Diosdado Macapagal’s Foreign Diplomacy and Map of Macapagal’s Trip to Africa (1963)
During his time in the US there were rumors that Macapagal would do a side-trip to visit African countries. On December 1, these reports were confirmed. The trip was the first time any Philippine head of state visited the African continent. All the preparations were done within the time of Macapagal’s visit to the US. As one account elaborates: “Washington officials encouraged the trip, probably because ‘America is proud of the Philippines has something to show for its seventeen years of independence.’”
This map reconstitutes the itinerary of Macapagal’s trip to the Kennedy memorial then to Africa and back to Manila. The trip was originally planned to travel from West to East: from Liberia to Nigeria to Republic of Congo to Tanganyika to Malagasy to Zanzibar, all of which had recently declared independence. Boarding a Pan-American Airways jetliner which has been christened Clipper Sampaguita to give it a native touch (and that was also assigned a Filipina flight attendant, Shirley Hart), Macapagal set off to Liberia on December 5th and arrived on the 7th.
Macapagal arrived in Tanganyika in time for the first anniversary of their independence on December 9. Zanzibar was originally in the itinerary and also achieved independence during Macapagal’s tour (December 9) but was eventually bypassed because their airfield was too small. Nigeria and the Republic of Congo were bypassed in this itinerary since their head of states were also away on diplomatic visits, which highlights how impromptu Macapagal’s trip was. Plans to visit Kenya also didn’t pan out although the presidential aircraft passed by Nairobi before landing in Tanganyika. Although it would have been an apt gesture to visit Kenya on its eve of independence on December 12, 1963, Macapagal’s group decided against it since Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth, would be there for the ceremonies as well, and such a visit could have only brought on complications on the ongoing negotiations on Sabah. The last destination of the trip was Madagascar. After Macapagal’s trip to Africa, Macapagal and his entourage flew to Bangkok to pay respects to Prime Minister Sarit Thanarat who had died on the 8th. On December 16th, Macapagal reached Manila.
Two of the three paintings are Balinese paintings, Sukarno became acquainted with artists based in Bali in the 1950s when he was building the Tampaksiring Palace and hosting state visits in Bali. He commissioned Balinese artists after this period. It is probable that these paintings were gifted sometime between 1963 and 1964 when President Sukarno visited the Philippines.
Painting, and art more generally, were an important diplomatic medium for President Sukarno. For example, Mikki Susanto’s research on the link between Sukarno’s commissioning of art and his diplomatic visits to other countries notes that when he visited the United States in 1956, he visited the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and later that same year when he traveled to Russia, he visited the Tretyakovskaya Gallery in Moscow. Toward the end of 1956, when Sukarno met Chairman Mao Zedong, the trip was marked by a visit to see an art collection and receive a catalogue published in Peking.