Angolan History: part 2

Look at your young men fighting
Look at your women crying
Look at your young men dying
The way they've always done before

Look at the hate we're breeding
Look at the fear we're feeding
Look at the lives we're leading
The way we've always done before

Guns N' Roses - Civil War

The colony with Portugal was ended in 1975, on November 11th after Angolan organizations had been fighting for independence for more than 15 years. Sadly, however, there was never an idyllic Angola after that date. In fact, Angola since that date has been more a portrayal of Hell. From the early days of nationalistic struggles, three political parties have dominated the Angolan scene, MPLA, FNLA and UNITA.

MPLA (with the suffix PT for workers party from 1977 to 1991) was a communist party led by Lisbon-educated Dr. Agostino Neto during the first years of independence. Later, dos Santos would take over these responsibilities. During the war, MPLA was supported mainly by Cuba, Soviet and during the later years, USA.

FNLA,led by Robert Holden who might have been a good politician but ”knew nothing of military operations or logistics or organization," according to John Stockwell of the CIA. FNLA was supported by Zaire and the USA.

UNITA was the creation of Dr. Jonas Savimbi, a charismatic speaker who organized his troops well and basically lived for this war. UNITA had support from the USA and the South African apartheid government.

In January 1975 the Alvor Agreement was signed, under which a tripartite transitional government was established in Luanda, and which scheduled free elections after independence. At the same time, disagreements and mistrust grew between these three parties and that same month, FNLA attacked the burial ceremony for one of the top executives of MPLA. This caused great anger in MPLA who forced FNLA and UNITA to leave Luanda.

Not only did this anger the two loosing parties, but it also created a democratic problem: First of all, the transitional government now only consisted on MPLA. Second, only one side could win, and the winning side would get the rule from Luanda The winning side would be the side to hold Luanda on the 11th November 1975, the scheduled day of Angolan independence.

For a very short period of time, MPLA and FNLA would retreat and wait for reinforcements from their allies abroad, who quickly responded. Only a few months after, the battle for Luanda would restart, with South Africa and Zaire supporting the invasion of Luanda and Cuba holding back. The situation was critical for both sides: Cuba had only a marginal army to defend the city while South Africa and Zaire were suffering from a lack of time. After all, they had only a few weeks to capture the city.

Cuba, luckily for MPLA and the communist world, held firm and on the 11th November 1975, MPLA could declare Angola a free country under their rule. Robert Holden, tired and disappointed stated that "[it] was the hardest day in my life. I remembered the 14 years I'd been fighting; I remembered the dead, all those who had made sacrifices." Two years after, in December 1977 MPLA creates a Marxist/Leninist programme for themselves and adds PT (Partido de Trabalho) to their name. Angola is now officially communist, something which only further would distance the three political parties.

Following the '77 political change, not much happened in Angola before September 1979 when Dr. Neto died and President Jose Eduardo dos Santos took his place.

In the early 1980's South African troops were occupying large territories in southern Angola, while fighting Namibian nationalist movements. Namibia was a colony of South Africa at the time but were soon to gain their independence. From their stations in southern Angola, South Africa confirms it's support for UNITA and engages in direct military action with the Cuban and Soviet forces in 1987. This war lasted just over one year and in December 1988 South Africa, Cuba and Angola signed a tripartite accord of peace. Following this, the UN Security Council authorize the creation of a UN Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) to monitor withdrawal of Cuban troops in January 1989. In February that same year MPLA offers a 12 month amnesty to rebels and finally, in 1990 MPLA decides that Angola should have a multi-party political system. The Marxist/Leninist ideology was then replaced with a commitment to democratic socialism in October.

In March 1991 political parties were legalized and in May a peace agreement was signed in Estoril, Portugal. At the same time, the suffix PT was deleted from MPLA's name and soon after, the country's name was changed from Peoples Republic of Angola to Republic of Angola. In September 1992, FAPLA and UNITA were disbanded, and FAA (Forcas Armadas de Angola) was established. In, September presidential and legislative elections were held. It took over half a year before USA would recognize the new government, led by MPLA. UNITA, however, never accepted the results and withdrew from FAA and on October 11th heavy fighting broke out in Luanda, Malanje, Huambo and Huila provinces. From this date until November 20th 1994 (the date of the Lusaka Protocol), Angola was the scene of a war described as "worst in the world" by UN.

On November 20th 1994, as mentioned above, the Lusaka protocol was signed between President dos Santos and Savimbi in Lusaka where they also met in May 1995 for direct talks. Angola was peaceful for some years, in August 1996 UNITA declined the appointment of Savimbi as Vice President of the nation. In July the year after FAA was officially inaugurated. On October 30th that same year UN imposed additional sanctions against UNITA, and the terrible war seemed to be over.

In 1998, after almost three years of peace, war was once more the daily routine in Angola. September 1st that year UNITA MP's and ministers were suspended from the parliament. In December UN started evacuation of their personnel in in Angola. All of a sudden the war was worse than ever, and UNITA was shooting everything that passed the territory they held. In September 1999 FAA launched a major offensive against UNITA. Two months later UNITA forces were forced to driven towards the Namibian border and as Namibia gives the Angolan government support and permission to launch attacks from Namibian land UNITA launched attacks on Namibia. UNITA lacked success in their operations and were forced towards the South-Eastern corner of Angola. This lasted from February 14th to 17th when 5 UNITA generals were killed, and 22 that same month when Savimbi himself died. Savimbi met the government troops on a bush-road in Eastern Angola. On March 6th Savimbi's successor, General Dembo, was reported dead and on March 14th FAA stopped its offensives against UNITA.

Newspaper 23rd February 2002 "Savimbi Died in Combat"

On April 5th the Peace accord was formally signed after peace talks, between a Unita committee, led by Paulo Lukamba "Gato" (which means cat), FAA and Government officials, which lasted from April 15th-30th when the peace deal informally was agreed.

There is also a conflict going on in Cabinda, but in the case that it will be discussed on this website, that will be a separate article.

What the future will bring Angola is uncertain. After several tries at peace, all which failed, this one is the only one which came as a result of the death of a warrior who did not always work for the best. Savimbi's dream was to be the leader of Angola - not the common way - but after having come out of the bush and win the peoples trust and lead them into a better future. Savimbi's dream did not come true, but he did lead the Angolan people - to poverty and death...