Angola: Land and people

Extracted from: Miguel de Brito 2009 "Chapter 2: Angola" IN Denis Kadima and Susan Booysen (eds) Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa 1989-2009: 20 Years of Multiparty Democracy, EISA, Johannesburg, 24-26.

Angola's MPLA nationalist movement developed in three main streams, determined largely by geographical location, share of total population, ethnic affiliations and traditional rivalry dating back to pre-colonial times. Having been spawned by the mulato and Mbundu communities in the Luanda-Malanje area, the MPLA's main rivals were the FNLA, based in the three Kikongo-speaking provinces (Zaïre, Uige and Cabinda), and Unita, which won the allegiance of most Ovimbundu in the populous provinces of the central highlands. In addition, there was the secessionist Frente de Libertação do Enclave de Cabinda or Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (Flec) whose operations remained confined to the province with the smallest population - less than 200,000 in 1994. Although Flec split into various factions and has never been a too serious threat, it has nevertheless remained a thorn in the flesh of the ruling party.

These geographic and sometimes ethno-national struggles unfolded across Angola, which is the largest country in Southern Africa, covering 1,246,700 sq km (Collelo 1991), including the Cabinda enclave to the north of the Congo River estuary. Angola has a land border with Namibia, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and 1,600 km of coastline on the Atlantic Ocean (Wikipedia 2009a). Angola comprises 18 administrative provinces (Wikipedia 2009b). Most of the country consists of plateau, 1,000-1,500m above sea level, with mountain ranges reaching above 2,000m on the central plateau around the city of Huambo. Climate and vegetation range from the hot, humid coastal belt north of Luanda and the temperate highlands running parallel with the coast to the semi-arid savannah grasslands covering vast areas in the southeast and the desert that extends southward from the ports of Benguela-Lobito into Namibia.

Angola has good agricultural resources on the highlands and potentially rich fishing grounds off the entire coast to the south of Luanda. The marine fish resource was over-exploited by foreign fishing fleets for many years following independence. The country has a variety of minerals, among them rich deposits of oil and alluvial diamonds. The oil fields stretch northward from Luanda along the coast, with the richest deposits located offshore opposite Soyo, in the country's northwestern corner, and in Cabinda's coastal waters. The diamond fields lie scattered around Kwango in the northern Uige Province and in the provinces of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul. The country has a substantial potential for the generation of hydroelectric power.

According to UN estimates, Angola has a population of 16.1 million (17.6 million in 2007, UNDP 2009). The bulk of the population is concentrated in Luanda Province, in the Benguela-Lobito coastal area and on the highlands, especially in the Huila, Huambo, Bié, Kwanza Sul, Malanje and Uige provinces. The eastern half of the country and the far south are sparsely populated.

Angola's population consists largely of Bantu-speaking people, although Portuguese is the official language. The largest among the indigenous groups, accounting for about 37 per cent of the population, are the Ovimbundu, whose language is Umbundu. They predominantly inhabit the central plateau or highlands, especially the provinces of Huambo, Bié and Huila and the larger parts of the Benguela and Kwanza Sul provinces (Wikipedia 2009c). The Mbundu, often referred to by their language, Kimbundu, account for 25 per cent of the population and predominate in the provinces of Luanda, Bengo, Kwanza Norte and Malanje but there are also large numbers of them in the Uige and Kwanza Sul provinces (Wikipedia 2009c). The Kongo or Bakongo speak the same language (Kikongo) as the Kongo peoples of neighbouring DRC and Congo-Brazzaville. They are concentrated in the northwestern Zaire Province and in the Uige and Cabinda provinces, accounting for about 13 per cent of the population (Wikipedia 2009c). These three main groups represent about 75 per cent of Angola's population.

There are smaller Bantu-speaking groups, such as the Lunda-Chokwe of the northeastern provinces, the Ngangela and the Luvale, inhabiting the eastern plains, and the Kwanyama (Ovambo), Lozi and several Kavango groups living across the southern and southeastern borders.

A small, but extremely influential, minority are the mulattos, or people of mixed, generally Portuguese-African, descent. In colonial times virtually all mulattos and some of the black people received education, usually church education, and were 'assimilated' into Portuguese culture. Known as assimilados, these people were predominantly urban and became prominent in business and in the colonial bureaucracy. Many of them were opposed to Portuguese rule and took leading roles in the liberation movements that emerged since the 1950s. Compared with the majority of the people, this mainly indigenous but Portuguese-speaking minority were a rather privileged elite group or class who, to some extent, replaced the white Portuguese administrators and business people after independence.

About half the population are Catholics and the remainder continue to profess ethnic religious beliefs, except for a minority of Christians belonging to various Protestant and African Independent churches. During the liberation struggle the Protestant and Independent churches were not popular with the Portuguese authorities (closely associated with the Roman Catholic Church) as they were seen as providing religious cover for the nationalists (Wikipedia 2009d). After independence all churches, including the Catholics, were constrained by the secular policies of the Marxist-Leninist MPLA government, but they nevertheless survived to oppose civil strife and to play important roles in mobilising public opinion in favour of democratic reform and national reconciliation.

References

COLLELO, T (ed) 1991 "Geography" IN Angola: A Country Study, Washington, GPO for the Library of Congress, [www] http://countrystudies.us/angola/51.htm [opens new window] (accessed 25 Mar 2010).

UNDP 2009 "Angola HDI Rank - 143", IN Human Development Report 2009, [www] http://hdrstats.undp.org/en/countries/data_sheets/cty_ds_AGO.html [opens new window] (accessed 17 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2009a "Geography of Angola", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Angola [opens new window] (accessed 25 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2009b "Provinces of Angola", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Provinces_of_Angola [opens new window] (accessed 25 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2009c "Culture of Angola", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_Angola [opens new window] (accessed 25 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2009d "Religion of Angola", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Angola [opens new window] (accessed 25 Mar 2010).