DOCSLIB.ORG

ON on AFRICA by Dr JH DU10DIECO of AFICN6RORA

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ON on AFRICA by Dr JH DU10DIECO of AFICN6RORA ON ON AFRICA by Dr JH D U10DIECO of AFICN6RORA THE ANGOLAN WAR AND AMERICAN AMBIVALENCE For over a year and a half the Portuguese colony of Angola has been in a state of armed rebellion. Since the outbreak of the nationalist revolt on March 15, 1961, Angola, three times the size of Texas and fourteen times that of Portugal, has been the theater of violent struggle between the forces of African nationalism and Portuguese colonialism. The Angolan War, aimed at achieving independence for the 4.5 million Africans in that long sequested colony, is little publicized or understood in the United States. Yet it is of immense importance to the future of African-American relations. Angola sits below the "Mason and Dixon Line" which cuts across Africa from the northern borders of Angola and Katanga to meet the Indian Ocean on the frontier between Tanganyika and Mozambique. While the rest of the continent is busy fashioning new nation states, building modern economies, expanding educational facilities and forging new interstate relationships, the people below this line in southern Africa remain under European domination. COLONIAL BACKGROUND Portuguese penetration into Angola dates back almost five centuries to 1483-- before Columbus. Early diplomatic relations with the Congo Kingdom of the north were followed by a slow, spasmodic conquest that finally extended Portuguese authority over the interior in the nineteenth century. Depopulated and demoralized by a slave trade that ravaged it up until the middle of the past century, Angola has been treated as a private preserve of raw materials and cheap labor up to the present day. This generalization may be confirmed by means of a brief examination of the political, economic and educational legacy of the centuries of Portuguese rule. (1) Political conditions: Since 1951 Angola and other African possessions have been considered "provinces" or integral parts of Portugal. The avowed goal of the Estado Novo of Antonio Salazar has been to assimilate Angola into the Portuguese nation. Yet as of 1950, only one half of one percent of the African population had become assimilados (about 30,000), while over ninety-nine percent remained indigenas, or "uncivilized" persons without political or civil rights. It cost about $50.00 plus bribes to local administrators for those few who had the educational and other prerequisites for becoming assimilados (a relatively well-paid African school teacher may earn as much as S17.00 per month).I Therefore the privileged status with its accompany right to vote for Salazar government slates lacked appeal. Dr. Salazar himself recognized the snail's pace of assimilation when he said in 1961: "A law recognizing citizenship takes minutes to draft and can be made right away; a citizen that is a man fully and consciously integrated into a civilized political society takes centuries to achieve."2 With absolute power still vested in a governor-general appointed in Lisbon and reinforced by secret police (PIlE) and some thirty-five to forty-five thousand troops, recent reforms granting citizenship to all Angolans have little meaning. Literacy and financial qualifications "do not appear to the Z ited Nations Special Committee on Territories under Portuguese Administration 7 to be designed to extend the right to vote to the majority of the indigenous inhabitants, particularly since -2- few of them have had the opportunity to learn to read and write Portuguese..3 (2) Economic conditions: Angola has been enjoying an economic boom as of late. In 1959, coffee exports rose to nearly fifty million dollars, diamonds to over twenty, and newly discovered oil and iron reserves plus an influx of West German and other western capital promised increasing revenue in foreign currency. Portugal's exports pay for less than one half its imports; in 1959 Portugal's deficit in its balance of payments was about one hundred-fifty million dollars, which was made up with a forty-five million dollar surplus by exports from "overseas provinces." It must be added that the coffee, sisal and cotton plantations, diamond mines and other wealth of Angola are owned by Europeans and only rendered profitable by African labor. For the latter there is still the economy of the palmatorio, a wooden mallot used to beat unsatisfactory workers. In a report on Angolan refugeds in August, 1961, two respected British observers wrote: The system of Contract Labour is one of the chief grievances of the African people in Angola. It is some indication of face relationships in Angola that about half a million Africans are held "in contract" and forced to work for the Portuguese government and Portuguese traders. African men are conscripted for periods of up to eighteen months of Contract Labour; women are forced to do work mending roads, and children from eight years of age upwards are known to have been employed in the copper mines and the coffee plantations. Labourers are frequently ill-treated. For years there has been a constant stream of Africans moving across to the Congo to