Download Broadhead, Susan Herlin. Angola: History and Government. Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center. Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.

Angola: History and Government
Source Database: Encyclopedia of Africa South of the Sahara
Table of Contents
Essay | Further Readings | Source Citation
The Republic of Angola is descended from an early Portuguese dependency whose name,
Angola, was appropriated from the conquered Mbundu state known as Ngola. It also has two
modern predecessors, the twentieth-century Portuguese colony of Angola and its
independent successor, the Marxist-Leninist People's Republic of Angola.
Ancient Angola was small and organized almost entirely around supplying slaves to Brazil.
By the mid-nineteenth century, with the end of the slave trade in sight, it was still a largely
coastal, Afro-Portuguese state which stretched inland up the Kwanza River valley via a
series of more-or-less dependent trading forts.
By 1891 Portugal had succeeded in obtaining European diplomatic recognition of its claims
to rule the lands and peoples now constituting Angola. It was just beginning, however, to
succeed in extending its authority beyond the ancient coastal boundaries. This Portuguese
expansionism, combined with the demise of the Atlantic slave trade and consequent
dramatic growth in commodity exports, put extraordinary pressure on the communities that
were soon to become a part of modern Angola.
Chokwe, Kongo, Mbundu, and Ovimbundu were the most affected by changing conditions
after 1850. They responded with generally successful efforts to compete economically.
Nonetheless, all lost their independence between 1890 and 1922, during which time more
than ninety military campaigns were launched either by or against the Portuguese.
By the early twentieth century the extension of modern Portuguese colonialism was creating
hardships for urban, assimilated Africans and Afro-Portuguese as well. Many were squeezed
out of the administrative and commerical sectors which they had long dominated. One result
was the emergence of proto-nationalist movements in Luanda and other coastal cities.
Newspapers and cultural organizations were founded, a few of which even moved beyond
parochial complaints to attack forced labor, racism, and other abuses, and to struggle with
the meaning of an Angola rooted in Africa, rather than in Portugal.
Portugal became a republic in 1910, and after 1932 a fascist dictatorship under António
Salazar. Imposition of strong economic and military controls enabled the regime to
concentrate on solidifying a colonial hierarchy based on lusophone culture. Under the
Salazarist New State, early nationalist organizations were abolished or forced to operate as
government-approved cultural societies. In 1951 Angola officially became an overseas
province of Portugal, which subjected its people to even more systematic repression, now
enforced by the Policia Internacionale de Defensa do Estado, the Portuguese secret police.
Despite tight economic controls and government schemes such as those promoting the
settlement of poor Portuguese peasants in the Central Highlands, overall economic
development in Angola was slow. Portugal itself did not have adequate resources for
colonial development, nor would the xenophobic New State seek foreign investors. Instead,
land expropriation, divide and rule tactics, forced labor, and coerced cultivation formed the
basis of the colonial economy.
Not surprisingly, discontent became endemic in the countryside. Even those who did not
protest, turning instead for assistance to legitimate sources such as Christian missions for
access to modern schools, medical services, and information, were often considered
subversive, especially if they associated with suspect foreign Protestants. During the 1950s
tensions escalated significantly as nationalist currents sweeping through Africa seeped into
Angola, sparking the foundation of modern nationalist movements by elements of the (often
Protestant) educated few, who were also influenced by the cultural nationalist underground.
Portugal, remaining impervious to pressures for change, responded with more settlers and
more crackdowns, thus provoking a serious anticolonial rebellion in 1961, which proved a
major historical turning point. From that time forward more and more Angolans were drawn
into an intensifying liberation struggle led by three often competing nationalist movements:
the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), founded in 1956 and based in
the Afro-Portuguese and Mbundu region of Luanda; the FNLA (National Front for the
Liberation of Angola), with its roots in Kongo, founded in 1962; and UNITA (National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola), founded in 1966, which appealed to an
Ovimbundu constituency. By the end of the decade each had set up offices outside the
country and launched guerrilla operations inside it, especially in the north and east.
The Portuguese government answered with ever-larger military campaigns. Its army in
Angola was sixty-thousand strong by 1970. A few minor concessions did little to mollify
nationalist sentiment. Portugal, however, did initiate successful efforts to promote economic
development by finally opening up the colony to international corporations like the U.S.based Gulf Oil.
Everything changed in 1974 as a result of the April military coup which ended fascism in
Portugal. The new government moved quickly to terminate its colonial wars and negotiate
terms for independence. In Angola, however, fighting continued as rival liberation armies
contested control of the country. The last eighteen months of the colonial era were marked
by a series of agreements which ultimately failed to stop the fighting or prevent increased
internationalization of the conflict as each party sought outside aid.
