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The original inhabitants of the area now called Angola were hunters and gatherers in the northern and southern regions, fisher communities along the Zaire river, and, from about 1300 AD, Bantu speakers who were predominantly agriculturists. The main ethnolinguistic groups of present day Angola had been developed by approximately 1500, consisting of the Kongo language and culture, the "Mbundu" (Kongo term for people) and Ovimbundu groups of the central plateau. After 1500 the Hereros migrated to settle in the south and the Lunda-Chokwe settled in the Northeast.
Tvedten (1997) points out that the size of the population at the end of the fifteenth century and before the onset of colonial rule was approximately 4 million people. With a normal estimated historical population increase for countries in the region this would have implied that Angola would currently have approximately 45 million people. The actual population in the 1990s was around 12.7 million, due to the extreme impact of the slave trade and colonialism on Angola.
Website:Library of Congress Country Studies: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/aotoc.html |
The Portuguese colonial period lasted nearly 500 years. The colonial history of Angola was not a simple, one-way process of domination of the Portuguese over the local population but involved resistance and instances of collaboration from the Angolan side (Tvedten, 1997). The colonial rule was characterised by two conditions: first, by the forced movements of large population groups through the slave trade and forced labour within Angola; and second, by the absence of attempts at development and integration by the colonialists. Both resulted in Angola facing extremely difficult socio-economic conditions, poor infrastructure and long-standing political and ethnic conflict at the time of independence.
Website:Official website of the Angolan government: http://www.angola.org/referenc/history/tour1.html |
Slavery was one of the main objectives of the Portuguese explorers from the start. Slaves were supplied to Portugal and to other colonies such as Brazil and So Tom, initially with collaboration from the Kongo kingdom and later in alliance with the Ndongo state. The alliances between the colonialists and the local leaders deteriorated rapidly due to the increased involvement of the Portuguese in the political and economic affairs of the kingdoms and prominent leaders such as the Ndongo Queen Nzinga organised resistance to the colonial quest. However, slaves continued to be taken by the Portuguese through military intervention and were also supplied by competing warlords (Thornton: http://muweb.millersville.edu/~winthrop/Thornton.html).
It has not been conclusively established exactly how many slaves were exported from Angola. It is believed that Angolans accounted for 4 million of the 12 million slaves who survived the Atlantic crossing and landed in the Americas (Tvedten, 1997). For every slave who arrived in the Americas, another one is estimated to have died during the marches to the slave trading posts and the ocean crossing. This would bring the total number of slaves taken form Angola to 8 million, a heavier loss than any other country in Africa had to bear. The impact of the slave trade was devastating for Angolan society as the most able-bodied members of a household were taken away and decreased the production capacity of households. Authority structures were weakened and power relations changed.
The history of the slave trade is much discussed in present-day Angola and is commemorated annually in the Carnaval de Vitria around the country.
The other strand of Portuguese colonialism in Angola was that of the exploitation of the land and natural resources. After the official abolition of slavery in 1836, the Portuguese attempted to establish their control over the African labour force by imposing legislation that made the obligation of working for the colonialists lawful. The colonialists attempted to ensure that the development of the rubber industry and the production of coffee was advanced through the forced labour system. This system was in operation for 60 years during which as many as half a million Angolans escaped to neighbouring countries and an estimated 35% of the labour force died during the contract period. The Portuguese also tried to establish control over Angola through fragmenting traditional authority structures and appointing loyal puppet leaders. Military force against local resistance to these policies was implemented.
Portuguese colonialism in Angola was also characterised by a lack of development in the socio-economic state and infrastructure of the country. The guiding policy of Portugal was to exploit the colonies for the benefit of Portugal and they therefore prevented any form of foreign investment in the country until the 1960s. The colonialists pursued a policy of segregation between the Europeans who were most privileged, the assimilados (assimilated non-whites) who were able to access some services, and the indgenas (majority of the African population) who had no political or social rights. Access to the government educational system was difficult for the general African population and access to social services, such as hospitals, was limited. Most schools and hospitals that were set up for the local population were church-based. The resentment of the Angolans towards the inequalities between the different categories of citizens grew, as did the opposition to the forced labour system and the identification card system that was imposed on them. This resistance to colonial rule led to the war of independence (Official website of the Angolan government: http://www.angola.org/referenc/history/tour2.html).
The recent war in Angola has often been portrayed in the international media as an internal conflict between two antagonistic political movements: the Unio Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA) and the Movimento Popular de Libertao de Angola (MPLA). This simplistic representation of the conflict has allowed for the identification of protagonist (in the west this was the UNITA during the Cold War era, but has since changed to the MPLA), and an antagonist (originally seen as the socialist MLPA government in the west, but in later years became UNITA). The conflict in Angola has, however, not only been far more complex than this but has also involved a large variety of other countries, for instance South Africa, Cuba, the Soviet Union, the US and Zaire. A brief overview of the wars will be given (see also: Human Rights Watch report on Angola, website http://www.hrw.org/reports/1993/angola/).