escape Contract Labour. Some Contract Labourers have run away froi their work but if they are caught they are severely beaten."4 Commenting upon a relatively mild report on labor conditions in Angola made by a commission of the International Labor Organization,5 which conducted its survey under Portuguese surveillance and without any means of protecting African informants from reprisals, a former missionary in Angola, Rev. Malcolm McVeigh has pointed out that "idleness" remains an offense and obligations to work, either for the state or private employers on the latters' terms, still define the economic relationship of African to European.6 Referring to reforms in the labor code, the United Nations Committee on Portuguese Territories has said: "Since vagabondage is punishable under the Portuguese Civil Code, the Committee considers that whether or not the new legislation brings an improvement in the daily lives of the indigenous inhabitants will depend to a great extent on how the laws are interpreted and applied."7 Meanwhile, Europeans continue to earn approximately three times the wages of Africans for doing the same work. (3) Educational conditions: Perhaps it is in the educational field that the Portuguese colonial record compares most unfavorably with those of more advanced colonial powers. As of 1956, approximately one percent of the African school age population was attending school; in neighboring Northern Rhodesia the figure for 1958 was eleven percent; and whereas the Northern Rhodesian government was spending approximately four dollars per capita for education in 1959, the Portuguese government was spending but one tenth of one cent per capita in 1956 ($,760).8 There are few secondary schools, populated mostly by Europeans and mulattos, a middle caste enjoying near-European privileges. There are no universities. In 1962, much heralded plans to establish overseas universities in Angola and Mozambique were abandoned as "unconstitutional."'9 Of the handful of Angolan students only recently permitted to study in Portuguese universities, most escaped Portugal after the outbreak of the Angolan War placed them under mounting pressure from the Portuguese police. The fact that even less than five percent of the African population read or write at all is due in good measure to the efforts of missionary and church schools. Yet educational activities of American Protestant missions have been curtailed by a hostile regime. "The danger of the Protestant missions" is seen in an alleged "systematic" refusal "to educate the native for the Portuguese concept of integration."10 According to the Portuguese government, the trouble with these missions is that they do not believe that Angolans are Portuguese. "They insist in their attitude of preaching self-determination as the only possible solution for problems and difficulties that foreigners and only foreigners have raised in the path so far followed by Portuguese policy." There may be some truth in this allegation if one accepts that fact that Protestant missions allowed in Christian ideals that are dangerous to the status quo. As the missionary's price for remaining, Portugal demands collaboration with its "policy of integration."11 THE ISSUES Since the outbreak of hostilities in 1961, the Portuguese government has been under international pressure to reform its administration. Yet it has changed little. To begin with, its means are limited. Selfstyled civilizer, it itself suffers from an illiteracy rate of forty percent and a low per capita income level of something over 5200.00. It needs outside aid in order to develop economic and educational programs for its own people. With this in mind, the United States government recently extended a fifty-five million dollar loan as assistance for a Tagus River bridge development project. Added to incapacity is culpability. What Portugal cannot do for itself, let alone for millions of Africans, it prohibits others from doing. Lisbon has steadfastly refused to permit humanitarian agencies such as the World Health Organization and UNICEF to operate in its colonies. Poverty and contract labor amidst the growing prosperity of a recruited immigrant population (200,000) that has been alienating choice agricultural land and building European cities surrounded by African slms, coupled with the injection of a small dose of education, inevitably created a revolutionary climate. Nationalist movements began forming in the mid-1950's, Radio Brazzaville and Leopoldville brought news of political change in the Congo and Africa at large. By 1960 and Congolese independence, the Union of the Populations of Angola (UPA) led by Holden Roberto had organized headquarters in Leopoldville, Matadi and Elizabethvilles was publishing a newspaper in four languages, was disseminating tracts to African soldiers and workers inside Angola, was petitioning the United Nations and was appealing to the Lisbon government for a negotiated course toward self-government. Lisbon refused then and still refuses to take heed.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Portuguese Colonial War: Why the Military Overthrew Its Government
