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Assimilado
Assimilado is the term given to African subjects of the colonizing Portuguese Empire from the 1910s to the 1960s, who had reached a level of 'civilization', according to Portuguese legal standards, that theoretically qualified them for full rights as Portuguese citizens. The qualifications for reaching such a level of 'civilization' included a high level of education, the profession of Christianity, and a quantifiable devotion to and identification with the Portuguese language, culture and history. Portuguese colonizers claimed as the goal for such a categorization of assimilados along a hierarchical civilization, the “close union of races of different degrees of civilization that help and support each other loyally,” however this notion of a ‘close union’ differed from its practical application in the cultural and social spheres of the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Certain legal institutions and enacted laws dictated the formation of an assimilado category in colonial politics and distinguished certain rights and exemptions afforded to those who qualified for assimilado status. Even with these legal institutions, however, the Portuguese fear of eventual betrayal by the assimilados to whom they were giving a certain degree of education and power, and the authoritarian nature of the Portuguese government, allowed for little to no actual amassing of power for the assimilados in the colonies. For many assimilados, the balance between the assumption of Portuguese culture and the resultant rights (though oftentimes negligible), and the maintenance of cultural African practices and societal acceptance, was a truly difficult one to manage. The assimilado population, in Angola in particular, contributed to the struggle for independence; assimilado participation constituted a large part of the MPLA, however, tensions between the local factions and assimilado portion of the MPLA caused an internal rift that weakened the resistance as a whole.

Assimilation Ideals Begin
Portugal, along with France, was one of the only countries colonizing in Africa which introduced the idea of assimilation of the colonized people into the population of the motherland; “Formal assimilation was unthinkable in British Africa…[and] in German Black Africa, it was inconceivable that Africans could become Germans”. Portugal was one of the first European presences in Africa, yet Portuguese influence remained coastal and trade-oriented until the late 1800s, early 1900s; “control of the hinterland was non-existent, even in the 19th century…the thirty years between 1890 and 1920 mark a radical break. With growing competition among the European powers, and with the emergence of imperialist ideas as a major impetus for territorial conquest in many parts of Tropical Africa, Portuguese politicians responsible for overseas affairs became more aggressively engaged,” and thus started the Portuguese imperialist effort in integrating ideas of assimilation into colonial affairs.

Laws and Administration
Portuguese colonial laws and enacted policies had general and specific context for each of the colonies of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau; “some of the legislation and policies the Portuguese implemented reflected their empire-wide preoccupations, [while] others reflected their concerns specifically with the colony,” however, certain laws had far-reaching and immense impact on all of the colonies. The role of the Department of Native Affairs, which was formed in 1914, was “to classify the African population into “civilized” or assimilated (assimilado), and “non-civilized” or nonassimilated (não-assimilado) to facilitate recruiting and to designate who were collaborators,” which effectively initiated the legal distinction of assimilados throughout the colonial empire. Two laws, the Estuato Politico, Civil, e Criminal dos indigenas das colónias does Angola, Guiné e Moçambique (Political, Criminal, and Civil Statute of the Natives of Angola, Guinea, and Mozambique) of 1926, which was revised as the Acto Colonial (Colonial Act) of 1930, and the Lei Orgânica do Ultramar (Organic Law of the Colonies) in 1954, explained the “subordinate but vital role the colonies and colonial peoples were to play in the new Portuguese Empire, and the duty of the government towards the “native” populations”. The Portuguese colonial empire hoped that the assimilados would set an example for the rest of the Black Africans of the colonies to shift towards civilization; the Portuguese thus afforded some of the assimilados governmental roles, “as long as they were kept outside of ‘anarchic democratic structures’.”

Education and Religion
Education and religion both were integral parts in the process of assimilation and the qualification for the status of assimilado. The appreciation for Portuguese culture, language and history that came through years of education, was essential for the qualification for assimilado status, but the adoption of Portuguese culture as one’s own, including the adoption of Christianity and the emulation of European and Portuguese ideals, was integral. Only through being Portuguese in every facet of life, from language to schooling to personal association, could one be considered a useful tool in society, and thus be afforded special rights.

Legal Loopholes
Although the Portuguese conceded certain written rights to the assimilados, in practice, because of the authoritarian nature of the Portuguese government, little power was actually transferred to the assimilados in an administrative office; “the status of 'assimilado' did not give these Africans explicit political rights," thus, the Portuguese did not have to worry as much as other colonizing countries that assimilated Africans, such as France did about assimilados being “potential competitors” that endangered “their predominant position,”. Since “the Portuguese colonial system could utilize more authoritarian instruments,” the government could give assimilados jobs in the government, thus affording a small amount of protection to the assimilados, and proving to the international world the accommodating nature of their colonial rule, while not having to feel threatened by the educated assimilados in administrative jobs.

Lusotropicalism and a 'Civilizing Mission'
The Portuguese were certainly not the only colonizing power to stress a “civilizing mission” as the central tenet of colonial expansion; the Portuguese elite, alongside many higher-ups in most of the colonizer countries, believed that their country’s “presence was a means to advance ‘primitive peoples’, to bring them knowledge and some kind of protection and welfare.” However, the additional notion of assimilation adds a specific element to the motivations of Portugal’s colonizing government. The notion of lusotropicalism, which posited a “multicultural image (lustropicalismo), with its emphasis on the mutuality and intermingling of African, Afro-Portuguese (creole), and Portuguese institutions” was introduced as New State propaganda displaying the ideal Portuguese colonialism; however the reality of Portugal’s colonial institutions lay somewhere far from this ideal.