Angolans refer to specific periods of the almost forty years of continuous war in their country in terms of numbers. Angola's First War was the War of Independence whose beginning was marked in 1961 by violent boycotts against the forced labour on agricultural fields and an attack on two prisons in Luanda, Angolas capital city, to hinder the movement of political prisoners to Portugal (Tvedten, 1997). African national sentiments led to the formation of three main political groups in the 1950s and 1960s which declared their goal of independence publicly, and who led military assaults on colonial targets in rural and semi-urban areas, mobilising support from amongst the peasant population. These three main groups were
The costs of the war for independence were high for Portugal in both human and material terms, and following a coup in Portugal in 1974 which resulted in a change of the countrys policies towards its African colonies, a process of rapid decolonisation was initiated (Cravinho, 1998). An agreement was signed by the three independence movements to form a transitional government and hold elections before independence in November 1975. Independence was declared on 11th November 1975 by the MPLA who went on to form a single-party socialist government.
Ideological differences and mutual suspicion among the MPLA, UNITA and FLNA resulted in outbreaks of fighting between the movements in July 1975 and led to a break-down of the transitional government. This initiated the Second War, also known as the Cold War, which was to last from 1975 until 1990. Various other countries who had ideological, political and material interests in Angola gave their support to the parties, with the Soviet Union and Cuba providing arms, combat troops, pilots, advisers, and engineers to the socialist-orientated MPLA, and South Africa and the U.S. aiding UNITA with military attacks and with covert financial assistance respectively. Angola became a cold war battleground for influence of the world powers in southern Africa, bound up with the liberation struggles of its neighbours such as Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. The war was initially confined to the south-eastern part of the country, but UNITA tactics created insecurity in around 80 percent of the country, severely affecting the productive life and the socio-economic situation of the population. During these years UNITA increasingly depicted themselves as anti-Marxist and pro-western but also as truly Angolan, juxtapositioning the MPLA as a party of assimilados [urban, educated, Portuguese-orientated non-white Angolans], mesticos [mixed race] and Marxists (CCR, 2000). The MPLA, on the other hand, portrayed UNITA as power-hungry tribalists who were not interested in the welfare of all Angolans but only in that of the Ovimbundu. Negotiations involving South Africa, Cuba, the U.S., Portugal and the warring factions finally culminated in the signing of the Bicesse Peace Accord in 1991.
The Bicesse Accord stipulated a timetable for demobilisation of both sides of the conflict and fixed a date for multiparty elections. However, the United Nations mission to Angola (UNAVEM II) which was to oversee the ceasefire and monitor the demobilisation was severely underfunded and inadequate (Anstee, 1996), failing to implement the agreements of the Accord. Elections were held on the last days of September 1992, and the UN and other foreign observers concluded that they were generally free and fair. There was a turnout of 91% for the elections with President Dos Santos receiving 49,6% and Jonas Savimbi receiving 40,7% of the vote. In the election for the legislature the MPLA won 54% of the vote compared to UNITAs 34% (CCR, 2000). Savimbi rejected the results as biased and manipulated and returned to war with largely intact troops. This marked the beginning of the Third War or the Election War, which lasted from October 1992 until November 1994. This war proved to be more destructive and all-encompassing than the first two wars, and became known for its systematic violations of the laws of war by both the government and UNITA (Human Rights Watch, 1994). UNITA went on the offensive in provinces throughout the country, and indiscriminate bombings by the government, the laying of landmines and the entrapment of civilians in cities under prolonged siege resulted in extremely high losses of civilian lives (Tvedten, 1997). The UN estimated that some 1000 people were dying every day in Angola during 1993, more than in any other conflict in the world at the time (Human Rights Watch, 1994). Tens of thousands of people were displaced from the countryside, fleeing to towns and cities where they lived in conditions of abject poverty, cut off from food supplies and from basic sanitary and hygienic provisions.
New peace talks began towards the end of 1993 and the signing of the Lusaka Protocol in November 1994 formally marked the end of the Third War (The Lusaka Protocol: website: http://www.usip.org/library/pa/angola/lusaka_11151994.htm). Paul Hare (1998) provides an account of some of the major issues that influenced the Lusaka peace process as well as some of its short-comings.
