Angola was made part of the Congo Kingdom by Wene in the 14th century. It was flourishing a century later, when the first Portuguese explorers reached the country. Relations between the Europeans and the Congo kings were good and missionaries were sent over. The kings’ sons were sent to Lisbon for education until the 17th century, after which the slave trade soured all trust between the two countries. An estimated one million slaves were shipped to Portuguese Brazil between the 16th and 17th centuries. The formal abolition of the slave trade in 1836, following the loss of Brazil, resulted
in the Portuguese intensifying colonization of its other territories, including Angola. The slave trade in Portuguese colonies continued officially until the 1870s and thereafter, barely disguised, until the early 20th century.
Under the fascist government that took power in Lisbon in 1926, Portuguese rule was further consolidated. Opposition was relatively muted until the 1950s – when it did emerge, however, the divisions between the liberation movements laid the foundations for the civil war, which has consumed Angola for most of the past four decades. The Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the social-democratic National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) suffered severe repression during the early 1960s after the failure of a rebellion launched by their supporters in 1961. In 1964, dissident members of FNLA formed the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The three independence movements fought a guerrilla war against the colonial government until 1974 and the overthrow of the Caetano dictatorship in Portugal. The new radical military government in Lisbon opted for rapid decolonization, put into effect in November 1975.
The tenuous tripartite agreement between the rival independence movements soon collapsed and civil war followed, pitting MPLA (supported by the then USSR and Cuba) against FNLA and UNITA (backed by South Africa, the USA and the UK). MPLA achieved formal victory in February 1976, although it never fully defeated UNITA, which, with South African support and the dominating leadership of Jonas Savimbi, sustained a continuous and effective guerrilla war in the south and center of the country. Cold-war politics contributed to this becoming Africa’s longest civil war, with an estimated cost of 500,000 lives.
Repeated attempts to find a political settlement, including an initiative by the then president, Nelson Mandela, all ended in failure. By now, it had become clear to everyone – including his former western backers – that Savimbi would not accept any outcome that did not leave him in charge – an outcome which was never likely to occur. Meanwhile, the war staggered on, with both sides exploiting their control of parts of Angola’s vast natural resources – oil, in the case of the government, and diamond mines, in the case of UNITA – to finance their campaigns. The government side, wearied by the years of fighting, drifted under the leadership of ailing president Dos Santos into inertia and corruption. The biggest losers, inevitably, were the people of Angola, most of whom were reduced to subsistence agriculture or a marginal urban existence.
In February 2002, Savimbi was killed during a clash with the Angolan army. Within weeks of his death, military leaders on both sides had signed a ceasefire, paving the way for a final political settlement. This was achieved within weeks and the people and government of Angola celebrated their first year of continuous peace for more than a quarter of a century, in April 2003. Although there is still some sporadic fighting, notably between government forces and separatist groups in the oil-rich Cabinda enclave, most of the country has now embarked upon the monumental task of reconstruction.
GovernmentUnder the constitution of the ‘Second Republic of Angola’ introduced in 1992, a unicameral 223-seat legislature and executive president are elected by universal adult suffrage for spells of four and five years, respectively.
EconomyAngola is rich in natural resources, including oil, coffee and diamonds. Despite this, 95% of Angolans live in poverty or extreme poverty. In the years immediately after independence, economic development was stunted by the departure of 700,000 Portuguese colonists, who controlled the government and most of the economy.
Thereafter, a quarter century of civil war reduced the country to ruins. The 2002 peace accord, which brought the war to an end, has allowed reconstruction to begin. In April 2003, the World Bank committed US$100 million to the Angolan reconstruction and rehabilitation program. However, both the Bank and the IMF were reluctant to release funds until Angola’s endemic corruption was curtailed.
Agriculture employs over 50% of the population but production has declined so much that, from being a net exporter, Angola now imports over half its food requirements. There has been genuine progress in this area, although the USA was not keen to administer food aid after Angola banned genetically modified food products in March 2004.
Fishing, which almost ceased to exist, is now being rejuvenated with foreign aid. New oil and gas fields off the shore of Cabinda (an enclave in the north of the country) are being developed. However, Angola has only one refinery and so exports most of its oil in the crude form. The government is looking to a new cooperative agreement with Algeria and partial privatization of the state oil firm, Sangol, to boost production and refining capacity. The only other industry of any size is diamond mining.
Angola’s largest trading partners are Portugal, Brazil, France and the USA, from whom it imports much of its food and almost all its manufactured equipment.
Angola has has successfully reduced inflation from 300% in 1999 to 13.2% in 2006.
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