    The Portuguese Colonial War: Why the Military Overthrew its Government Samuel Gaspar Rodrigues Senior Honors History Thesis Professor Temma Kaplan April 20, 2012 Rodrigues 2 Table of Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................3 Before the War .....................................................................................................................9 The War .............................................................................................................................19 The April Captains .............................................................................................................33 Remembering the Past .......................................................................................................44 The Legacy of Colonial Portugal .......................................................................................53 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................60 Rodrigues 3 Introduction When the Portuguese people elected António Oliveira de Salazar to the office of Prime Minister in 1932, they believed they were electing the right man for the job. He appealed to the masses. He was a far-right conservative Christian, but he was less radical than the Portuguese Fascist Party of the time. His campaign speeches appeased the syndicalists as well as the wealthy landowners in Portugal. However, he never was
    [Show full text]
  • Saved by the Civil War: African 'Loyalists' in the Portuguese Armed Forces and Angola's Transition to Independence
    Saved by the civil war: African ‘loyalists’ in the Portuguese armed forces and Angola’s transition to independence Pedro Aires Oliveira Instituto de História Contemporânea, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1069-061 Lisboa [email protected] Abstract: The article examines the trajectories of ‘loyal’ African troops in Angola before and after the demise of Portugal’s authoritarian regime in 1974. It starts by placing the ‘Africanization’ drive of the Portuguese counterinsurgency campaign in a historical perspective; it then explores the rocky transition from colonial rule to independence in the territory between April 1974 and November 1975, describing the course of action taken by the Portuguese authorities vis-à-vis their former collaborators in the security forces. A concluding section draws a comparison between the fate of Portugal’s loyalists in Angola and the one experienced by similar groups in other ex-Portuguese colonies. The choice of Angola has the advantage of allowing us to look into a complex scenario in which the competition amongst rival nationalist groups, and a number of external factors, helped to produce a more ambiguous outcome for some of the empire’s local collaborators than what might have been otherwise expected. Keywords: Angola; colonial troops; Loyalists; counter-insurgency; Decolonization The dissolution of Portugal’s overseas empire in 1975 happened after a protracted counterinsurgency war which took place in three of its African territories (Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique), a 13 year conflict (1961- 74) that put an enormous strain on the limited demographic and economic resources of what was then Western Europe’s poorest and most undeveloped 1 state.
    [Show full text]
  • Kitona Operations: Rwanda's Gamble to Capture Kinshasa and The
    Courtesy of Author Courtesy of Author of Courtesy Rwandan Patriotic Army soldiers during 1998 Congo war and insurgency Rwandan Patriotic Army soldiers guard refugees streaming toward collection point near Rwerere during Rwanda insurgency, 1998 The Kitona Operation RWANDA’S GAMBLE TO CAPTURE KINSHASA AND THE MIsrEADING OF An “ALLY” By JAMES STEJSKAL One who is not acquainted with the designs of his neighbors should not enter into alliances with them. —SUN TZU James Stejskal is a Consultant on International Political and Security Affairs and a Military Historian. He was present at the U.S. Embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, from 1997 to 2000, and witnessed the events of the Second Congo War. He is a retired Foreign Service Officer (Political Officer) and retired from the U.S. Army as a Special Forces Warrant Officer in 1996. He is currently working as a Consulting Historian for the Namib Battlefield Heritage Project. ndupress.ndu.edu issue 68, 1 st quarter 2013 / JFQ 99 RECALL | The Kitona Operation n early August 1998, a white Boeing remain hurdles that must be confronted by Uganda, DRC in 1998 remained a safe haven 727 commercial airliner touched down U.S. planners and decisionmakers when for rebels who represented a threat to their unannounced and without warning considering military operations in today’s respective nations. Angola had shared this at the Kitona military airbase in Africa. Rwanda’s foray into DRC in 1998 also concern in 1996, and its dominant security I illustrates the consequences of a failure to imperative remained an ongoing civil war the southwestern Bas Congo region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
    [Show full text]
  • U.S.-Chinese Cooperation and Conflict in the Angolan Civil Arw
