THE JUSTICE OUTLAW

PROFILE

NAME: José Tibúrcio Zinga Luemba
TYPE OF OUTLAW: Justice Outlaw

José Tibúrcio Zinga Luemba, son of André Luemba and Maria Berta Pemba, born in Cabinda (a neighbouring country to Angola) on 22 April 1954, was married to my mum with whom he had two children, a girl and a charming, delightful, amazing boy (who is writing every word of this post right now but is not being biased at all).

LIFE STORY

Apart from 2 of my younger years which were spent in Zaire as a family; me, my mum & sister have always lived in England away from my father. His absence from the family home was always shrouded in some mystery. There were so many questions my friends would ask me about him during my childhood that I never knew how to answer.

"Why doesn't your dad live with you if he's still married to your mum?"

"What does he do as a job then?"

"What's his favourite football team?"

Whenever I would re-lay these questions to my mum her answers were always vague and inconclusive. I proceeded to let my friends think he was some sort of ambassador/politician who didn't follow football & had to live in Africa to do important ambassador stuff.

It wasn't until a trip to Angola in 2015, 4 years after the death of my dad, that I was able to quiz my family & get a better idea of who he actually was. It turns out he originally commanded the FLEC-Military division, which later became FLEC-Renewed, and organised armed actions against Angolan government forces. If you're wondering what a FLEC is, it stands for "Front for the liberation of the enclave of Cabinda". (FYI Cabinda is the country my dad originates from). FLEC were formed in 1963 by the amalgamation of several Cabindan nationalist groups which came together to reclaim their country's independence.

This is the part where things escalate & everything gets a bit real. Portugal originally colonised Cabinda & Angola, & Portuguese remains their main language to this day. After the coup d'état of 25 April 1974 overthrew the dictatorship of Portugal and resulted in their independence from the Portuguese overseas colonies-FLEC was excluded from the independence talks with Portugal in early 1975. The main Angolan nationalist groups, the MPLA, the FNLA and UNITA did not get same treatment & were still involved. If you're thinking this is a bit suspicious then you're right. With FLEC being marginalised & its political concerns largely ignored, Angola gained control of Cabinda & its vast oil resources in the independence talks.

This is the part where things get a bit vicious. Conflict & unrest between the two countries followed for decades, as FLEC fought for Cabinda's independence on geographical, political & economical grounds. Not only was Cabinda cited as a separate entity to Angola by the Portuguese empire in its listings of overseas territories, but only 1% of the oil revenue generated by the Cabindan oil fields (itself no less than 2/3 of Angola's daily output of 500,000 bpd) was returned to Cabinda. What ever happened to sharing the wealth?

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.” - Martin Luther King

This is the part where my dad comes in. There were 2 factions of FLEC with a military wing. The first was FLEC NOIR led by Nzita Henriques Tiago, one of the original founders and estimated to have 600 troops. The second was FLEC-Renewed led by Col Jose Tiburcio Zinga Luemba, was a smaller group with no more than 300 active guerrillas.

Some of the tactics implemented were extreme to say the least which highlights the scale of their desperation. These tactics included ambushing & burning government vehicles, attacking isolated government posts, mounting opportunistic attacks on the oil installations (these were rarely serious), provoking firefights with Angolan Army patrols, and as a final resort hostages were taken as a means of publicising their cause. Most foreign hostages were released within a few weeks of being taken, after negotiations with the appropriate government. My dad was a major advocate for non-violence so i'm unsure of the extent to which his faction would have deployed these tactics.

Nevertheless these tactics were a necessary evil to force the Angolan government to have serious negotiations to find a peaceful solution to the conflict & to placate the Cabindan people. Several meetings & talks between FLEC & the Angolan government were held between 1995 & 2006. This is when José Tiburcio and Francisco Xavier Lubota from FLEC attended the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding for Peace and Reconciliation in Cabinda, a treaty between the Angolan government and Cabinda. It was signed on August 1st 2006 with both men being hailed as leading political actors in the Cabinda process.

HOW PURPOSE BREEDS LAWLESSNESS

As you can see; fighting for your people, justice & independence is a messy, ruthless, unforgiving task. A task that requires a lawless mentality to undertake. My dad believed that Cabinda & its people were being taken advantage of & being treated unfairly. Cabinda was not receiving investment. The infrastructure was not being developed. The people were not being educated or looked after, firstly by Portugal & now by Angola. Rather than be passive & accept this reality he decided to stand up & attempt to force change by any means necessary. His sole purpose was to negotiate a fair deal for his people so they could have a fair chance at life. He sacrificed his health, wealth & even his relationship with his children for what he believed in, to give the powerless people of Cabinda a voice. Having a purpose forms the foundation of a lawless mentality & this is what gave my dad the courage to lead a rebel army against the state.

WHY LEAD A PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE?

"There’s no greater gift than to honour your life’s calling. It’s why you were born. And how you become most truly alive." - Oprah Winfrey

When you have a purpose, you feel passionate about your goal & that passion becomes an important driver for you to achieve something extraordinary. Your life will have clarity & you will base your decisions, thoughts, feelings and actions around that overarching purpose. Say goodbye to that feeling of uncertainty about what you want, and therefore wasting time on futile things. You will live in the flow of the universal stream of consciousness, allowing things to happen and change in your life rather than fighting against it, whilst challenging yourself & battling against your fears. You will become more helpful to the people you love and become a role model for your family and friends. You will live your life with more curiosity whilst naturally seeking out good habits that will help you create a difference in the world.

My dad lived a purpose driven life & developed all of these characteristics. I experienced them first hand. It can't have been easy living on a completely different continent to your wife & kids, missing the opportunity to watch & nurture their growth as human beings, but he did it to achieve his overarching purpose. He had full faith in the flow of the universe, believing that as long as he stayed true to his purpose the universe would have his back. He even tried to teach me about the ways of the universe & the importance of having faith & trust in a higher power. Obviously, this fell on deaf ears-I was 10 or 11 at the time & was only interested in football or Pokemon related matters. His willingness to help others was always apparent whenever I would visit Cabinda, as there would be families staying with him who needed refuge & he was always happy provide that shelter, food & security. His curiosity led him to learn how to communicate in 6 different languages. This might seem excessive but I guess it might come in handy if you ever need to persuade other countries to help you fight for liberation.

Being motivated by purpose will make you unstoppable & this is why it is one of the most powerful weapons in an outlaw's armoury. So, if you are still looking for purpose in your life then don't worry you-will find it eventually. The important thing is that you're looking, actively putting yourself in new situations & environments where you might find it. If you were looking for your keys & the first place you looked was the fridge where you had no luck, you wouldn't carry on looking there day after day for the rest of your life expecting them to miraculously appear. I also
hope the first place you'd think to look for your keys wouldn't be the fridge, because that would be strange place to store your keys. Unless you like your keys cold, then the fridge would actually be the perfect place to store them. Either way the point I'm clumsily trying to make is that you should make it a priority to find your purpose & adopt the lawless mentality of an outlaw, and in amongst all the chaos you might soon find the peace and serenity that comes from leading a purpose-driven life.