Angola Liberation Movement (MPLA) Founded (1956)

Mon Dec 10, 1956

Image

Image: An MPLA poster commemorating the organization’s anniversary [digitalcommons.colum.edu]

On this day in 1956, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was founded in a merger between 2 smaller communist and anti-colonial parties. The MPLA was a major faction in the Angolan Civil War, which lasted until 2002.

The MPLA fought for liberation from Portuguese colonizers, alongside the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and CLSTP, forerunner of the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe.

From 1961 to 1974, the MPLA waged a guerrilla war against the colonial government in Angola. Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal, the newly-established Portuguese military government granted Angola independence, which was to be led by a coalition of different anti-colonial liberation armies.

The coalition quickly broke apart, erupting into a civil war between the MPLA, the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), and the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The MPLA won the war, and has ruled Angola since 1975.

At its first congress in 1977, the MPLA adopted Marxism-Leninism as its official ideology. Receiving military support from Cuba and the Soviet Union, they maintained control over most territory in Angola, despite extensive aid to the FNLA and UNITA from South Africa, Zaire, and the United States.

Both the MPLA and UNITA were complicit in war crimes; more than 500,000 civilians were killed during the civil war. UNITA soldiers kidnapped and abused children, using them as child soldiers.

After the end of the Cold War and collapse of the Soviet Union, the MPLA renounced Marxism-Leninism in favor of social democracy. Though no longer a proxy war between the USA and the USSR, the Angolan Civil War lasted until 2002, when a peace agreement was finally reached in victory for the MPLA.