When the first Portuguese arrived in 1482, led by captain named Diogo
Cão, highly organized societies already existed in the territories
that were later to become the country of Angola - the Kingdom of the
Congo, (for example, with its vasssels of Loango, Koakongo, Ngoyo, Bata
and Ndongo), or the Kingdom of Lunda with its neighbours Luba and Kozembe
(traditional communities governed by similar social systems such as the
case of Yakason Bateke tribes and, in the south and center, the Bushman
tribes who had no knowledge of farming or animal-rearing, nor learned
to work iron.
At the start, relations were cordial between the Portuguese
and the local authorities who allowed the new arrivals to spread the word
of Christianity. The Congo even changed its name and became the Kingdom
of Don Afonso I, while its capital became São Salvador.
Later, with the development of manufacturing in the
Americas the Portuguese engaged themselves in the slave trade. The slaves
were capture and transported to America, São Tome and Brazil (these
las two were Portuguese colonies).
The slaves trade grew in important and it was too late
when the King of Congo finally tried to stop it. Wars of conquest and
of devastation were to continue sucessively for more than a century -
Ndongo in 1670, for example, was a Kingdom in ruins, among those that
had resisted the Portuguese conquest the most valiantly, and the exploits
of Queen Nzinga are memorable.Let us mention a few of all those unforget
table names who wrote the history of a people refusing slavery - Ngola
Kanini who carried to perfection the tactic of attacking the economic
centers of colonialism, the Jagas who were distinguished in guerrilha
warfare, Kuikui II who set up the first bases in the region of Bailundo
specially to keep the people independent of the invader, and Mutu Ya Kavela
and Tulante Bula who fought resolutely against all forms of oppression.
These are a few examples among many. The Portuguese
were able to advance into the country thanks to the divisions that they
created amongst the Angolan peoples. But it was only about 1900 that they
succeeded in controlling the whole of this vast territory which constitutes
today the Republic of Angola. They practically ruined it during the intervening
years. The Angolan people continued to resist Portuguese domination even
after 1900. Resistance to the invader finally attained its day of triumph,
after four centuries of ferocious oppression and intensive exploitation:
on 11 November 1975 (date of the proclamation on of National Independence)
victory was achieved after a long war of liberation, conducted since 1961
by the People´s Movement for the Liberation of Angola, the MPLA
- political moviment that united all the true patriots decided to overcome
Portuguese colonialism by armed warfare.
After independence, the MPLA had to cope with militarist
and neo-colonialistic at- tempts to return to the previous situation by
using puppet movements the FNLA and the UNITA. Then MPLA had to resist
local invasions provoked by the former South African apartheid regime.
The Angolan people, firm and decided under the guidance
of the MPLA and the President of the Republic of Angola, José Eduardo
dos Santos, is maintaining alive the flame of combat for national unity,
democracy, freedom, independence and progress of the country.