In the name of the people – Angola’s forgotten massacre
Angola’s post-colonial history is marked by a particular brand of suffering. It has housed one of the world’s longest civil wars, responsible for the death of more than 300,000 people and one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. Angola’s struggles have not waned since the end of the civil war, as it remains of the most unequal countries in the world where a minority of people benefit from its oil-related wealth, and the rest struggle with day-to-day survival. Long before independence the country was already torn apart by warring revolutionary parties divided on racial and ideological lines. The MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of the People) was a Marxist-Socialist party supported by Russian and Cuban powers. UNITA (the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) was by contrast supported by the CIA and South Africa’s apartheid government. Finally, the FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola) backed by both the CIA and Zaire (modern day DR Congo). The battle was underpinned by race and cold war politics , making the “Angolan question” one that was often more concerned with Western – or American – imperialism and wider fears of the rise in communist ideals than about the freedom of Angolans from Portugese rule.