MPLA–FNLA Clashes in Luanda

The MPLA–FNLA Clashes in Luanda were a struggle for control of the Angolan capital and part of a wider contest between two rival movements. In 1975, FNLA troops attacked civilians who had declared for the MPLA; by July, the MPLA had driven FNLA divisions from Luanda and controlled most of Angola’s territory. The book presents this conflict not only through advances and battles, but through the rumours, appeals, and official accounts that made the course of the war difficult to judge.

Rival Movements and Constituencies

The FNLA emerged when the UPA changed its name on 23 March 1962. Its leader, Holden Roberto, had been president of the UPA and had spent most of his life in the Congo, where he maintained extensive business interests. The account characterizes the FNLA as a strictly Bakongo organization, committed to reviving the Bakongo kingdom and incorporating the rest of Angola into it. It also notes the movement’s Protestant connections and financial support through the Baptist Church from the American Committee on Africa.

The account describes the rivalry as having religious as well as political overtones: the FNLA was Protestant, while many members of the MPLA were Catholic. These distinctions accompanied competing claims to Angola’s future; they did not make the two movements interchangeable, or reduce their conflict to religion alone.

Fighting for Luanda and Caxito

In March 1975, bloody riots broke out in Luanda. The capital’s civilian population had declared for the MPLA, but FNLA troops attacked them. The episode makes the city’s political allegiance a direct stake in the armed struggle: civilians were caught in violence between movements, rather than standing outside the contest for power.

The fighting also reached Caxito, more than sixty kilometres north of Luanda. After a battle there at dawn, Comandante Ndozi’s MPLA unit seized the town from the FNLA. The MPLA political commissar, Comandante Ju-Ju, announced the result by telephone, and the narrator learned that travel to Caxito might soon be possible. The capture was part of a wider sequence of shifting control, not a settlement of the conflict.

By July, the MPLA had liberated Luanda from FNLA divisions, and most of Angola’s territory had come under MPLA control. This was a consequential reversal in the contest over the capital, but the account’s later descriptions of enemy-held territory and a threatened advance make clear that control of Luanda did not mean the war was securely decided.

Warnings, Rumours, and Wartime Accounts

The threat to Luanda circulated through claims as well as combat. In September, a black, unmarked plane dropped leaflets saying Holden Roberto’s army was outside the city and would enter soon. The leaflets urged the population to kill Russian, Hungarian, and Polish commanders of MPLA units, blaming them for the war and the country’s misfortunes. The narrator, Rysiek, notes that he was the only person from Eastern Europe in Angola at the time. PIDE gangs also prowled Luanda, asking hotels who was staying there; with no functioning authorities, even a knock at a door could feel like a danger to him. The leaflets’ call and the presence of the gangs form part of the atmosphere in which the MPLA–FNLA struggle was experienced, though the account does not identify who distributed the leaflets.

As Holden Roberto announced that he would enter Luanda, artillery fire began before dawn and the city filled with panic. A further leaflet bore the image of Holden Roberto and presented him as ruling on earth under God’s authority. The narrator was offered temporary shelter by Dona Cartagina, whose plan was to present him as her son. Such episodes show how the anticipated battle reached into civilian routines and personal arrangements before control of the city changed hands.

The MPLA’s own radio communiqués supplied another, competing account of events. Ju-Ju read them each evening. When matters were going well, the reports were brief; when the situation worsened, they grew longer and more laden with praise for the MPLA and denunciations of its enemies. The narrator used the length and tone of the broadcast as an informal measure of the front: a prolonged communiqué suggested that something had gone wrong. Later, with half the country in enemy hands, Ju-Ju still read an optimistic account that made MPLA victory seem imminent. The discrepancy between calls to defend the city and assurances of success, the narrator observes, risked weakening rather than strengthening public confidence.

Outcome and Significance

The movement of the front, the attack on MPLA-supporting civilians, and the rival public accounts together depict the conflict as both a fight for territory and a struggle over political allegiance and credibility. The MPLA’s capture of Caxito and expulsion of FNLA forces from Luanda marked important gains, while reports of an approaching army and the later description of extensive enemy-held territory kept the outcome uncertain. The contrast between battlefield danger and confident communiqués is central to the account: people were asked to act in a decisive crisis while being given grounds to believe that victory was already assured.