The desire for self rule. The peoples of Angola were tired of the white man's presence in their country. The Portuguese colonialists occupied all the top administrative posts in Angola and made no effort to involving the majority Angolans in top management of their country's politics. The several local chiefs who served them at bottom levels of administration had no powers whatsoever. They were mere implementers of the Portuguese unpopular policies. This grieved the Angolans, especially because Portugal intended to turn Angola into a white man's country. Portugal wasn't ready to surrender Angola at any cost.

Grievances over land alienation also caused the Angolan war of liberation. The Portuguese government followed an active policy of encouraging poor whites to move to central Africa and make a fortune. This led to an influx of Portuguese immigrants into Angola, In 1940, there were 44,000 settlers in Angola; the number rose to-175,000 whites in 1950, then 88,000 in 1951, then to 170,000 in 1959 and by 1970, there were over 250,000 whites. These whites settled in Angola by grabbing African land. Africans like the Builundo and Bacongo were displaced and pushed into less productive reserves while others remained as squatters on Portuguese plantations. Landlessness aggrieved them and caused the war.

Forced labour also contributed to the war of liberation. Having established large farms on alienated African land, the Portuguese required human labour. But because most Angolans were not willing to work for whites, the Portuguese resorted to forced labour in exchange for little or no pay. African farmers were forced to grow cotton at the expense of food crops which caused famine. They also worked on public roads, railways, bridges and buildings etc. To Angolans this was a kind of slavery and goaded them into war.

People hated the contract labour system. By this, Angolans were recruited by the Portuguese and escorted to go and work in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, on Islands of Sao Tome and Principe. They were supposed to work for a five-year contract but in reality the contracts never expired. While being matched to the coast for shipment, the contract labourers were usually insulted, assaulted and even raped! Their working conditions in mines and on plantations were very harsh and any complaint led to punishment. This led to the war of independence-

Hatred of racism. The Portuguese settlers were arrogant and considered themselves superior to the Africans. Thinking that theirs was the best culture, they imposed it on Africans and this created a new class of civilized Africans (assimilados). They shared some privileges such as employment and residence in urban areas. There also existed Mesticos (mixed blood Angolans) who were a result of intermarriages between whites and Angolans. These too, had some privileges. At the bottom of social strata came the "indegena"- the native, who was regarded as uncivilized, good only for labour and was exposed to all forms of discrimination. This only led to war.

Exploitation of Angola's resources, such as iron ore, diamonds, oil wealth and agricultural resources only led to anger. All the natural wealth was monopolized by the Portuguese. For lack of enough capital, Portugal had invited a number of multi-national firms from American and Europe to help in the exploitation of Angola's resources. Portugal which acted as a middle man in this spiral of exploitation benefited by charging taxes, rents and transport fares from these foreign firms. To end this exploitation, Angolan's resorted to war.

Grinding poverty amongst Angolans contributed to the Angolan war of independence. African farmers on Portuguese farms and in mines were paid very low wages. Even the cotton and coffee farmers were paid very low prices for their products. They had to sell their products to: authorized" companies which cheated them by offering them prices far below those on the world market. To make matters worse, all this money went back to the Portuguese in form of high taxes on Angolans. The little balance was spent on Portuguese dumped goods like textiles, sugar etc. The result was poverty anger and war.

The inferior social amenities provided to the Angolan also led them to war. Africans were given an inferior type of education aimed at promoting Portuguese language, culture and loyalty to Portugal. To this type of education (ESINO ADOPTICO) was added ESINO PRIMARIO which at primary level. All government schools were occupied by the children of whites and the few poorly funded missionary schools catered for the natives. Even the roads and health centers for Africans were poor.

Failure to obtain independence through peaceful means also led to the Angolan war of liberation. In theory, Africans were supposed to be represented in the Portuguese national Assembly through the votes of the assimilados. However in practice, it was a mockery. By 1960, only 0.5% Angolans had become assimilados and even if they voted, they couldn't bring constitutional changes through the parliament/National Assembly. Secondly, any petitions, demonstrations or strikes were banned. In June 1960, the MPLA presented a petition to the Portuguese government in Lisbon calling for reforms but no changes were made. Violence was the remaining solution.

The harsh Portuguese rule also drove Africans into armed resistance. After the 2^nd world war, Portugal became insensitive to the growing forces of nationalism in Angola and between 1956-1960 she turned to excessive brutality in reaction to nationalistic demands. The a960, Angolan demands for political reforms led to a spiral of Portuguese violence. Firstly, Agostinho Neto of MPLA was arrested and flogged in public! When Angolans protested against this in the same year, about 200 of them were shot in the chests or heads while many were wounded. Hence the war of independence.

The emergence of able leaders. The included Antonio Mariano, Holden Roberto, Jonas Savimbi and Agostinho Neto-the ablest and most outstanding of all Angolan nationalists. Having studied abroad, he was exposed to democratic and socialist influences and called for political reforms at home. He became leader of MPLA in 1962 and championed the struggle for independence. Angolans leaders made contacts with liberation leaders in Mozambique and Guinea Bissau and exchanged ideas and strategies.

The formation of liberation movement. These included the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) formed in 1956, the Angola Peoples' Union (UPA), the National Front For the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) formed in 1962 and the National Union for the total Liberation of Angola (UNITA) formed in 1966. These liberation movements spearheaded the independence struggles.

The display of Portuguese troops from time to time was very provocative to Angolans and led them into an armed struggle. The Portuguese had about 60,000 troops in Angola alone and used to display their sophisticated weapons so as to scare nationalists. Far from scaring the nationalists, the foreign troops and weapons convinced Angolans that the Portuguese had come to stay. They resolved to die for their mother country.

The wind of change sweeping across Africa after the 2nd world war continued to the Angolan war of independence. News about the Egyptian resolution, the Man Mau rebellion in Kenya, the Algerian war of independence and the independence of neighbouring Congo inspired Angolans not to lag behind hence the war of liberation.

The socialist ideology also explains the outbreak of the war of independence. Angolan nationalists within MPLA were influenced by Russian and Cuban ideas of mass democracy and resorted to armed struggle. They received financial and military aid from the socialist block that enabled them confront the experienced and well armed Portuguese army. Congo Leopold Ville and Congo Kinshasa also sent help to Angola.

The UNO and OAU also contributed to the armed struggle in Angola. They constantly called upon the Portuguese to decolonise and threatened to impose sanction for example In January 1962, the UN general assembly resolved with a majority of 99 against only two (Spain and South Africa) that Angola had a right to self determination. This inspired Angolan nationalists to fight on.

The influence of liberal minded Portuguese contributed to the Angolan war of liberation for example Henrique Galvao, a former colonial inspector reported on colonial abuses and called for reforms. He was imprisoned but released and on 22nd January 1961, his group seized a Portuguese liner "Santa Maria" in the Atlantic and demanded for colonial reforms. Such liberal Portuguese influenced the Angolan nationalists to tighten their grips against Portuguese fascism.

The rise of Bacongo sub-nationalism. The Bacongo had had a great African Empire before Portuguese rule in Angola and Belgian rule in Congo. Due to oppression, they developed feelings of reviving their historical glory. They hated Portuguese forced labour, land alienation, and still held sour memories of Portuguese slave trade in the past. This made them fight the Portuguese so as to re- unite with their relatives in Congo. They had the support of Congo Kinshasha and Congo Brazzaville.