Angola
Angola is located on the South Atlantic Coast of West Africa between
Namibia and the Republic of the Congo. It also is bordered by the
Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north and east and Zambia to
the east. The country is divided into an arid coastal strip
stretching from Namibia to Luanda; a wet, interior highland; a dry
savanna in the interior south and southeast; and rain forest in the
north and in Cabinda. The upper reaches of the Zambezi River pass
through Angola, and several tributaries of the Congo River have
their sources in Angola. The coastal strip is tempered by the cool
Benguela current, resulting in a climate similar to coastal Baja
California. The hot, humid rainy season lasts from November to
April, followed by a moderate dry season from May to October. The
interior highlands have a mild climate with a rainy season from
November through April followed by a cool dry season from May to
October, when overnight temperatures can fall to freezing.
Elevations generally range from 3,000 to 6,000 feet. The far north
and Cabinda enjoy rain throughout much of the year.
Estimates of Angola's population vary widely, as there has been no
census since 1970, but it is estimated at no less than 16 million.
Angola has three main ethnic groups, each speaking a Bantu language:
Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, and Bakongo 13%. Other groups include
Chokwe, Lunda, Ganguela, Nhaneca-Humbe, Ambo, Herero, and Xindunga.
In addition, mixed racial (European and African) people amount to
about 2%, with a small (1%) population of whites, mainly ethnically
Portuguese. Portuguese make up the largest non-Angolan population,
with at least 30,000 (though many native-born Angolans can claim
Portuguese nationality under Portuguese law). Portuguese is both the
official and predominant language. |
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In 1482, when the Portuguese first landed in what is now
northern Angola, they encountered the Kingdom of the
Congo, which stretched from modern Gabon in the north to
the Kwanza River in the south. Mbanza Congo, the
capital, had a population of 50,000 people. South of
this kingdom were various important states, of which the
Kingdom of Ndongo, ruled by the ngola (king), was most
significant. Modern Angola derives its name from the
king of Ndongo. The Portuguese gradually took control of
the coastal strip throughout the 16th century by a
series of treaties and wars. The Dutch occupied Luanda
from 1641-48, providing a boost for anti-Portuguese
states. In 1648, Brazilian-based Portuguese forces
re-took Luanda and initiated a process of military
conquest of the Congo and Ndongo states that ended with
Portuguese victory in 1671. Full Portuguese
administrative control of the interior did not occur
until the beginning of the 20th century.
Portugal's primary interest in Angola quickly turned to
the slave trade. The slaving system began early in the
16th century with the purchase from African chiefs of
people to work on sugar plantations in São Tomé,
Principé, and Brazil. Many scholars agree that by the
19th century, Angola was the largest source of slaves
not only for Brazil, but also for the Americas,
including the United States. By the end of the 19th
century, a massive forced labor system had replaced
formal slavery and would continue until outlawed in
1961. It was this forced labor that provided the basis
for development of a plantation economy and, by the
mid-20th century, a major mining sector. Forced labor
combined with British financing to construct three
railroads from the coast to the interior, the most
important of which was the transcontinental Benguela
railroad that linked the port of Lobito with the copper
zones of the Belgian Congo and what is now Zambia,
through which it connects to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
Colonial economic development did not translate into
social development for native Angolans. The Portuguese
regime encouraged white immigration, especially after
1950, which intensified racial antagonisms. As
decolonization progressed elsewhere in Africa, Portugal,
under the Salazar and Caetano dictatorships, rejected
independence and treated its African colonies as
overseas provinces. Consequently, three independence
movements emerged: the Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola (MPLA) led by Agostinho Neto, with
a base among Kimbundu and the mixed-race intelligentsia
of Luanda, and links to communist parties in Portugal
and the East Bloc; the National Front for the Liberation
of Angola (FNLA), led by Holden Roberto with an ethnic
base in the Bakongo region of the north and links to the
United States and the Mobutu regime in Kinshasa; and the
National Union for the Total Independence of Angola
(UNITA), led by Jonas Malheiro Savimbi with an ethnic
and regional base in the Ovimbundu heartland in the
center of the country and links to the People's Republic
of China and apartheid South Africa.
