Angola

República de Angola
Coat of arms of Angola
Motto: none
Anthem: Angola Avante! (Portuguese: Forward Angola!)
Capital (and largest city)		Luanda 8°50′S 13°20′E
Official languages		Portuguese
Government		Multi-party democracy
Independence
Area
-	Total	1,246,700 km² (22nd)  sq mi
-	Water (%)	Negligible
Population
-	2004 estimate	10,978,552 (71st)
-	? census	unavailable
GDP (PPP)		2003 estimate
-	Total	31,3641 (83)
-	Per capita	2,319 (120)
Currency		Kwanza (AOA)
Time zone		CET (UTC+1)
-	Summer (DST)	not observed (UTC+1)
Internet TLD		.ao
Calling code		+244
1 Estimate is based on regression; other PPP figures are extrapolated from the latest International Comparison Programme benchmark estimates.

A former Portuguese colony, Angola, known formally as the Republic of Angola, has been ravaged by a quarter-century of civil war and dominated by a Marxist-style government since independence. Though it has considerable natural resources, especially oil and diamonds, it remains among the world's poorest nations. The name Angola is a Portuguese derivation of the Bantu word N’gola, which is the title of the native rulers of the Quimbundos Kingdom in the sixteenth century.

The oil-rich province of Cabinda is separated from the rest of the nation by a narrow strip of land belonging to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, that nation's only access to the Atlantic Ocean. The Angolan central government has yet to quell a Cabindese secessionist movement.

History

  Background Note: Angola

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 slavery. 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 meant 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 in September 2002, together with the government, reconstituted the UN-sponsored Joint Commission to resolve all outstanding political issues under the Lusaka Protocol. On November 21, 2002, UNITA and the government declared all outstanding issues resolved and the Lusaka Protocol fully implemented. UN Security Council sanctions on UNITA were lifted on December 9, 2002. In advance of national elections projected for 2006, UNITA and the MPLA held their first post-war party congresses in June and December 2003, respectively. 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.

The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), formed in 1974, rejects the Alvor Accords that included Cabinda as part of Angolan territory at independence. In 1975, FLEC began low-level guerilla attacks against government targets and kidnapped foreigners in an effort to press for an independent Cabindan state. Leadership struggles within FLEC then led to its breakup into various splinter factions, two of which continued the movement's armed insurgency. The Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) launched a major offensive against FLEC in November 2002 that decimated FLEC’s capabilities in Cabinda and lead to an almost complete cessation of fighting in the province. Periodic, separate negotiations between the leadership of the two armed FLEC factions and the Angolan Government have failed to produce a settlement; however, the recently formed Cabindan Forum for Dialogue, a coalition of the various FLEC factions, is working to broker an agreement with the government. The international community has rejected the notion of Cabindan independence; however, the U.S. and other like-minded governments are committed to protecting the human rights of all living in Cabinda province.

GOVERNMENT AND POLITICAL CONDITIONS Angola changed from a one-party Marxist-Leninist system ruled by the MPLA to a nominal multiparty democracy following the 1992 elections, in which President dos Santos won the first-round election with more than 49% of the vote to Jonas Savimbi's 40%; a runoff never took place. The Constitutional Law of 1992 establishes the broad outlines of government structure and delineates the rights and duties of citizens. The government is based on ordinances, decrees, and decisions issued by a president and his ministers or through legislation produced by the National Assembly and approved by the president. The parliament is generally subordinate to the executive.

Few opportunities exist for opposition parties to challenge MPLA dominance. President dos Santos had proposed that general elections be held in 2006; however, this is becoming increasingly unlikely. A multi-party constitutional reform process will resume following elections

Prior to the colonial period, Angola was ruled by two highly centralized native kingdoms, the Bantu in the north and the Mbundu in the south. Portuguese traders arrived in 1483. They established colonies and developed a lucrative slave trade. When the native peoples resisted, the Portuguese clamped down, killing, capturing, and exporting the natives, whose population declined dramatically until the mid-eighteenth century. After the Berlin Conference of 1884 officially allocated African regions to colonial European states, Portuguese settlement accelerated, as did the military campaign to subdue the kingdoms. Colonial exploitation continued until the mid-twentieth century.

Although Britain and France had begun abandoning their colonial empires, the Portuguese resisted peaceful de-colonization. In 1951 the colony was restyled as an overseas province, also called Portuguese West Africa. In 1956, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) emerged as a coalition of nationalist rebel groups fighting for independence and against racial and imperialist exploitation. By the time the Portuguese government was overthrown in April 1974, three major rebel factions had developed:

• the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola MPLA), with links to communist parties in Portugal and the Soviet bloc;
• the National Liberation Front of Angola (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola, FNLA), with 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 Portugal's government fell, Angola's nationalist parties began to negotiate for independence, which was set for November 1975. But almost immediately, a civil war broke out among the MPLA, UNITA, and the 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. 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 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, fueled by the geopolitics of the Cold War and by the ability of both parties to access resources from Angola's natural resources. The MPLA drew upon the revenues of off-shore oil reserves, while UNITA obtained alluvial diamonds that were easily smuggled through the region's very porous borders.

