Angola History

Angola – Quick overview

Angola, the largest and arguably the richest country of western coastal Africa, has a proud but troubled history. It incorporates great migrations of African tribal peoples, Portuguese colonialism, nationalist struggles for independence, and civil war. In the last 7 years Angola has been working hard to deal with the challenges of its past and to deliver the benefits of peace and prosperity to its people.

With an area of 1.25 million sq. km., Angola is approximately three times the size of Germany or California and more than five times the size of the UK. It has less than one-quarter of the population of the UK and has approximately 1000 miles of Atlantic coastline as its western border. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo are to the north and east, Zambia is to the east, and Namibia is to the south. A plateau averaging 6,000 ft (1,829 m) above sea level rises abruptly from the coastal lowlands.

Nearly all the land is desert or savanna, with hardwood forests in the northeast. Angola has enormous reserves of oil, gas and diamonds, as well as considerable hydroelectric potential, varied agricultural land, good rainfall and considerable marine resources. It is the second largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.

Angola – A Brief History

The original inhabitants of Angola are thought to have been Khoisan speakers whose language is distinguished by its use of the ‘click’ sound. About 1000 years ago, a large Bantu-speaking migration made them the dominant group in the region. Angola derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola.

Angola became a link in Portuguese trade with India and Southeast Asia after exploration by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cão in 1482. Despite decades of resistance by native Angolans, the country was a major source of slaves for the development of Brazil, Portugal's New World colony. Colonial development was largely focused on the coastal plain, and development of the interior only began after the Berlin Conference in 1885 fixed the colony's borders during the ‘scramble for Africa’ by European colonial powers. British and Portuguese investment fostered mining, railways, and agriculture in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

After World War II, the winds of independence swept Africa. Starting in 1961, the armed struggle against the Portuguese military took 14 years. The major nationalist organizations, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA); the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA); and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) succeeded in forcing the Portuguese to grant independence in 1975. But the successful overthrow of Portugal did not bring peace.

Civil war broke out almost immediately, as UNITA disputed the MPLA's ascendancy. Angola became a Cold War proxy battleground with the Soviet Union and Cuba supporting the Marxist MPLA, and the United States and South Africa supporting the anti-Communist UNITA. With the waning of the Cold War and the withdrawal of Cuban troops in 1989, the MPLA began to make the transition to a multiparty democracy.

Despite shifting ideologies, the civil war continued,with UNITA's charismatic rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, armed and sustained by his control of approximately 80% of the country's diamond trade. Although free elections took place in 1992, with the MPLA victorious, Savimbi withdrew the cooperation of UNITA, charging election fraud, and the civil war resumed.

Two years later, the Lusaka peace accord ushered in four years of UN-administered peace. In 1997, it was agreed that a coalition government with UNITA would be implemented. But Savimbi violated the accord repeatedly and in 1998 the country again plunged into civil war. The hostilities affected an estimated one-third of Angola’s long suffering population, creating almost 2 million refugees, with many thousands finding asylum abroad, in Portugal and elsewhere.

The death of Jonas Savimbi in 2002 marked the end of over 30 years of civil war and a renewed focus on the huge challenges facing the country. As we move into the 21st century, Angola shows the promise of bringing true prosperity and the possibility of taking its rightful place as a leader in the African family of nations.