The People's Republic of Angola
By 11 November 1975, the day of Angolan independence, the Portuguese had departed, but
without formally transferring power to any one of the competing nationalist groups.
However, the People's Republic of Angola (RPA), proclaimed in Luanda by the MPLA
under the leadership of President Agostinho Neto, succeeded, with Soviet and Cuban aid, in
gaining control of almost all of the country by early March 1976.
The rivalries of the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA were a prime factor in preventing a peaceful
transition to independence in the period 1974-1976. But pressures from outsiders,
particularly the Soviet Union, South Africa, and the United States, intensified the conflict
and helped the MPLA to triumph. The withdrawal of American aid from the FNLA in
December 1975, the discrediting of UNITA once it had solicited South African help, and
Soviet and Cuban aid to the MPLA, coupled with the fact that the MPLA was able to hold
on to its traditional power base in Luanda, all helped the MPLA emerge victorious. Within a
few months, most African and European countries had recognized it. In December 1976
Angola was admitted to the United Nations.
From March 1976 the MPLA began both to implement its Marxist-Leninist principles and to
build a sense of Angolan national identity. Apart from grappling with new administrative
structures, the RPA government in the late 1970s had to rebuild a war-shattered economy
further weakened by the departure of most Portuguese skilled labor. It had to deal with
factionalism within its ranks and contend with continuing guerrilla actions sponsored by
UNITA and its ally, South Africa, all while trying to improve education, health, and
transport; create mass political organs; and foster the growth of an authentic Angolan
cultural expression.
At the time that cancer claimed his life in 1979, President Neto could still have been
optimistic about achieving these goals. However, by 1981 his successor, former planning
minister José Eduardo dos Santos, faced escalating conflict, again pitting the Cuban-aided
MPLA against UNITA and UNITA's ally, South Africa, in the context of cold war politics
and the struggle for Namibian independence. At mid-decade the South Africans occupied
the southern borderlands, UNITA was receiving aid from the United States, fifty thousand
Cubans were performing military and civilian tasks, and the Angolan army and air force
were being built into formidable modern operations. In 1983 the most affected provinces
were put under military governors.
The war prevented the effective implementation of planned social and economic programs,
stymieing efforts to institutionalize the key principle of "people's power." It also contributed
to the evolution of a more centralized, presidentialist form of government. The leadership of
the ruling party, now called the MPLA-PT (Workers Party), remained relatively closed and
ethnically linked to the Luanda region, despite the success of President dos Santos in adding
a few technically trained and less ideologically oriented people like himself to its ranks.
Even as warfare settled into the fabric of Angolan life, the government was involved in
international diplomacy designed to end it. Diplomatic efforts focused on the issue of
Namibian independence, with South Africa insisting on linking it to the withdrawal of
Cuban troops from Angola. In 1981 the United States accepted this linkage, and despite
initial Angolan rejection of the principle, a long series of talks involving Angola, Cuba,
South Africa, and the United States began. These culminated in 1988 with agreements both
on independence for Namibia and Cuban troop withdrawals from Angola.
With the regional situation more stabilized, the Angolan government intensified its drive to
improve the economy and end the internal fighting with UNITA. African heads of state
brokered talks between the parties, which resulted in a short-lived (but prophetic) agreement
signed in Gabdolite, Zaire, in June 1990.
Although the war dragged on in 1990, Cuban troop withdrawals and talks between the
government and UNITA continued in Portugal, and the Soviet Union and United States now
both backed the peace process. Important domestic political and economic changes were
initiated. Most important, at its Third Party Congress in December 1990, the MPLA-PT
voted to turn itself into a social democratic party, institute a multiparty system, and further
liberalize the economy.
By the end of 1991 peace finally seemed possible. A cease-fire was holding; the last Cuban
troops had departed Angola under the watchful eyes of a United Nations Verification
Mission, or UNAVEM; the Estoril (or Bicess) Peace Agreement had been signed by dos
Santos and UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi; and campaigning had begun for the following
September's scheduled multiparty elections.
The Republic of Angola
In August 1992 constitutional changes instituting a multiparty democracy took effect, and
thus the Republic of Angola was born. By this time election campaigning was intense, with
no less than eighteen political parties, including UNITA and a renamed MPLA, contesting
the presidency and seats in the new National Assembly.
Hopes ran high in a war-weary land, but ominously, progress was very uneven in
implementing key provisions of the Estoril accords relating to the integration of the MPLA's
Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola and UNITA's troops into the new,
nonpartisan Armed Forces of Angola. The five hundred members of the UN Verification
Commission, now known as UNAVEM II, were not equipped to enforce, only to observe.
