The Pango Mutiny: Part 1 – the Brutal Sunday
On 13 May 1984, at the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) camp in Pango, approximately 45 kilometres from Quibaxe town, north of Luanda, a group of armed mutineers attempted to disarm the guards keeping watch of the armoury. When one of the guards refused to surrender his weapon, he was shot and injured by the armed mutineers, and it ended in a bloody takeover of the camp by the mutineers.
This situation had been simmering for some time, three months after the suppression of the mutiny at Viana camp, and the arrest of the first group, in Luanda. The group considered to be the main instigators and ringleaders of the mutiny were arrested on 16 February 1984, while the remaining soldiers at Viana were transported in military vehicles to two MK camps, north of Luanda, Pango and Quibaxe.
These two camps, Pango and Quibaxe, were part of the oldest camps of the African National Congress (ANC) in Angola. Quibaxe was established in 1977, and Pango was created following the closure of Novo Catengue, colloquially known as “The University of the South”, in Benguela Province, in March 1979. The two camps were evacuated in 1983 following a mobilisation of the entire MK forces in preparation for the war against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), known as the “Luta Contra Bandidos”, in Malanje province, leaving them with only a few guerrillas to man their defences. On their arrival, the guerrillas from Viana ha