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.

On February 22, 2002, Savimbi was killed in a gunbattle and a cease-fire was reached. 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 has not allowed regular democratic processes. Most mass media are state controlled.

Among Angola's major problems are a serious humanitarian crisis as a result of the prolonged war, the abundance of mine fields, and continued violence by guerrilla movements fighting for the independence of the northern enclave of Cabinda (Frente para a Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda).

Politics

The executive branch of the government is composed of the president, the prime minister, and a Council of Ministers. Currently, political power is concentrated in the presidency. The Council of Ministers, composed of government ministers and vice ministers, meets regularly to discuss policy issues. Governors of the eighteen provinces are appointed by the president. The Constitutional Law of 1992 establishes the broad outlines of government structure and delineates the rights and duties of citizens. The legal system is based on Portuguese and customary law but is weak and fragmented, and courts operate in only 12 of more than 140 municipalities. A Supreme Court serves as the appellate tribunal; a Constitutional Court with powers of judicial review has never been formed, despite its authorization.

The civil war ravaged the country's political and social institutions. The United Nations estimates there are 1.8 million internally displaced persons , while the accepted figure for war-affected people is 4 million. Daily conditions of life throughout the country and specifically Luanda (population approximately 4 million) mirror the collapse of administrative infrastructure as well as many social institutions. The ongoing grave economic situation largely prevents any government support for social institutions. Hospitals lack medicines or basic equipment, schools operate without books, and public employees often do without basic supplies for their day-to-day work.

The president announced the government's intention to hold elections in 2006. These elections would be the first since 1992 and would serve to elect both a new president and a new National Assembly.

Geography

Angola is bordered by Namibia to the south, Zambia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the northeast, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west. The exclave of Cabinda also borders the Republic of the Congo to the north. Angola's capital, Luanda, lies on the Atlantic coast in the northwest of the country.

Angola 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 Zambezi River and several tributaries of the Congo River have their sources in Angola.

Economy

Map of Angola

The economy remains in disarray because of the prolonged warfare. Despite its abundant natural resources, output per capita is among the world's lowest. Subsistence agriculture provides the main livelihood for 85 percent of the population. Oil production and its supporting activities are vital to the economy, contributing about 45 percent of GDP and 90 percent of exports. Control of the oil industry is consolidated in Sonangol Group, a conglomerate owned by the government. Despite the signing of a peace accord in November 1994, violence continues, millions of land mines remain, and many farmers are reluctant to return to their fields. As a result, half of the country's food must still be imported. The internal strife discourages investment outside the petroleum sector. Nevertheless, increased oil production supported 12 percent growth in 2004 and 19 percent growth in 2005.

A strategic partnership with China was set in motion with the advent of peace in 2002. Chinese companies have made huge investments, especially in the construction and metallurgical sectors. In 2005, the government started using a $2 billion line of credit from China to rebuild Angola's public infrastructure. Trade with China was worth $7 billion in 2005.

Consumer inflation declined from 325 percent in 2000 to about 18 percent in 2005, but the stabilization policy places pressure on international net liquidity. To fully take advantage of its rich national resources — gold, diamonds, extensive forests, Atlantic fisheries, and large oil deposits — Angola will need to continue reforming government policies and reducing corruption.

Demographics

Luanda, the Angolan capital

Angola has three main ethnic groups, each speaking a Bantu language: Ovimbundu 37 percent, Kimbundu 25 percent, and Bakongo 13 percent. Mestiços (Angolans of mixed European and African origins) amount to about 2 percent, with a small (1 percent) population of whites. Portuguese make up the largest non-Angolan population, with at least thirty thousand. Portuguese is both the official and predominant language, spoken in the homes of about two-thirds of the population and as a secondary language by many more.

Catholicism remains the dominant religion, although an increasing number of churches are claiming more followers, particularly evangelicals.

Culture

Government

• Republic of Angola official government portal
• National Assembly of Angola official site (in Portuguese)
• Embassy of Angola in Washington DC government information and links

News

• allAfrica - Angola news headline links
• Angola Press government-controlled news agency (in Portuguese, French and English)
• Angonoticias (in Portuguese) - A popular news source in Angola

Overviews

• BBC - Country profile: Angola
• CIA World Factbook - Angola
• US State Department - Angola includes Background Notes, Country Study and major reports

Directories

• Columbia University Libraries - Angola directory category of the WWW-VL
• Open Directory Project - Angola directory category
• Stanford University - Africa South of the Sahara: Angola directory category
• Yahoo! - Angola directory category

Other

• Angola Conflict Briefing

Credits

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• History of "Angola"

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