Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola

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Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola
Flag of the FNLA
Party leader Ngola Kabangu
founding 1962
Headquarters Luanda
Alignment Political center
Website fnla.net

The Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola ( FNLA , German  National Front for the Liberation of Angola ) was founded in 1957 as União das Populações do Norte de Angola (UPNA) ("Union of the Peoples of North Angola") with the primary aim of serving the interests of the Bakongo population to represent in northwest Angola . It was later renamed União das Populações de Angola ( UPA ; German Association of the Peoples of Angola ). During the 1960s, it became one of three nationalist movements that waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule. It is now an opposition party in Angola.

history

Origin and anti-colonial war

The UPNA was one of several anti-colonial groups that formed under the Bakongo in the 1950s - parallel to similar events in other parts of Angola. The UPNA's ethnic orientation became abundantly clear when, immediately after its establishment, it petitioned the United Nations to demand the re-establishment of the Kingdom of the Congo . Its organizational headquarters were in the capital, Zaires , Léopoldville (now Kinshasa ). As early as 1958, the UPNA changed course, began to propagate Angola's independence and renamed itself União das Populações de Angola ( UPA ; German Association of the People of Angola ). In 1962 the UPA merged with another anti-colonial group, the Partido Democratico de Angola (PDA) , to form the FNLA. Its chairman was Holden Roberto , who held this office until his death in 2007.

In Léopoldville, the FNLA initially formed a joint front with the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) , but this experiment failed after just three months. Thereupon the FNLA proclaimed a "revolutionary government in exile of Angola" (Governo Revolucionário de Angola no Exílio, GRAE). This consciously avoided being limited to its original social basis. Two leaders from the Ambundu ethnic group were part of its management, and Jonas Savimbi from the Ovimbundu , who later founded UNITA, was its foreign minister . With the help of Zairean President Mobutu Sese Seko , she began to build up a military arm, the ELNA (Exército de Libertação Nacional de Angola, Army for the National Liberation of Angola), which for a number of years also received help from China . Another attempt to form a common front with the MPLA and other groups, made at the urging of the President of the Congo-Brazzaville, Fulbert Youlou , failed in 1962. This finally set the course for a struggle for independence in Angola, the various movements side by side and against each other led.

The FNLA's contribution to this struggle was historically significant, but overall small. As early as 1961, its previous form UPA had triggered an uprising in the north-western districts of Angola, especially today's province of Uíge , which turned into a wildfire and whose symbolic significance could hardly be overestimated. Militarily, however, it was suppressed relatively quickly by the hastily reinforced Portuguese troops. In the following period there was only a very small amount of guerrilla activity on the part of the FNLA, although the FNLA now had several thousand soldiers in Zaire, in a military base assigned to it in Kinkuzu. In the mid-1960s, open hostilities between the FNLA and the MPLA broke out in northwest Angola, as the latter established a guerrilla base in what is now the province of Cuanza Norte and required access via "FNLA territory". At the end of the 1960s, the FNLA (from Katanga) set up a guerrilla base in eastern Angola, north of Luena , which, however, was hardly active. At the beginning of the 1970s, the FNLA - like MPLA and UNITA for their part - no longer posed any real threat to the Portuguese colonial power.

Decolonization conflict

When Portugal announced its intention to withdraw from its colonies in 1974, the FNLA immediately invaded Angola from Zaire with massive military forces and demonstrated its presence not only in the northwest, the settlement area of ​​the Bakongo, but also very strongly in Luanda and, to a lesser extent, in the main cities of central and southern Angola. Their attempt to conquer Luanda failed because of the resistance of the MPLA, which had since been reinforced by Cuban troops and received the support of the Soviet Union . The FNLA then allied with UNITA , the third anti-colonial movement. A bloody decolonization conflict developed, in which the USA and the apartheid regime of South Africa intervened on the part of FNLA / UNITA . Together they proclaimed Angola's independence on November 11, 1975 in the city of Nova Lisboa (now Huambo ), while the MPLA did the same in Luanda. In the months that followed, the MPLA government gained the upper hand militarily. The "counter-government" in Huambo dissolved, as did the military arm of the FNLA. This began a political shadowy existence, while UNITA launched a guerrilla war against the MPLA government.

Post-colonial developments

After the declaration of independence, the MPLA established a one-party state based on the (then) Eastern European model. Other political organizations, including the FNLA, had no place in this system. While UNITA continued the military fight against the MPLA under these circumstances and thus initiated the civil war in Angola , the FNLA only participated briefly in the beginning. Rather, a process of disintegration became apparent in her. B. could be read from the fact that Holden Robert retired to Paris for years and various leading figures of the movement (Johnny Pinnock, Henrik Vaal Neto and others) defected to the MPLA and were transferred to government functions in Luanda.

When the MPLA decided to switch to a multi-party system and passed a new constitution in 1992, the FNLA was founded in all forms as a political party. In the parliamentary election in 1992, however, it only achieved 2.4% of the vote, and Holden Roberto in the presidential election only 2.1%. This result reflected the enormous loss of credibility the party had suffered under the Bakongo. This posed an acute danger for the FNLA of sinking into insignificance. It experienced a certain appreciation when the MPLA took the initiative in 1997 to form a “Government of National Unity and Reconciliation” (Governo de Unidade e Reconciliação Nacional, GURN), in which ministers from FNLA and UNITA also took part. The FNLA's situation worsened, however, when two wings emerged within the party in 1999, one “loyal to the president” and the other led by Lucas Ngonda, a lecturer in sociology at the Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda. When Holden Roberto died in 2007, Ngola Kabangu, one of the historical leaders of the FNLA, was first elected as his successor, but his election in 2009 was declared invalid by the Constitutional Court. In 2009, however, Lucas Ngonda was elected chairman, but his opponents challenged the election and the Constitutional Court also declared his election invalid in 2010. In the meantime, the FNLA's share of the vote in the second parliamentary election in 2008 had shrunk to 1.11%. It is still represented by 3 MPs in parliament, but has lost all political weight. in the 2012 elections to the Angolan National Assembly , it roughly repeated the result of 2008, but only won two seats.

Individual evidence

  1. See John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution , Volume I, The Anatomy of an Explosion , Cambridge / Mass. & London: MIT Press, 1968
  2. ^ Jean Martial Arsène Mbah, As rivalidades políticas entre a FNLA eo MPLA (1961–1965) , Luanda: Mayamba, 2012
  3. A riot of this force against their own leadership of Zairean President in 1972 with the help of Mobutu Sese Seko dejected
  4. The standard work on the history of the FNLA in the context of the entire anti-colonial resistance is John Marcum, op.cit. and Volume II, Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962–1976) , Cambridge / Mass. & London: MIT Press, 1978
  5. ^ See Franz-Wilhelm Heimer , Der Entkolonisierungskonflikt in Angola , Munich: Weltforum Verlag, 1979
  6. FNLA soldiers who fled from the MPLA in South West Africa controlled by South West Africa were united by the South African army in 32-Bataljon to then fight again as South African soldiers against the MPLA.
  7. Among the Bakongo, around a dozen small parties had formed that took votes from the FNLA, but did not receive a single MP.
  8. See Angola: Ngola Kabangu Elected FNLA President
  9. See Angola: Tribunal Constitucional anula liderança de Ngola Kabangu na FNLA
  10. See Exame (Angola) online December 18, 2010.
  11. National Electoral Commission website ( Memento of the original from April 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Portuguese)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.cne.ao