Frente de Resistência Angolana

Frente de Resistência Angolana was a settler-backed organization described as seeking to remove Angola from Portuguese rule and establish a state for white settlers. Its brief appearance in the historical account connects it to the financing of UNITA but gives it a distinct leadership and political objective.

Formation and Leadership

The account links the organization’s creation to Portuguese settlers who had financed UNITA and later established the Frente de Resistência Angolana. It names Colonel Gilberto Santos e Castro and the millionaire and banker Antonio Espírito Santo as its leaders. No date for the FRA’s formation or further account of its organization is provided.

Political Aim

The FRA’s leaders wanted to wrest Angola from Portugal and create a state governed by white settlers, with Ian Smith’s Rhodesia offered as their point of comparison. The stated aim sets the organization apart from a movement for Angolan self-government: the account presents its project as replacing Portuguese rule with a settler state.

Relation to UNITA

The account places the FRA in the same political history as UNITA through the Portuguese settlers’ financing of the earlier organization and their subsequent creation of the FRA. It identifies Jonas Savimbi as UNITA’s creator and leader, but identifies Gilberto Santos e Castro and Antonio Espírito Santo as the FRA’s leaders. The passage does not describe the FRA as a branch of UNITA, nor does it assign the FRA UNITA’s recruitment base.