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works Dissertations and Theses City College of New York 2014 U.S.-Chinese Cooperation and Conflict in the Angolan Civil arW Morgan Hess CUNY City College How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/268 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Abstract This study examines China’s role in the Angolan Civil War through the context of U.S.-Chinese rapprochement and the global Cold War. Based on declassified conversations between U.S. and Chinese officials along with declassified intelligence cables, government documents, and research in the United Nations archives this paper illuminates how China played a crucial role in escalating the Angolan Civil War and encouraged U.S. intervention in the conflict. This study builds on previous scholarship yet takes a new approach that emphasizes China played the primary role in intensifying the Angolan Civil War, not the U.S. or Soviet Union. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! “Empty Cannons” U.S.-Chinese Cooperation and Conflict in the Angolan Civil War Morgan Hess Dr. Craig Daigle May 3rd, 2012 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of (Fine) Arts of the City College of the City University of New York Table of Contents 1) Introduction 1 2) Portuguese Colonialism, African Resistance, and Angola’s Independence 5 3) U.S.-Chinese Diplomacy Surrounding Angola 14 4) Motives Behind China’s Angolan Policies 20 5) Foreign Aid, Intervention, and Escalation 26 6) Recognition of Angola and Effects of the War 39 7) Conclusion 42 8) Bibliography 46 ! Introduction Angola, China, and the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • Paper 1 Addendum
    NATIONAL SENIOR CERTIFICATE GRADE 12 HISTORY P1 FEBRUARY/MARCH 2018 ADDENDUM EXEMPLAR – 2014 This addendum consists of 14 pages. Copyright reserved Please turn over History/P1 2 DBE/Feb.–Mar. 2018 NSC – Addendum QUESTION 1: HOW DID THE DEPLOYMENT OF SOVIET MISSILES IN CUBA INTENSIFY COLD WAR TENSIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE SOVIET UNION IN 1962? SOURCE 1A The extract below focuses on the relationship that Cuba had with the Soviet Union. Cuba's ties to the USSR were strengthened by two of Castro's closest advisers – his brother, Raul Castro, and the legendary revolutionary, Che Guevara. Both men shared the communist ideology of the Soviets … Castro came to believe that the Americans would invade Cuba no matter what. This fear drove him into the arms of the Soviets. Soon the USSR and its allies were providing military aid and weapons to Cuba. Khrushchev and the Soviets couldn't have asked for a better-located ally against the United States. The Americans had allies all over the Eastern Hemisphere, surrounding the USSR. The United States had a huge number of military forces in Europe near Soviet borders … It was well-known that the United States had nuclear missiles in Turkey, which were pointed at the Soviet Union. While the United States had forces surrounding the USSR, the Soviet had no military presence at all in the Western Hemisphere. They did not even have aircraft carriers to put their planes within striking distance of the US mainland. But the new alliance between Cuba and the USSR changed all that, giving Khrushchev and the Soviets a military base less than 100 miles (161 km) from the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • The South African Institute of International Affairs
    THE SOUTH AFRICAN INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Brief Report 14/91 HEART OF DARKNESS: POLITICS IN ZAIRE* The ongoing conflict in Zaire and the disintegration of that country's political and socio-economic fabric, have their roots in the legacies of colonial rule. Unlike the British and the French, the Belgians did not prepare Zaire for an orderly transition to independent statehood. Political activity was outlawed until 1958. Moreover, the political energies of the evolues were directed at the formation of ethnic and cultural associations rather than trans-ethnic political formations. This has since spawned ethnic animosity and sub-national conflict. Historically, the principal internal factor in the genesis of Zairian nationalism was the formation of a distinct politico-bureaucratic class - the evolues. Principally urban, the foolues are composed of the former African civil servants of the Belgian administration, teachers, the military and the urban middle class. Shortly after independence in 1960, the political struggle for control of the new state erupted in open armed conflict, secession and political assassinations. Throughout this inglorious period, local politicians mobilised on ethnic lines and enlisted external political and military backing to serve exclusivist interests and concerns. The nature and degree of foreign penetration were often determined by the manner in which foreign patrons perceived the relationship between their economic and political interests and the social cleavages within the contending political formations inside the country. This was also the context of the Katanga secession and the assassination of the country's first president, Patrice Lumumba, in 1961. The title derives from Joseph Conrad's terrifying masterpiece on the low life in the former Belgian Congo.
