Three Incompatible Nationalist Movements
By
1967, there were three nationalist movements fighting for the
independence of Angola. The oldest was the MPLA (Movimento Popular de
Libertacao de Angola - Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola)
founded way back in 1956, and led by Dr. Agostinho Neto - a qualified
medical doctor of the Mbundu tribe. MPLA was country-based rather than
tribe-supported.
The second movement was the
FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertacao de Angola - National Front for the
Liberation of Angola).The FNLA was founded in 1962 by Holden Roberto,
former leader of the disbanded UPA (Angola People's Union). The FNLA
was a movement supported almost exclusively by the Kongo tribe - the
tribe of Holden Roberto, and the tribe to which also President Mobutu
of Zaire belongs.
The third movement was the
UNITA (Unido Nacional de Independencia Total de Angola-National Union
for the Total Independence of Angola) founded in 1966 by Jonas Savimbi
of the majority Ovimbundu tribe. The UNITA was also a tribal movement
supported mostly by the Ovimbundu ethnic group. Savimbi was formerly
the Foreign Minister in Holden Roberto's government-in-exile.
While Britain and France, the former major colonial masters of Africa, had already granted independence to their former African colonies, Portugal had refused to do so. But Portugal had little to rejoice over, because by 1972 some one half of its annual national expenditure was being used to finance futile wars against nationalist movements in its African territories- Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau.
While Britain and France, the former major colonial masters of Africa, had already granted independence to their former African colonies, Portugal had refused to do so. But Portugal had little to rejoice over, because by 1972 some one half of its annual national expenditure was being used to finance futile wars against nationalist movements in its African territories- Angola, Mozambique and Guinea Bissau.
Tired of fighting in the
meaningless wars, the Portuguese armed forces toppled the government of
Prime Minister Mercello Caetano in April 1974. The Lisbon coup was
master-minded by young junior officers averse to the African colonial
wars waged by Portugal.
The putschists invited Gen.
Antonio de Spinola - a moderate who had been sacked by Prime Minister
Caetano - to head the new government. But Gen. Spinola attempted to
delay the process of granting independence to African territories and
suggested a Portuguese Commonwealth-consisting of Portugal and
semi-autonomous provinces in Africa.
In September 1974 (after
being in power for hardly five months), Gen. Spinola was forced to
resign. A new junta was formed and entrusted with the responsibility of
granting independence to African territories within a year. Within the
same month (September 1974) Guinea Bissau was granted its independence;
and in June 1975, Mozambique became independent. But power struggle
among Angola's three movements delayed independence.
Despite the on-going
MPLA-FNLA-UNITA power struggle, the Portuguese military rulers however
managed to sign an agreement with the three move¬ments in October 1974;
and November 11,1975 was set as Angola's date of independence. The
three movements then accepted to set up a transitional government-a
government which when formed never functioned.
But Portugal failed by
not organising and supervising independence general elections in
Angola. How could and had the same happened elsewhere a colonial
power like Portugal entrust the security of its former colony onto a
bunch of quarrelling guerrillas, and even before arranging and
supervising fair elections?
National Movements and New States in Africa