The election, which was rated "free and fair" by UN observers, gave the MPLA 129 and
UNITA 70 seats in the National Assembly, but required a run-off between dos Santos and
Savimbi for president. Following the official announcement of election results, however,
fighting broke out in Luanda and Huambo. By the end of the year full-scale war had
engulfed most of the country.
In January 1993 peace negotiations resumed under UN and Organization of African Unity
auspices, with Portugal, Russia, and the United States as observers. By mid-year both the
United States and South Africa had established full diplomatic relations with Angola, and a
new UN special representative to Angola, Alioune Blondin Beye of Mali, had arrived.
However, it was only in November 1994 that a new peace agreement, the Lusaka Protocol,
was signed in Zaire and the fighting subsided. Again, the issues of demobilization and
power sharing were central, as the MPLA and UNITA continued their contest for control of
the country. This time, however, demobilization oversight was under a much stronger UN
mission, the seven-thousand-member UNAVEM III. Implementation of the Lusaka accord,
however, was behind schedule as of late 1996 in spite of several face-to-face meetings
between Savimbi and dos Santos.
The Republic of Angola is a multiparty democracy with a social market economy and a
presidential form of government. The president of the republic is directly elected and may
serve three five-year terms. A 1995 constitutional amendment created two vice presidencies,
one of which was offered to UNITA's Savimbi, who rejected it in 1996.
The National Assembly is authorized at 223 seats, but 3 seats reserved for Angolans living
abroad have been left vacant. The assembly is the supreme state legislative body, to which
the government is responsible. Its members, elected to four-year terms, convene twice
yearly. A Standing Commission of the Assembly assumes power between sessions.
The government comprises the president, vice-presidents, ministers, and secretaries of state.
The Council of Ministers, whose members are appointed by the president, is headed by the
prime minister and answerable to the National Assembly. In 1996 the MPLA had all of the
more than twenty seats except for two or three held by minor parties, absent agreement with
UNITA on its representation.
The politics of Angola have been dominated since 1979 by two personalities, MPLA
president dos Santos, and UNITA leader Savimbi, both highly educated, politically astute
men who each claim to have the real key to Angola's future. Although Savimbi and UNITA
still enjoy support among ethnic Ovimbundu in Angola, however, their international backing
dropped precipitously in the 1990s with the end of the cold war. As of late 1996, control of
substantial diamond production and a large cache of stockpiled weapons enabled UNITA to
continue stalling against the time when a weary and disillusioned Angola might yet give
them the opportunity to seize the power that otherwise eludes them.
While the dos Santos government has been hampered by UNITA-caused delays in
constituting a new national army and administration, it has been able to capitalize on
Savimbi's international isolation. In particular, the United States in 1993 recognized the dos
Santos government and imposed sanctions on weapons sales to UNITA; in 1996 it opened a
USAID office in Luanda.
In late 1996 the government continued with economic reforms and financial restructuring.
Mine removal and reconstruction efforts were under way. Local agricultural markets were
reviving. If peace can be sustained and national finances stabilized, the country's rich
resources will continue to attract investment, which could, at long last, enable the people of
Angola to prosper.
-- Susan Herlin Broadhead
FURTHER READINGS
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Up-to-date information on Angola is best obtained from the Internet and World Wide
Web. Three general sites are the most useful: the University of Pennsylvania; the
University of Michigan; and the Angolan Embassy, with ANGOP (the official
Angolan news agency) news briefs updated daily. The Angola Peace Monitor,
published by ACTSA, London, is also available on-line.
Birmingham, David, and Phyllis M. Martin, eds. History of Central Africa. 2 vols.
New York, 1983.
Broadhead, Susan H. Historical Dictionary of Angola. 2d ed. Metuchen, N.J., 1992.
Clarence-Smith, W. The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825-1975. Manchester, U.K.,
1985.
James, W. Martin. A Political History of the Civil War in Angola, 1974-1990. New
Brunswick, N.J., 1992.
Marcum, John. The Angolan Revolution. Vol. 1, The Anatomy of an Explosion, 19501962. Cambridge, Mass., 1969.
------. The Angolan Revolution. Vol. 2, Exile, Politics, and Guerilla Warfare, 19621976. Cambridge, Mass., 1978.
Núñez, Benjamin. Dictionary of Portuguese-African Civilization. Vol. 1. London,
1995.
Sogge, David, comp. Sustainable Peace: Angola's Recovery. Harare, Zimbabwe,
1992.
Sommerville, Keith. Angola: Politics, Economics, and Society. London, 1986.
Source Citation: "Angola: History and Government." Encyclopedia of Africa South of the
Sahara. 4 vols. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1997. Reproduced in History Resource Center.
Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.
http://galenet.galegroup.com.ez.sccd.ctc.edu:3048/servlet/History/
Document Number: BT2344200027