    [Show full text]
  • Signal Cascades in Angola's Independence Struggle, 1955-1975
    African Studies Quarterly | Volume 20, Issue 1|January 2021 Signal Cascades in Angola’s Independence Struggle, 1955-1975 CANDACE SOBERS Abstract: This article considers one aspect of the international relations of the Angolan independence struggle: the prevalence in archives of records reflecting strong support for one of three rival Angolan national liberation movements (NLMs), the MPLA. Simple explanations, including the post-independence dominance of the MPLA in Angolan politics, offer unsatisfactory explanations for the wide appeal of the movement and its platform to non-Angolan attentive publics. The MPLA successfully courted the international community through principled signalling; carefully selected language calibrated to reflect the discourse of liberation that was prevalent at the time. This messaging was reinforced and recirculated among solidarity movements. This ‘signal cascade’ helped the MPLA gain the moral high ground in a contentious and divisive battle for political control. Investigating the roles of principled signalling as informal internationalism grants important insights into how national liberation movements, as non-state actors, engage with the wider international community to achieve specific political goals. Keywords: national liberation, Angola, transnational, anticolonial, signalling, signal cascade, solidarity, internationalism, independence Introduction During the 1960s, Angola became a site of international anticolonial contestation. The main Angolan national liberation movements (NLMs), the National Front
    [Show full text]
  • America's War in Angola, 1961-1976 Alexander Joseph Marino University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
    University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 5-2015 America's War in Angola, 1961-1976 Alexander Joseph Marino University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the African History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Marino, Alexander Joseph, "America's War in Angola, 1961-1976" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1167. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1167 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. America’s War in Angola, 1961-1976 America’s War in Angola, 1961-1976 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History by Alexander J. Marino University of California, Santa Barbara Bachelor of Arts in History, 2008 May 2015 University of Arkansas This thesis is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council ______________________________________ Dr. Randall B. Woods Thesis Director ______________________________________ Dr. Andrea Arrington Committee Member ______________________________________ Dr. Alessandro Brogi Committee Member ABSTRACT A study of the role played by the United States in Angola’s War of Independence and the Angolan Civil War up to 1976. DEDICATION To Lisa. TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Angolan Struggle, Produce and Resist 4
    The Angolan Struggle, Produce And ResIst 4 ANGOLA On November 11, 1975, Angola was granted independence from Portugal after 500 years of colonial rule . This date represented a victory for the anti-colonial struggle in Angola, but it also marked the start of a bloody civil war, a war which recently culminated in victory for the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The civil war was fought between three groups that had played various roles in the national liberation struggle . The most firmly established and progressive group is the MPLA . The MPLA was formed in 1957 and began the armed struggle against Portuguese colonialism in 1961 . Its president is Agostinho Neto. In 1963 another group, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), was organized under the leadership of Holden Roberto. The third group is the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi. By 1967 the MPLA had launched several successful guerrilla campaigns and forced the Portuguese to commit some 50,000 troops to an ill-fated effort to stop the national liberation struggle . In 1969 the Organization of African Unity termed the MPLA the only movement that truly represented the people of Angola, and in early 1976 the OAU formally recognized the MPLA-led government of the Peoples Republic of Angola. Angola, located on the southwest coast of Africa, covers an area of some 481,226 square miles and is the largest of the former Portuguese colonies. It has a population of about six million, and its capital is Luanda .
