Angola Defeats Counter-Revolution: Lessons for South Africa
“Imperialism manoeuvred to sabotage our independence to divide the country, persistently trying to disrupt the MPLA through the infiltration of agents, attempts at corruption and attempts at physical liquidation. Although consistent in its reactionary activity and despite its dynamism, it never did and never will succeed in its desire to establish a neo-colonial regime in Angola.”
– Augostinho Neto, 2 February 1976 –
(Adapted from the Editorial Notes, “Angola’s Lesson for South Africa”, The African Communist, No. 65, Second Quarter 1976).
The events in Angola since the achievement of independence in November 1975 opened up a new chapter in the history of our continent. At the time that these words were written, the forces of imperialism and neo-colonialism as represented by apartheid South Africa, UNITA, FNLA and a motley ragbag of international mercenaries, whose murderous inhumanity accurately reflected the morality of their paymaster, had been routed.
All the main centres of Angola were in the hands of the MPLA and their allies, and the People’s Republic of Angola had won official recognition as an official member of the Organisation of African Unity. The way had been cleared for the people of Angola to move towards the era of peace and independence for which they had struggled and suffered so long.
It is, of course, too early to say that all is over bar the shouting. Too much is