Almost from the start UNITA failed to comply with the obligations of the Protocol such as demilitarisation and demobilisation of soldiers, and small scale conflict continued to flare up in various parts of the country, increasing to incidents of serious violations of the cease-fire in 1997 (CCR, 2000). Throughout 1998 both the government and UNITA prepared for a new war which broke out in December of that year. UNITA, which had been financing its military exploits through its diamond revenues from its territories in the north and the east of the country, found itself increasingly isolated internationally, experiencing the effect of the UN sanction packages imposed on it. The MPLA government used the countrys oil resources and diamonds to fund its war efforts, confident that their capacity to purchase military equipment would surpass that of UNITA. This Fourth War continued until the killing of Jonas Savimbi in February 2002.
Savimbi was killed on 22 February 2002, following combat between his rebel troops and the Angolan army. The battle took place in the locality of Lubuei in Moxico province, some 100 km away from the Zambian border (Angola Peace Monitor: http://www.actsa.org/Angola/apm/apm0806.htm). Photos of his body were made public by the government to allay rumours that his death was a propaganda ploy. The Angolan armed forces (FAA) had managed to secure some victories against UNITA prior to this decisive military intervention, including the capture of other prominent UNITA leaders. Savimbi was succeeded by Paulo Lukamba Gato, and on the 4 April 2002 a ceasefire was signed between the Angolan army and the UNITA military wing (Angola Peace Monitor: http://www.actsa.org/Angola/apm/apm0807.htm). Demobilisation of UNITA soldiers started later that month and led to the designated quartering camps accommodating a quarter of a million UNITA soldiers and their families who had been near to starvation in the bush (Angola Peace Monitor: http://www.actsa.org/Angola/apm/apm1011.htm). The entire process of demobilisation is estimated to continue until December 2006.
A joint commission was set up to oversee the initial tasks necessary for setting up the formal peace process as outlined in the Lusaka Protocol of 1994. The Joint Commission was comprised of representatives from the Angolan government, UNITA, and the troika observer states comprising the Russian Federation, Portugal and the United States. It was chaired by the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Angola, Professor Ibrahim Gambari. The commission was dissolved in November 2002 and a new forum for discussions between the Government and UNITA was launched. UNITA ministers took up posts in the Angolan government as specified in the Lusaka Protocol and constitutional changes were agreed between the two parties. The UN Security Council lifted sanctions against UNITA in December 2002, declaring UNITA no longer a threat to national or regional interests.
UNITA reunited its two factions, UNITA-Renovada which had been formed by members who had fallen out with Savimbi following his disregard for the Lusaka Protocol, and the main core of UNITA. At its 9th Congress held in Luanda in June 2003 UNITA members elected Isaias Samavuka as its new president, following the resignation of the UNITA-Renovada leader, Manuvakola (ANN News: http://www.africahome.com/annews/categories/politics/EpklEuyuVFTYLoobgg.shtml).
Emerging from decades of war, Angola faces numerous serious political challenges. Amongst these are:
The enclave of Cabinda, separated from the rest of Angola by a strip of land belonging to the DRC, has experienced armed conflict that has predominantly been fuelled by the fight for self-determination and separation from the Luanda-based government. The history of Cabinda is that it was the subject of a treaty between Britain and Portugal where Portugal obtained sovereignty over Cabinda in return for the granting of certain privilege to the British in that territory. Cabinda was incorporated into Angola in 1956 and remained under the Angolan colonial administration until Angolas independence in 1975. Cabindans viewed themselves as geographically, linguistically and ethnically separate from the rest of Angola and in the early 1960s several movements advocating independence for Cabinda were formed. They united in 1963 as the Frente para a Libertao do Enclave de Cabinda (FLEC) and have been waging low-level insurgency since then (Pitsch: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/angcabin.htm). FLEC has targeted government installations and oil personnel, including foreigners, and the FAA has been accused of killing large numbers of civilians in their fight against FLEC.
A large part of Angolas oil production takes place offshore from Cabinda, the enclave thus serving a vital and strategic need for the Angolan government which has no intention of granting secession rights to the territory. Despite the wealth produced through oil production, Cabinda has remained underdeveloped which has fuelled resentment against the Luanda government amongst Cabindans. Since the signing of the peace agreement between UNITA and the government in 2002 several senior FLEC leaders have surrendered to the government or have been captured (Angola Peace Monitor: http://www.actsa.org/Angola/apm/apm1011.htm). A report by the South African-based Institute for Security Studies entitled "Cabinda: Notes on a soon to be forgotten war", suggests that the way to end the conflict is to implement a negotiated autonomy in Cabinda which depends on the separatists downgrading their demands for independence, and for the Angolan government to allow humanitarian assistance to reach civilians who are facing hunger, disease and loss of livelihood. The future of Cabinda remains unclear. Human Rights Watch (2003: website: http://www.hrw.org/wr2k3/africa1.html) reports that widespread abuses against the civilian population continue to be reported, including killings and displacement.
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