The Angolan War of Independence between various Angolan factions and the Portuguese which began on 4 February 1961 ended on this day, April 25th, in 1974. The Portuguese, who arrived in present-day Angola in 1483, made the country a major slave trading area in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Once the Portuguese government abolished slavery in 1836, the Portuguese made Angola a colony. From 1885 to 1930, Portugal suppressed local resistance and consolidated its colonial control over the country. In 1951, the country changed Angola’s official status from a colony to a Portuguese overseas province.

In resistance, groups of urban and educated Angolans began organizing and forming socialist groups and engaged in anti-state agitation throughout the 1960s. They were met with state repression and were arbitrarily thrown into prison or suffered physical abuse.

The overthrow of Portugal’s Prime Minister, Marcello Caetano, on 25 April 1974 hailed a watershed moment for the former Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe, and Angola.  The Armed Forces Movement (AFM) had overthrown the dictatorship in a mostly bloodless coup, thereby ending Portuguese colonial rule in Africa.

Thus, Angola attained official independence on 11 November 1975, and, while the stage was set for transition, a combination of ethnic tensions and international pressures rendered Angola’s hard-won victory problematic.  As with many post-colonial states, Angola was left with both economic and social difficulties which translated into a power struggle between the three predominant liberation movements.  The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), formed in December of 1956 as an offshoot of the Angolan Communist Party, had as its support base the Ambundu people and was largely supported by other African countries, Cuba, and the Soviet Union.

The National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), founded in 1962, was rooted among the Bakongo people and strongly supported the restoration and defense of the Kongo empire, eventually developing into a nationalist movement supported by the government of Zaire and (initially) the People’s Republic of China. 

The Ovimbundu people formed the base of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which was established in 1966 and founded by a prominent former leader of the FNLA, Jonas Savimbi.  After its hard-won independence, however, Angola faced a further potential catastrophe as the power-sharing agreement between the three rebel groups collapsed in 1975. 

500 Years of Colonialism

Much of the ethnic tension between the three warring factions was rooted in differing positions within colonial society prior to independence.  The colonial rule resulted in the politicization of ethnicity by combining and placing vastly differing ethnicities under one centrally administered colonial territory.  Additionally, colonialism aggravated ethnic cleavages by introducing and imposing racial and class divisions.  As mentioned, the FNLA and UNITA support base was largely drawn from rural communities that had been severely affected by colonial land dispossession.  In fact, a frequent criticism of the MPLA by its two opposing movements was that its leadership was widely made up of Portuguese descendants and came from privileged socio-economic standings.  This was not entirely incorrect, as MPLA leaders were often from urban areas and used class as an enduring element in their attempt to garner support from the emerging urban proletariat and intelligentsia.  

Ideologically speaking, the three movements were also at odds.  While the MPLA initially espoused a Marxist-Leninist discourse and later switched to a social democratic model, the rural FNLA and UNITA were far more militant and right-wing, harboring a distaste for the bourgeoisie MPLA supporters. 

The Resource Curse

Angola spans around 481,226 square miles along the southwest coast of Africa and is notably rich in mineral reserves, including oil, iron, copper, bauxite, diamonds, and uranium.  Angola’s resource wealth became a means of funding the ongoing war between the MPLA and UNITA, with both parties extensively exploiting the country’s oil and diamond reserves.  During the years of civil war, UNITA was able to capture several major diamond mines (by capturing the areas of Lunda Sul and Lunda Norte Provinces) which served as a primary resource for financing arms and fuel and funding the liberation movement’s guerrilla campaigns against the MPLA.  

With the approaching independence in 1975, each of the three major contenders began to secure Cold War patrons.  The MPLA solicited the support of the Cubans who harbored a similar ideological stance, while UNITA was able to secure the support of the South African government.  The United States sided with the increasingly inefficient FNLA, stationed in the north of Angola.  

A Brief Account of the Conflict

Subsequent to the Portuguese withdrawal from Angola, the Cuban- and Soviet-backed MPLA had secured control of Luanda – Angola’s capital city – and declared itself as the new government of independent Angola.  Bolstering its position was the fact that it had received support and recognition from several other African countries; in 1969 the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) referred to the MPLA as the only truly representative party of Angola, and in 1976 the MPLA was formally recognized by the OAU as the legitimate government of independent Angola.  The period between 1975 and 1976 was characterized not only by the withdrawal of the Portuguese but also by the arrival of Cuban forces and the South African invasion of Luanda.  Additionally, this period saw the defeat of the FNLA and the rise of UNITA as challengers to the MPLA’s self-established rule.      

Luanda was founded by Portuguese explorer Paolo Dias de Novaes as St. Paul of Luanda in 1576. It became the capital of a Portuguese colony in 1586 and became the capital of independent Angola when the former Portuguese colony gained its independence in 1975.  Luanda is also the largest city in Angola with an estimated 2009 population of over 4.5 million. The city is located in the northwestern region of the country on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The most common religions are Catholic, Baptist, and Methodist but missionaries of many faiths reside in Angola. The city’s major sports are basketball, soccer, and tennis.

As major port city for Angola in the sixteenth century, Luanda became the center for commercial, political, and cultural affairs. The Portuguese also used Luanda as their major slave trading port until 1836. The end of slave trading caused a temporary decrease in Luanda’s economy and export activity but by the 1840s, the city exported palm and peanut oil, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, tobacco, and cocoa.  Throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries Colonial Portuguese authorities invested in port and rail infrastructure to expand agricultural and mineral exports.  By 1940, the city had 61,208 people including nearly 10,000 white inhabitants. After World War II new waves of colonists from overcrowded Portugal arrived.  The growth of the “European Quarter” often meant the displacement of Africans to slums on the edge of the city.

Subsequent to the Portuguese coup the FNLA’s internal support had already deteriorated considerably, although it maintained steady relations with Zaire and was thus well armed.  This led the FNLA to attempt a forceful overthrow of the MPLA in Luanda, although the MPLA, backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union, deflected the onslaught and subsequently turned their antagonism towards UNITA.  While the weakest in terms of military strength, UNITA harbored the greatest potential for electoral support, thus threatening the MPLA’s position of power.  The FNLA and UNITA established a rival government in Huambo, pleading assistance from the South African forces to aid in ousting the MPLA.  The MPLA retaliated with an influx of around 40,000 to 50,000 Cuban troops who succeeded in forcing out the internationally isolated South African troops, thus gaining control over the provincial capitals.  The Cuban troops remained stationed in Angola as a means of maintaining stability and warding off further South African attacks. In 1977 the MPLA established itself firmly as a Marxist-Leninist party, pursuing economic communism.  The result of this, however, was disastrous, and Angola’s saving grace came in the form of its externally managed oil industry which prevented total economic and military collapse.  The death of President Augustino Neto in 1979 led to the inauguration of the MPLA’s former minister of planning, José Eduardo dos Santos.