He failed to understand that the struggle for justice and freedom in southern Africa was changing the world - and diplomacy itself.
Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov meets with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor, in Pretoria. Russia provided valuable support for the ANC during its struggle against apartheid.
EPA-EFE/Kim Ludbrook
The relationship between Pretoria and Moscow was forged in the apartheid era with the then Soviet Union giving support to banned ANC fighters.
Adalberto Costa Junior, leader of Angola’s opposition party, The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) arrives to cast his vote.
John Wessels/AFP via Getty Images
The political skill to turn situations to his advantage, rather than any ability to mobilise people, made Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders.
Former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos.
EFE-EPA/Manuel de Almeida
Citizens have been denied their right to elect officials at the grassroots and this has allowed the central government to maintain rigid control of the country’s regions.
John Liebenberg in the ransacked hospital in Cubal, Angola, in 1993.
Photographer unknown/Courtesy the Liebenberg family
No other photographer in southern Africa has documented war in the way that John Liebenberg did. He captured the life and the conflict of both sides in his body of work.
South African liberation struggle icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
EPA-EFE/Jon Hrusha
Angola’s president-elect, João Lourenço, has a reputation for relative probity. But, he’s unlikely to rock the boat as Eduardo dos Santos remains party chairman.
Rebel UNITA troops walk through a field twenty miles from the front line at Munhango, Angola April 29, 1986.
Reuters/Wendy Schwegmann
For a military battle whose outcome is still hotly contested 30 years later, the impact was so remarkably clear – independence for Namibia, peace for Angola and the death knell for apartheid.
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, University of Pretoria, and Visiting Professor of International Relations, Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil, University of Pretoria