Training
In Angola, since 2006, a six-year education has been
officially compulsory, but resource scarcity and widespread
poverty mean that access is poor for the majority of the
population. There are major differences regionally. Schools
are poorly developed in rural areas, especially in the
eastern and southern parts. During the Civil War, every
fourth school building was destroyed, which has increased
the burden on existing schools. Many of these have
three-shift teaching in primitive premises. Teachers often
have poor education and a high workload. The government has
increased funding for the school system and is investing
heavily in the education of more teachers and the
construction of new schools. See TOPSCHOOLSINTHEUSA for TOEFL, ACT, SAT testing locations and high school codes in Angola.
Parallel to primary education, adult education and
literacy have increased. About 70% of the population (2009)
is estimated to be able to read, compared with 53% in 1990,
but illiteracy is more prevalent among women than among men.
There is generally a large shortage of educated labor. As a
result, we have launched an investment in more technical
vocational schools and an expansion of Agostinho Neto
University in Luanda (the country's only), which will have a
capacity for 16,000 students.
The Second War of Liberation
The international solidarity with the independence
movements and Portugal's military decline in Angola,
Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau, as well as internal
difficulties in Portugal, caused the army to lose hope for a
military victory. It paved the way for the internal revolt
in the Portuguese military, which on April 25, 1974 brought
Oliveira Salazar and Marcelo Caetano dictatorship to a fall
in Portugal.
The Portuguese officer movement explicitly recognized the
right of the African colonies to self-determination and
independence, and invited MPLA, FNLA and UNITA to join with
Portugal in a transitional government for independence. The
basis for this transitional government was established with
the Alvor Agreements in January 1975. At this time, however,
the political and ideological disagreements between the
three organizations were so insurmountable that the
agreement was never implemented. FNLA received direct
support from the US intelligence and military assistance
from Zaire . UNITA was supported by the racist regime in
South Africa and by the colonists, while the MPLA allied
with the socialist countries.
President Spinola, who succeeded Caetano in Portugal,
tried to prevent the MPLA from gaining power in Angola. He
joined negotiations with Daniel Chipenda , who had
broken with the MPLA in 1973 and formed a liberation
movement in Cabinda Province, FLEC. However, following the
fall of Spinola, the Portuguese officer movement recognized
the MPLA (and not FLEC). FNLA and UNITA now launched a
series of attacks against the MPLA's positions in Luanda,
leading to a fierce battle for the rule of the capital. In
the north, FNLA was reinforced by units from Zaire's regular
army, UNITA received weapons and other supplies from Zambia
and Zaire, and in October 1975, South African units moved in
from Namibia to support the fight against the MPLA. On
November 11, 1975, it was decided in advance to end the day
of colonial rule. In Luanda, the MPLA proclaimed the
People's Republic of Angola with Agostinho Neto as
president, while FNLA/UNITA in Huambo created another
government. By early 1976, however, the FNLA was struck in
the north, the South Africans were stopped 300 kilometers
south of Luanda and during the spring of 1976, the MPLA
gained control of most of the country. In the same year, the
UN recognized the MPLA government as the country's
legitimate government. The MPLA's victory in the civil and
intervention wars was due to several factors: the high
morale of the MPLA, the Liberation Army, supplies of heavy
war materiel from the Soviet Union, and the support of
several thousand Cuban soldiers.
National reconstruction
The economic situation in the country was very serious.
The war had paralyzed production in the northern and
southern parts of the country. The 14 years of guerrilla war
and one year of civil and intervention war had destroyed the
entire infrastructure in Angola. The roughly 200,000
Portuguese who left the country before independence brought
with them much of the technical equipment and means of
transport and sabotaged the industry. Roads and bridges were
destroyed, plantations and villages sweated, and it was not
until 1977 that the transport system worked so well that
food supplies could be transported from one part of the
country to the other. The industry was undergoing
reconstruction. The health care system that was exclusively
built on the whites in the colonial era was reshaped.
Schools were expanded while free education was introduced
for all.
In this difficult situation, the Government of Angola
began the reconstruction and the country's main production
centers, as well as the upgrading of the poorly prepared
labor. In this way, a significant government sector
developed, becoming the main engine of the economy. The
banks and other sectors that were considered stretegical
were nationalized.
Political clarification in MPLA
Politically, the MPLA's minimum program - National
Liberation - was met with the victory of "the Second
Liberation War". After 20 years of fighting, the MPLA had
changed character, had widened and better contact with the
population. It had an impact on the ideology. It had
probably always had a socialist perspective, but had been
subordinate to the minimum program. The Central Committee
meeting in October 1976 decided that the MPLA should be
based on "scientific socialism" - unlike many forms of
"African socialism" which, according to President Neto at
the time, were usually only a cover for neo-colonialism.
The revolution in Angola, which was initially neither
proletarian nor one-sided bourgeois-nationalist, went with
these decisions beyond national emancipation. The
perspective now became a real economic independence with the
abolition of national capitalism and its attachment to
foreign multinational corporations. It was against this
background that a number of banks, plantations and
industries were nationalized. |