From the early 1960s, elements of these movements fought
against the Portuguese. A 1974 coup d'etat in Portugal
established a military government that promptly ceased
the war and agreed, in the Alvor Accords, to hand over
power to a coalition of the three movements. The
ideological differences between the three movements
eventually led to armed conflict, with FNLA and UNITA
forces, encouraged by their respective international
supporters, attempting to wrest control of Luanda from
the MPLA. The intervention of troops from South Africa
on behalf of UNITA and Zaire on behalf of the FNLA in
September and October 1975 and the MPLA's importation of
Cuban troops in November effectively internationalized
the conflict. Retaining control of Luanda, the coastal
strip, and increasingly lucrative oil fields in Cabinda,
the MPLA declared independence on November 11, 1975, the
day the Portuguese abandoned the capital. UNITA and the
FNLA formed a rival coalition government based in the
interior city of Huambo. Agostinho Neto became the first
president of the MPLA government that was recognized by
the United Nations in 1976. Upon Neto's death from
cancer in 1979, then-Planning Minister José Eduardo dos
Santos ascended to the presidency.
The FNLA's military failures led to its increasing
marginalization, internal divisions, and abandonment by
international supporters. An internationalized
conventional civil war between UNITA and the MPLA
continued until 1989. For much of this time, UNITA
controlled vast swaths of the interior and was backed by
U.S. resources and South African troops. Similarly, tens
of thousands of Cuban troops remained in support of the
MPLA, often fighting South Africans on the front lines.
A U.S.-brokered agreement resulted in withdrawal of
foreign troops in 1989 and led to the Bicesse Accord in
1991, which spelled out an electoral process for a
democratic Angola under the supervision of the United
Nations. When UNITA's Jonas Savimbi failed to win the
first round of the presidential election in 1992 (he won
40% to dos Santos's 49%, which required a runoff), he
called the election fraudulent and returned to war.
Another peace accord, known as the Lusaka Protocol, was
brokered in Lusaka, Zambia, and signed in 1994. This
agreement, too, collapsed into renewed conflict. The UN
Security Council voted on August 28, 1997 to impose
sanctions on UNITA. The Angolan military launched a
massive offensive in 1999, which destroyed UNITA's
conventional capacity and recaptured all major cities
previously held by Savimbi's forces. Savimbi then
declared a return to guerrilla tactics, which continued
until his death in combat in February 2002.
On April 4, 2002, the Angolan Government and UNITA
signed the Luena Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),
which formalized the de facto cease-fire that prevailed
following Savimbi's death. In accordance with the MOU,
UNITA recommitted to the peace framework in the 1994
Lusaka Protocol, returned all remaining territory to
Angolan Government control, quartered all military
personnel in predetermined locations, and relinquished
all arms. In August 2002, UNITA demobilized all military
personnel and the UN Security Council sanctions on UNITA
were lifted on December 9, 2002. UNITA and the MPLA held
their first post-war party congresses in 2003. The UNITA
Congress saw the democratic transfer of power from
interim leader General Paulo Lukumba "Gato" to former
UNITA representative in Paris Isaias Henriqué Samakuva,
while the MPLA Congress reaffirmed President dos Santos'
leadership of party structures. Samakuva was reelected
to a second 4-year term as UNITA party president at a
UNITA party congress in July 2007.
The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for
Peace and Reconciliation in Cabinda on August 1, 2006,
was intended as a step toward ending conflict in Cabinda
and in bringing about greater representation for the
people of Cabinda. It followed a successful
counterinsurgency campaign by the Angolan Armed Forces
(FAA), who still maintain a strong troop presence there.
The MOU rejected the notion of Cabindan independence,
calls for the demobilization and reintegration of former
Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda
(FLEC) fighters into various governmental positions, and
creates a special political and economic status for the
province of Cabinda. Many FLEC military combatants were
integrated into the Angolan Armed Forces and National
Police, including into some command positions. In
addition, Cabindans were given designated numbers of
vice ministerial and other positions in the Angolan
Government. Some FLEC members, who did not sign onto the
peace memorandum, continue their independence efforts
through public outreach, infrequent low-level attacks
against FAA convoys and outposts and occasional attacks
on civilians. |
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