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Angola
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Angola is a country in southwestern Africa bordering
Namibia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Zambia,
and with a west coast along the Atlantic Ocean. The exclave
province Cabinda has a border with Congo-Brazzaville. A
former Portuguese colony, it has considerable natural
resources, among which oil and diamonds are the most
relevant. The country is nominally a democracy and is
formally named the Republic of Angola (Portuguese: República
de Angola, pron.
History
Main article: History of Angola
Shows Queen Nzinga in peace negotiations with the portuguese
governor in Luanda, 1657.The earliest inhabitants of the
area were Khoisan hunter-gatherers. They were largely
replaced by Bantu tribes during Bantu migrations. In
present-day Angola Portugal settled in 1483 at the river
Congo, where the Kongo State, Ndongo and Lunda existed. The
Kongo State stretched from modern Gabon in the north to the
Kwanza River in the south. Portugal established in 1575 a
Portuguese colony at Luanda based on the slave trade. The
Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal strip
throughout the 16th century by a series of treaties and
wars. They formed the colony of Angola. The Dutch occupied
Luanda from 1641-48, providing a boost for anti-Portuguese
states.
In 1648 Portugal retook Luanda and initiated a process of
military conquest of the Kongo and Ndongo states that ended
with Portuguese victory in 1671. Full Portuguese
administrative control of the interior didn't occur until
the beginning of the 20th century. In 1951 the colony was
restyled as an overseas province, also called Portuguese
West Africa. When Portugal refused a decolonization process
three independence movements emerged:
the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento
Popular de Libertação de Angola MPLA), with a base among
Kimbundu and the mixed-race intelligentsia of Luanda, and
links to communist parties in Portugal and the Eastern Bloc;
the National Liberation Front of Angola (Frente Nacional de
Libertação de Angola, FNLA), with an ethnic base in the
Bakongo region of the north and links to the United States
and the Mobutu regime in Zaire; and
the National Union for Total Independence of Angola (União
Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, UNITA), led
by Jonas Malheiro Savimbi with an ethnic and regional base
in the Ovimbundu heartland in the center of the country.
After a 14 year independence guerrilla war, and the
overthrow of fascist Portugal's government by a military
coup, Angola's nationalist parties began to negotiate for
independence in January 1975. Independence was to be
declared in November 1975. Almost immediately, a civil war
broke out between MPLA, UNITA and FNLA, exacerbated by
foreign intervention. South African troops struck an
alliance of convenience with UNITA and invaded Angola in
August 1975 to ensure that there would be no interference
(by a newly independent Angolan state) in Namibia, which was
then under South African control (Hodges, 2001, 11). Cuban
troops came to the support of the MPLA in October 1975,
enabling them to control the capital, Luanda, and hold off
the South African forces. The MPLA declared itself to be the
de facto government of the country when independence was
formally declared in November, with Agostinho Neto as the
first President.
In 1976, the FNLA was defeated by a combination of MPLA and
Cuban troops, leaving the Marxist MPLA and UNITA (backed by
the United States and South Africa) to fight for power.
The conflict raged on, fuelled by the geopolitics of the
Cold War and by the ability of both parties to access
Angola's natural resources. The MPLA drew upon the revenues
of off-shore oil resources, while UNITA accessed alluvial
diamonds that were easily smuggled through the region's very
porous borders (LeBillon, 1999).
In 1991, the factions agreed to turn Angola into a
multiparty state, but after the current president José
Eduardo dos Santos of MPLA won UN supervised elections,
UNITA claimed there was fraud and fighting broke out again.
A 1994 peace accord (Lusaka protocol) between the government
and UNITA provided for the integration of former UNITA
insurgents into the government. A national unity government
was installed in 1997, but serious fighting resumed in late
1998, rendering hundreds of thousands of people homeless.
President José Eduardo dos Santos suspended the regular
functioning of democratic instances due to the conflict.
On February 22, 2002, Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA,
was shot dead and a cease-fire was reached by the two
factions. UNITA gave up its armed wing and assumed the role
of major opposition party. Although the political situation
of the country seems to be normalizing, president dos Santos
still hasn't allowed regular democratic processes to take
place. Among Angola's major problems are a serious
humanitarian crisis (a result of the prolonged war), the
abundance of minefields, and the actions of guerrilla
movements fighting for the independence of the northern
exclave of Cabinda (Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de
Cabinda).
Angola, like many sub-Saharan nations, is subject to
periodic outbreaks of infectious diseases. In April 2005,
Angola was in the midst of an outbreak of the Marburg virus
which was rapidly becoming the worst outbreak of a
haemorrhagic fever in recorded history, with over 237 deaths
recorded out of 261 reported cases, and having spread to 7
out of the 18 provinces as of April 19, 2005.
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Background:
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Civil
war has been the norm in Angola since independence
from Portugal in 1975. A 1994 peace accord between
the government and the National Union for the Total
Independence of Angola (UNITA) provided for the
integration of former UNITA insurgents into the
government and armed forces. A national unity
government was installed in April of 1997, but
serious fighting resumed in late 1998, rendering
hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Up to 1.5
million lives may have been lost in fighting over
the past quarter century. The death of insurgent
leader Jonas SAVIMBI in 2002 and a subsequent cease
fire with UNITA may bode well for the |
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Location:
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Southern Africa, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean,
between Namibia and Democratic Republic of the Congo
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Geographic coordinates:
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12 30
S, 18 30 E
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Map references:
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Africa |
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Area:
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total: 1,246,700 sq km
water: 0 sq km
land: 1,246,700 sq km
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Area - comparative:
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slightly less than twice the size of Texas |
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Climate:
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semiarid in south and along coast to Luanda; north
has cool, dry season (May to October) and hot, rainy
season (November to April) |
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Terrain:
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narrow coastal plain rises abruptly to vast interior
plateau |
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Ethnic groups:
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Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico
(mixed European and Native African) 2%, European 1%,
other 22% |
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Religions:
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indigenous beliefs 47%, Roman Catholic 38%,
Protestant 15% (1998 est.) |
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Languages:
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Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African
languages |
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Currency:
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kwanza (AOA)
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Currency code:
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AOA
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Exchange rates:
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kwanza per US dollar - 32.8716 (January 2002),
22.058 (2001), 10.041 (2000), 2.791 (1999), 0.393
(1998), 0.229 (1997); note - in December 1999 the
kwanza was revalued with six zeroes dropped off the
old value |
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