also nothing is said about the attitude of the Soviet Embassy. It gives the impression that Margarida Cardoso wanted to escape this labyrinth of international relations whose exploration can lead us to the dead end alley of the historical archives that remain closed. Another lack that is felt is the near absence of José Van Dunem, whom Sita married, and of his son "Che", now 45 years old, who was the first signatory of a petition addressed to the Angolan government by the orphans of the 27th of May. ANGOLA: 'THERE IS A FIGHT WE WON', SAY 27 MAY SURVIVORS Finally, the end of the documentary shows the speech of current President João Lourenço asking for forgiveness, on behalf of the Angolan State, and naming some of the main victims of the 27th of May, explicitly citing Sita Valles. In my opinion, it is not enough to insert a mural that reads “The struggle continues” to undo the false impression that this offers closure: that the Angolan government is really committed to a process of reconciliation that puts an end to years of taboo and suffering of the victims' relatives. It was then enough to collect the testimony of Edgar Valles himself, for example, which would show the staging of João Lourenço's initiative. Be that as it may, the documentary is extremely well done and will do much for the cause of those who seek to restore the truth, the survivors and orphans of the 27th of May. Margarida Cardoso herself said at the film's premiere that she only intends to raise the discussion and that she hopes to have contributed to the production of other documentaries on the 27th of May. Judging by the premiere, which filled the biggest room of the São Jorge cinema, "Sita – A vida e o tempo de Sita Valles" is attracting attention in Portugal. With a very wide distribution, only those who really want to avoid it will not see the film. In Angola, where there is no movie premiere, the DVD will already be circulating. Fortunately. About the author Luís Leiria Left.net journalist [Translated: FN] https://www.esquerda.net/artigo/sita-historia-que-nao-sera-esquecida/81118 *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-