Angola: Post-Independence

Extracted from: "Angola" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 13-14.

On 11 November 1975, Portugal formally withdrew from the territory it had ruled for many centuries. Having been weakened by its colonial wars and at this stage still in the aftermath of the 1974 revolution in Lisbon, Portugal was anxious to get rid of its colonial responsibilities. The Portuguese did not have the heart or the physical power to enforce the Alvor Agreement which provided for a representative transitional government to lead Angola to independence.

After driving out its opponents from Luanda, Dr Agostinho Neto's Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) took over the reigns of government and set up the independent People's Republic of Angola. In addition to their nationalist fervour, the MPLA leaders had long-held Marxist views and enjoyed solidarity with international left-wing organisations and governments, like Cuba, the Soviet Union and other Soviet allies. With the MPLA battling for supremacy, from February 1975, and, more seriously, being threatened by a South African military column advancing on Luanda in the second half of that year, Cuba sent troops that helped the MPLA to gain the upper hand in Luanda. Various political and business groups in Portugal, the United States and other countries regarded the MPLA's opponents (the FNLA [Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola] and UNITA [União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola]) as non-communist alternatives deserving assistance.

The South African government's military adventure in Angola was prompted by its perception that a communist-oriented regime in Luanda would be at variance with South Africa's regional security interests. However, the momentous Clark Amendment in the US Senate, in December 1975, prohibited American aid to any side in the Angolan conflict and, as a result, the anti-MPLA front collapsed - for the time being. Having relied on US involvement in Angola, South Africa was forced to withdraw its troops. However, it would not be long before they were to return.

Supported by its Cuban allies, the MPLA's army (FAPLA) defeated Holden Roberto's National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) decisively in January 1976. In the following month FAPLA captured Huambo, the home base of Jonas Savimbi's National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), thereby forcing Savimbi to retreat to the remote southeast where he set up a new headquarters, at Jamba. Nevertheless, UNITA retained much of its political support in Huambo and other parts of the central highlands. From Jamba, vast stretches of the sparsely populated eastern half of Angola. Meanwhile, the MPLA had established its rule in the urban areas and in most of the western provinces.

Thus, three major factors combined to prolong the Angolan civil war: the belligerence of the three liberation movements and their hostility towards each other; the Portuguese failure to guarantee an orderly and democratic transition to independence; and, against the background of the Cold War, the internationalization of the conflict.