Reality
“In this perspective, Portuguese rhetoric, which stressed the luso-tropical myth of a particular affinity to non-European cultures,including the emergence of mestiço populations and an easy way to assimilation, appears as pure and voluntary hypocrisy. The myth would have been created to hide the abuses inherent in the colonial system.”

The myth was also created, during the Salazar regime and alongside the motivations of the Catholic Church, to assure Portugal’s stronghold in Africa – to entrench the Empire into colonial Africa. The direct consequences of this myth of lusotropicalism and Portugal’s supposed civilizing mission, present themselves in the form of direct and irrefutable contradictions of the ideals preached by the Portuguese colonizing government; despite the “white man’s burden” of Portugal to civilizing and educating the Africans under its colonial rule, over the span of its 5 centuries of presence and influence in its African colonies, the Portuguese colonial government and educational system of Mozambique failed to train even one African doctor, and its other two colonies fared equally as poorly, with lowering life-expectancies to boot.

African 'Inferiority'
It became clear that, although promoting the ideal of lusotropicalism to the world, Portugal viewed African superstition and magical practices as proof that the African culture and African mind was inferior, and thus should not truly be integrated into the Portuguese way of life and governance; thus, the limitation of proper education of Africans and their assimilation into Portuguese culture and government would be more advantageous than full concession of rights and opportunities. The Portuguese also saw this inferiority as irreversible and inevitable, claiming that Portugal had undergone generations upon generations of civilization to reach its current state of superiority, and that since Africans have only just begun their journey towards civilization (by means of European influence, naturally) one cannot expect them to abandon their superstitious ways overnight and be thus fit for the consideration of assimilation; which only points to the hypocrisy of the Portuguese colonial government and its empty propaganda.

Restrictions on Obtaining Assimilado status
With increased time spent in the colonies, Portugal made in increasingly more difficult for the status of assimilado to be reached; after the Second World War in colonial Angola, the New State of Portuguese governmental regime decided to alter the requirements necessary for the acquisition of assimilado status, making it more difficult to do so, and thus minimizing actual African presence in government and society; for example, in the Colonial Statute of 1954, in order to be considered for assimilado status, one needed to “have a Catholic baptismal certificate, obtain a civil marriage license, secure a Portuguese sponsor, be employed in a “civilized” job, and live like a Portuguese. By 1958 the entire process cost $100 (U.S.),” effectively making it near to impossible for such a status to be reached.

Restrictions Once Assimilated
For those very few Africans who were able to gain assimilado status, it can be argued whether or not their lives were improved in any appreciable amount; assimilados did not gain cultural integration into Portuguese society, and even with their education and increased status, their white, illiterate Portuguese settler counterparts in the colonies had full, unquestioned rights – all in all, equal rights and civil status was out of the question. Using the example of the Ovimbundu Protestant assimilados as proof, assimilados in the colonies were not given any appreciable amount of cultural, social or political equality:

“In [areas with increased settler populations], Ovimbundu Protestant assimilados faced residential discrimination, were unable to compete for places in government and privately run schools, and rarely had opportunities to socialize with whites and Afro-Portuguese in the private and public clubs, theatres, beaches, and other places that catered to the “civilized” population. Like the masses of Angola’s “uncivilized” Africans, they resided in the slums (muceques) with none of the access to the public services which their taxes were supposed to provide. Yet they had to adopt the lifestyle of the settlers, pay to send their children to non-government Protestant schools, pay for licenses, and pay residence, and other taxes, while still enduring daily indignities such as carrying identity papers as proof of their urban residence.”

Cultural Identity of the Assimilado
Due to their supposed status as a Portuguese citizen, which came with the assumption of Portuguese culture and customs, and their location within an African society and heritage of their past and family, it is undoubted that assimilados faced difficulty in difining their cultural identity. Often times, government policies of stressed Portuguese importance effectively produced Africans devoid of true culture – for they were never truly accepted into Portuguese society, and with the abandonment of African ideals, were ostracized from African society. Occasionally, assimilados held on to the customs and traditions followed by their non-assimilated counterparts. However, there were many assimilados who “defined themselves as ‘educated Black Portuguese’ and nothing more.” With the start of the revolution for independence, this debate of identity and loyalty of the assimilados came seriously into play, and many times, the locally run, African-based revolutionary groups attacked the notion of assimilados and viewed them as traitors to the cause of national liberation.

Assimilados and the Fight for Independence
Assimilated and educated Africans played an important role in the fight for liberation, but UNITA and UPA were both local- run, and “the indications Mabeko Tali gives us for the East of Angola, where the MPLA armed front split in two because of incompatible attitudes between a local leadership and intellectual radicals, suggest that major gaps existed between ‘educated militants’ and the peasants of the Angolan interior.” As educated Africans present during the time of revolution against the Portuguese regime, it can be assumed that assimilados would inevitably play a role in the struggle for liberation; however, the important role of the assimilado may not necessarily be one of unified fight for independence against a terrible dictatorial regime, as one of internal fission and weakening of the anti-colonial resistance movement. Although there was a relatively large portion of assimilados that did not fight on the side of Africans in the struggle for liberation, the presence and contributions of assimilados were integral, especially in the formation of the M.P.L.A., which was formed with the amalgamation of an assimilado part, along with cultural nationalists and anti-government organizations of which the communist party of Angola was one.

References