    [Show full text]
  • Angola Chronology
    Angola Chronology http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.af000008 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Angola Chronology Alternative title Angola Chronology Author/Creator Africa Fund Publisher Africa Fund Date 1976-02 Resource type Pamphlets Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Angola, South Africa, United States Coverage (temporal) 1956 - 1976 Source Africa Action Archive Rights By kind permission of Africa Action, incorporating the American Committee on Africa, The Africa Fund, and the Africa Policy Information Center. Description Angola Chronology. MPLA. Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola. FNLA. National Front for the Liberation of Angola.
    [Show full text]
  • Angola » José Eduardo Dos Santos
    » Biografías Líderes Políticos » África » Angola » José Eduardo dos Santos José Eduardo dos Santos © UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe Angola Acttualliizaciión:: 26 septtiiembrre 2017 Presidente de la República (1979-2017) Mandatto:: 21 septtiiembrre 1979 -- En ejjerrciiciio Naciimiientto:: Luanda,, prroviinciia de Luanda,, 28 agostto 1942 Parttiido pollííttiico:: Moviimiientto Popullarr de Liiberraciión de Angolla ((MPLA)) Proffesiión:: IIngeniierro pettrroquíímiico Editado por: Roberto Ortiz de Zárate Biografía Perteneciente a la etnia mbundu, la segunda más numerosa del país, e hijo de un albañil, estudió en el liceo Salvador Correia de Luanda antes de unirse, en 1961, al Movimiento Popular de Liberación de Angola (MPLA), organización de ideario nacionalista y marxista fundada el 10 de diciembre de 1956 por Mário de Andrade y Agostinho Neto a partir de la fusión del anterior Partido para la Lucha Unida de los Africanos en Angola (PLUA) con otros grupos de liberación más pequeños, y que acababa de alzarse en armas (el 4 de febrero, con el asalto a mano armada de una prisión luandesa) contra el colonialismo portugués. En noviembre de 1961 se exilió en París y luego en Congo-Kinshasa, y desde el futuro Zaire ayudó a organizar las Juventudes del MPLA, de las que se convirtió en vicepresidente. Dirigió la oficina de representación del MPLA en Congo-Brazzaville y en 1963 el partido le envió a la URSS con un grupo de estudiantes para recibir instrucción superior. En 1969 se graduó como ingeniero petroquímico en el Instituto de Estudios del Petróleo y el Gas de Bakú (Azerbaidzhán) y, luego de asistir a un cursillo de comunicaciones militares, en 1970 regresó a la zona de Angola controlada por el MPLA para tomar parte en el movimiento de liberación.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Angola
    Dickinson College Dickinson Scholar Faculty and Staff Publications By Year Faculty and Staff Publications 11-2017 A History of Angola Jeremy R. Ball Dickinson College Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.dickinson.edu/faculty_publications Part of the African History Commons Recommended Citation Ball, Jeremy. "The History of Angola." In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. (Article published online November 2017). http://africanhistory.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/ 9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-180 This article is brought to you for free and open access by Dickinson Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The History of Angola Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History The History of Angola Jeremy Ball Subject: Central Africa, Colonial Conquest and Rule Online Publication Date: Nov 2017 DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.180 Summary and Keywords Angola’s contemporary political boundaries resulted from 20th-century colonialism. The roots of Angola, however, reach far into the past. When Portuguese caravels arrived in the Congo River estuary in the late 15th century, independent African polities dotted this vast region. Some people lived in populous, hierarchical states such as the Kingdom of Kongo, but most lived in smaller political entities centered on lineage-village settlements. The Portuguese colony of Angola grew out of a settlement established at Luanda Bay in 1576. From its inception, Portuguese Angola existed to profit from the transatlantic slave trade, which became the colony’s economic foundation for the next three centuries. A Luso- African population and a creole culture developed in the colonial nuclei of Luanda and Benguela (founded 1617).
    [Show full text]