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Mr. A. K, Mr. A. K, NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS and LEADERS in ANGOLA

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Mr. A. K, Mr. A. K, NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS and LEADERS in ANGOLA Mr. A. K, Mr. A. K, NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS AND LEADERS IN ANGOLA: STATUS OF THE REVOLT by GEORGE M. HOUSER "SOUTHERN AFRICA IN TRANSITION" FOURTH INTERNATIONAL CONFEECE April Ui - 13, 1963 Howard University, Washington, D.C. Sponsored by THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF AFRICAN CULTURE 15 East 40th Street New York 16, N. Y. TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION ... o.. ............*....... 1 II. ANGOLAN NATIONALIST ORGANIZATIONS ................. 3 A. MOUVEMENT DE DEFENSE DES INTERETS ANGOLAIS ........... 4 B. NTOBAKO . ........................... 6 C. NGWIZAKO-NGWIZANI A KONGO ............. ................... 7 D. PARTI DEMOCRATE DE LANGOLA ........... .................. 8 E. MOUVEMENT POPULAIRE DE LIBERATION DE LANGOLA ................. 9 1. The Birth and Growth of the Movement...................... 9 2. International Involvements ..... ................. ...13 F. UNION DES POPULATIONS DE L'ANGOLA .... ............... .14 1. Growth and Development ...... ................... .i.14 2. International Involvement ..... ................. ...17 3. Some Charges Against the UPA........ ........ 19 4. Roberto Sketch .............................. ..... 20 G. PROBLEMS OF UNITY ....................... 20 III. THE STATUS OF THE REVOLT . ..................... 24 Il INTROMUCTION Portugal, James Duffy has pointed out, was the first European power to carve a domain in Africa, and will probably be the last to abandon it. Her record as a colonizer, tretching over four centuries, is not a happy one, particular3y-as far as Angola is concoerned. But it is not the task of this paper to examine the facts and fancies of Portuguese colonial policy; the assumption is simply made that the curremb bitter struggle in Angola can only end with Angolan political independence and majority rule. The main concern of this paper will be with the Angolan nationalist groups. What are they? What relationships do the various organizations have to one another? What are their programs? What is the present status of the revolt? But before we consider the present, it might be useful to examine briefly the roots of Angolan nationalism. African organizations in Angola go back to at least 1923. The earliest known organization is the l Africana. This organization was, of coursei govV1mient approved, and today remains the only legal, secularp African organization permitted in-Angola. Its aims were described at the Third Pan-African Conference held in Lisbon in 1923: "The L A has a commission for all the other native organizations and knows how to express to the government in no ambiguous terms, but in a dignified manner, all that should be said to avoid injustice or to bring about the repeal of harsh laws. That is why the L c of Lisbon is the director of the Portuguese African movement, but only in the good sense of the word, without making any appeal to violence and without leaving constitutional limits.",/ In 1929 the LiEa N A was founded in Luanda. The essential objective of the IA was to secure better economic and social conditions through legal pressures. A similar group called G Aemi2.Afcao later called Associacao Regiol do 4traie kg lag L/ (kuma, Thomas, Anaola in Perment. Boston: Beacon Press, 1961. pp. 62-3, and Angola: A Svmnosium. Views of a Revolt. Institute of Race Relations, London: Oxford University Press, 1962. p. 106. Page 2 ashed with a similar objective. For the next decade or so these organizations gave s outlet to the protests of Africans. But in the 1940's there were demands within the MA to taform the organization into a mass movement. A clash of interests caused an internal c s within the ranks 9f the leaders of the IRA. The Portuguese took advantage of this internal crisis by placing secret agents in the association and in the end were able to doinate the organization through people chosen by the Governor-General. Another attempt at a legal organization of Angolans was the Associacao A ca do de Angola established by railway workers in Nova Lisboa. This organization was not long in existence before the authorities interfered with it, and thus killed it.I/ The first attempt at a revolutionary political party was the Pairtgo, 0 W doe j. j U (PLUA).Z/ This movement was a direct precursor of one of the major nationalist political organizations in Angola today - the l Poulen i 'ge Liberation At l1Angola. ,(mPLA), A legal organization in Angola is one that has registered with and has been certified by the overnor-General's office. The Government must know its officers, purposes and Where it hopes to function. If it is political, it will not be certified, for only one party - the Uniao Nacional - is allowed to operate. This alone would make a farce of elections, even though all "civilized" Angolans were granted the vote. Any political opposition is therefore