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Little is known about the
early history of the land now known as Angola.
It is believed that the area was inhabited by people living a Neolithic
lifestyle until the arrival of the Bantu in the first millennium CE who
brought with them iron making technology. Over hundreds of years the Bantu
established themselves in the area. By the thirteenth century the Kingdom of Kongo was in existence covering much of modern day northern Angola, Cabinda,
the Republic of the Congo and western Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Kingdom of Kongo had a
developed agricultural base as well as mineral wealth. The
history of Angola took a new turn after the
arrival of the Portuguese in 1483 in their search for gold. They
brought with them firearms and other technologies which the King
of Kongo was more than happy to trade for ivory, minerals and
slaves with the Portuguese finding slaves easier to trade and
export to the Portuguese colony in Brazil than their
original objective of gold.
South
of the Kingdom of Kongo which covered modern day northern Angola
was the Kingdom of Ndongo which is believed to have been a
separate kingdom subordinate to Kongo itself. Ndono was ruled by
a king, 'Ngola' from which Angola takes its name. Over the years, and with
numerous setbacks not least because of the Dutch, British and
French, the Portuguese established trading posts in Ndono and a fortified
Luanda in 1587. Their conquests saw them proclaim a colony in
Angola which was to last for four hundred years, though, in
truth they did not exercise any actual administrative control
over areas outside the coast until the twentieth century. And
the basis for this colony was slavery.
In fact, until the slave trade was abolished in 1836 it is
estimated that Portugal sent over a million Angolans to Brazil
fuelling resentment at the incomers that fed the later clamour
for independence. During this period the Portuguese built
railroads, ports together with towns and cities.
From 1885 as part of the
Scramble
for Africa, Portugal
consolidated its hold over the country which saw ongoing local
resistance, particularly to enforced labour which had
technically replaced slavery. The colonisation of the country
saw little in the way of social development for native Angolans. In 1920 Angola became a
colony with its own administration, however in
1952 Angola's status was changed from a colony to an overseas
province and the influx of white Portuguese during this period
fanned the flames of racial tension. Whilst across Africa there
were growing calls for independence, the Portuguese rejected these outright not least because Portugal itself was ruled by
dictators. Over
the next fifteen years three rival guerrilla emerged intent on
independence for Angola, the Uniao Nacional para a Independencia
Total de Angola (UNITA), the Frente Nacional de Libertacao de
Angola (FNLA) and the Movimento Popular de Libertaccao de Angola
(MPLA). These groups were not just fighting for independence, they
were also at war with each other, and, following the collapse of
the Portuguese regime in Lisbon in 1974, the Portuguese granted Angola
independence the following year without handing power to a
succeeding government, they merely abandoned Angola in the
middle of a civil war.
The Bicesse Accord in 1991 was brokered to provide a path for
democratic elections in Angola however when UNITA's Jonas
Savimbi lost the election he deemed it fraudulent and returned
to war. A further peace accord was signed in 1994 in Lusaka
however this also failed. A massive military surge in 1999 by
the Angolan military then decimated UNITA's forces however, even
then, Savimbi continued guerrilla tactics until his death in
2002, a year that saw a de-facto cease fire and the end of the
civil war that had seen the country broke
down into factions leaving one and a half million dead, millions
more displaced
and the economy and the country's infrastructure shattered. The short video documentary
(below) explores the recent history of
Angola during that troubled time.
Angola History: Volunteer in Angola
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Angola History: Angola Refugees
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Angola History: Child Sponsor Angola
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Angola History: Angola Profile
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