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Angola The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola
The earliest anticolonialist political group in Angola,
founded
about 1953, was the Party of the United Struggle of
Africans of
Angola (Partido da Luta Unida dos Africanos de Angola --
PLUA). In
December 1956, the PLUA combined with other organizations
in Luanda
to form the MPLA, whose aim was to achieve independence
for Angola
by means of a united front of all African interests. After
many of
its leaders were arrested in March 1959, the party moved
its
headquarters to Conakry, Guinea. The MPLA's first leader,
Mário de
Andrade, an educated mestiço and a poet, gave the
party a
reputation for representing primarily the interests of
urban
intellectuals rather than the indigenous masses.
The MPLA traces its Marxist-Leninist origins to its
ties with
the clandestine Portuguese Communist Party (Partido
Comunista
Português--PCP). The initial MPLA manifesto called for an
end to
colonialism and the building of a modern society free of
prejudice,
a goal that could be realized only after a lengthy period
of
political preparation followed by a revolutionary
struggle. The
MPLA leadership sought a definite direction and a set of
objectives
for the independence struggle, in contrast with the broad
nationalist approach of its greatest rival for supremacy
in the
struggle, the FNLA. Thus, the MPLA's program, outlined in
a policy
document in the 1960s, avoided a stated commitment to
socialism or
Marxism-Leninism, but it clearly alluded to the movement's
adherence to Marxist-Leninist principles and the
Nonaligned
Movement. The organization's leftist orientation attracted
the
support of the Soviet Union and China, both of which
envisioned
prospects for a foothold in Africa provided by a ruling
MarxistLeninist vanguard party.
Data as of February 1989
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