From: pmmst8+@pitt.edu (Makala P Mweene)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: Questions about Angola
Date: 26 Jan 93 20:28:42 GMT
Organization: University of Pittsburgh

>
>I was surprised to see that, according to the text, only 10 % of the
>Angolan peple speak Portuguese. The enciclopedia also says that a fewer
>percentage speak Portuguese as their main language. I have always thinken
>that the number of people speaking Portuguese in Angola was much higher.
>Could somebody confirm that information?

Although Angola has the greatest mineral wealth of any country in the 
whole world, infact it is woefully underdeveloped. The majority of its
people are rural peasants who are illiterate.

As you know, the country was under Portuguese rule for 400 hundred years 
In that time Portugal filled the country with hundreds of thousands of it
s own lower classes. Coming from the poorest country in Europe, these peop
le were often as illiterate as the Africans they found. They were
hence very insecure and made sure to maintain the Africans in as backward
a condition as possible.

From the very beggining Africans ferociously fought the Portuguese. The
Mbundu under Queen Nzinga, dumbfounded and comfounded Portuguese slavers
for as long Period of time. The Portuguese with the help of gun powder
eventually prevailed, though. As a result millions of Africans were carted
away to slavery through the harbour of Luanda. Infact I have seen it said
that 4/5 th of the slaves who went to Brazil came from central Africa through
Angola. So infact you are interested in the right country.

The foregoing is a small part of the reason why Africans so deeply resented
and despised Portugal and its citizens. It explains why Africans had no de
sire to learn Portuguese or any other foreign language.

>      I am a Brazilian with a lot of interest in Africa (Brazilian culture
>is tremendously influenced by Africa) and now I am trying  to learn more a-
>bout Angola. I have been following the news on the Angolan civil war in this
>group. As far as I understood, Savimbi's UNITA made the progress toward peace
>virtually impossible by rejecting his defeat in the internationally monitored
>elections. The question that comes to my mind is what would have been the
>Western response if the Sandinistas have done the same after their electoral
>defeat in Nicaragua. Is that a matter of double standards?

I think you raise a valid point. Angola is a huge country with a population of 
11 million. 60% are associated with the Mbundu ethnic groupd which is located
in the central and South Western areas of the country. The bakongo and the
Lunda form other big ethnic groups. 

Savimbi began his career as senior official in MPLA, which at the time was the
main group resisting the hated Portuguese. Angola and Mozambique were unique
in the sense that they administered as provinces, not colonies of Portugal.
In 1964, at the instigatiuon of the CIA, he formed UNITA. This counter-revo
lutionary organinsation masquaraded as a freedom fighting unit, but infact it
served the interests of Portugal the same way that Buthelezis IFP serves white
South African interests in South Africa. In 1975 Salazar was overthrown in
Portugal and replaced by Caitano. He immediately declared Angola and Mozambiq
ue free to go. 
    In Angola, the hundreds of Portuguese there were incensed. They initiated
a wrecking spree. What they could not carry with them, they destroyed. They
destroyed office furniture, windows, smashed type writers etc. Of the 3000
trucks on which the transport industry was based, they destroyed 2800. 
    At independence UNITA and another CIA sponored outfit, the Zaire based
FNLA revolted. UNITA immediately invited South Africa (after it was clear 
that MPLA was well positioned to win any election) which siezed a great part
of the country South of the capital Luanda. In response, Angola solicited 
Cuban help. The Cubans soundly trounced and totally ejected the South Africans
from the country.....

  and thus began the situation which drags on to this day...


makala
 


>       As a last word, I would appreciate if somebody could tell what is the
>actual per capita income in Angola and how the country ranks among the Afri-
>can nations (economically).
>
>Thanks,
>
>Danilo Fonseca.
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african