Causes Of Conflict In Angola

Chng Jing Rong (6)

404

Assignment 1

Question: Analyze the causes of conflict in Angola.

In 1975 to 2002, there was a major civil conflict which occurred in the African country of Angola, with some brief periods of fragile peace. It was known as the Angolan Civil War and it had began immediately after the Angolan War of Independence (1961-1974) ended. By the time the Angolan Civil War ended, it had "killed an estimated 800,000 people and displaced nearly 4 million from their homes" (Dietrich,2000). Other than that, Angola 's infrastructure was devastated by the war and the nation 's public administration, economic enterprises, religious institutions and others were extremely damaged.

There were many causes pertaining to the conflict. One

The ethnic tension between the three liberation movements happened in the Angolan War of Independence prior to independence and they are rooted in differing positions within colonial society. Because of the colonization before 1975, combining and placing vastly differing ethnicities under one centrally administered colonial territory ended up politicizing ethnicity. There was also the introducing and the imposing of racial and class divisions which aggravated the already existing ethnic cleavages. Due to this, the different ethnic groups supported different liberation movements in the Angolan Civil War for the purpose of opposing the other ethnic groups which had supported the other liberation movements (though it might not be the main reason for most), just like the Ovimbundu ethnic group utilizing UNITA as a way to oppose the other ethnic groups supporting MPLA and FNLA. With the ethnic tension, the ethnic group would not want to the other ethnic groups to be in power and hence they fought for their ethnic group to become the government. Without the ethnic tension, the people would have been free to support the movement that they feel was the best to lead them, rather than fighting for their ethnic group to be the one with the

"Angola spans around 481,226 square miles along the southwest coast of Africa, and is notably rich in mineral reserves, including oil, iron, copper, bauxite, diamonds and uranium" (South African History Online, 2000). With the plentiful amount of natural resources, the resource wealth became a means of funding the on-going war between UNITA and MPLA with both parties extensively and intensely exploiting the country 's oil and diamond reserves. During the years of civil war, UNITA was able to capture several major diamond mines (by capturing the areas of Lunda Sul and Lunda Norte Provinces) which served as a primary resource for financing arms and fuel and funding the guerrilla campaigns against the MPLA. UNITA financed itself with sales from diamonds, which came to be called “blood diamonds” for their role in fueling the war. The MPLA, on the other hand, relied mainly on sales of oil. With the help of the natural resources -an amplification cause-, both parties were able to trade the diamonds and oil with other countries in return for weapons and manpower, outside of what their allies had provided them with. Without the natural resources, both parties would have to rely on their allies ' help and the amount of weapons and manpower would have been slightly lesser than what it had been with the natural resources. In a way, the diamonds and the oil had prolonged the civil war and worsened the