illegal, and must therefore operate secretely° Comnenting on this, the UN Sub-Conmittee on the Situation in Angola said in 1961: "by prohibiting political activities and trade union organizations, the Portuguese authorities were able to keep Angola out of the world press, and to claim that the silence was proof of peace and harmony in Angolao"V/This famous "silence" over Angola, however, had been broken a nmber of times before the 1961 events. In 1952, more than 500 Angolans addressed a petition to the UN protesting the injustices to indigenous peoples by the authorities and asking the United Nations to help bring Portuguese rule in Angola to an end, I Anola: A Svmnosium, Views of a Revolt. ou. cit., p. 107. the Ibo np. 108. R/ eport of the Sub-CoziteonteSuao iAn l, United Nations, New Yorkc: November 22, 1961. p. 122. QL g., p. 122., Page 3 n '1957, the PI arrested four Africans for acts against the *security of the ftate." nrch'1959, the PIDE arrested 28 Africans. Among them were two mechanics, 12 civil service mlees, 8 nurses, a clerk, a teacher, a student, a printer, a Catholic priest and a eitsr. Twelve others were named but not arrested as they were not in Portuguese territory t the time. In July 1960, when Dr. Agostinho Neto was arrested, the people of his village of atete, near Iuanda, marched in protest to the headquarters of the administrator. A military olice unit was despatched to Catete and in the clash between the police and the villagers, 8 persons were killed./ Events beginning in January 1961 transformed the objective situation in Angola. The ingdom of silence" was at an end. The capture of the Portuguese luxury liner, the Santa M by Captain Henrique Galvao attracted the attention of the world as reporters made their ay to Luanda to await the arrival of Galvao. Never had there been so many international orrespondents in Angola at the same time. The attack by Angolan nationalists on the Luanda rison with the objective of freeing the political prisoners shattered the conspiracy of ilence in Angola. The indiscriminate reprisals by the Portuguese police and by armed ortuguese citizens against Africans in Luanda shocked most of the 60 visiting journalists and brough them the rest of the world. A Security Council meeting was called for March 15th at United Nations headquarters n New York. This day was marked, not only by the beginning of an important debate in the nternational organization, but also by the beginning of the armed revolt. Thus on one day, agola suffered two shocks - one from abroad, the other internal. Subsequent events must o seen in the light of the beginning of the war of liberation. II. ANGOIAN NATIONALIST ORMANZATINgS This paper will give consideration to only six organizations. Three of these groups, Ithough in favor of eventual independence for Angola, are opposed to the present revolt, and eem to have, on one level or another, some kind of a cooperative arrangement with the Portuuese authorities. These organizations are: the 34ouvement de Defense des Interets Angolais Thomas, U. p. 1. Page 4 o and Nawizako-Nsrizsni a Ko~o (Ngwjzao). The other three groups arenot comitted to the struggle for independence, but accept the necessity of violence and warfare in order to accomplish this end. Two of them, the Union des Pom2lations de l'ARla fUP) and the Pati Democrate de 19Ana (PDA) are now joined in the Front National de Ueratin de lA"rola (FNLA). A. MOUVEMENT DE DEFENSE DES INTERETS ANGOLAIS (MDIA) The MDIA was founded early in 1961. Most of its leadership had previously been affiliated with the UPA. They broke away from the UPA, not only because they had differences with some of the leadership, but because they disagreed with UPA policy in resisting the Portuguese through armed revolt. The young men who founded the MDIA come mostly from the Bazombo, a large tribe of merchants and farmers of Northern Angola. After breaking with the UPA, they reportedly held discussions with the leadership of the Alliance Ansolaise des Rssortissants de Zobo (ALIAZO, which later became the PDA), but apparently were not satisfied with positions which might have been offered to them in ALIAZO, and so decided to form their own group.,/ As with many other political organizations, it is difficult to get reliable figures of the exact membership or size of the NDIA following. In his testimony of August 1962 in Leopoldville before the UN Special Committee on Territories under Portuguese Administration, Jean- Pierre Bala, Secretary General of the MDIA claimed 32,500 card-carrying members. But in his testimony before the Fourth (Trusteeship) Coimittee of the UN in late November 1962, Mr. Bala said that the last membership card issued in the Congo bore the number 75,631. In addition. he claimed that hias movement had the support of thousands of Angolans living in the territory, as well as of some 200,000 members of an Angolan religious sect.-/ According to the two testimonies of Mr. Bala before the United Nations, the MDIA, faced with the choice between war or negotiation with Portugal, had decided to enter into contact with the Portuguese Government.
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