Democracy News
Uprising in Angola Falls Flat, but Signals Sentiment for Regime Change
March 15, 2011
By: Chinyelu Odunze | Printer Friendly
An attempt to organize a mass demonstration against the government in Angola’s capital city of Luanda fell flat this week. According to AllAfrica.com, only 13 people turned up on the early hours of March 7 to take part in what an anonymous internet-based organization dubbed “the Angolan People’s Revolution.” Protestors were promptly arrested, along with an accompanying team of journalists. Although the event was poorly attended, the attempted uprising indicates that a chord has been struck among Angolans who for so many years have not dared to challenge the government’s authority. Despite the low turnout, the fact that they turned up at all is evidence, many say, that the country is ready for change. Angola has been ruled by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos for nearly 32 years, who behind Libya’s Muhammad Gaddafi and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang, is the continent’s third longest serving leader.
The organizers called on Angolans to march at midnight with posters "demanding the departure of Ze Du (Dos Santos' nickname), his ministers and his corrupt friends,” AFP reports. "What outrages people is that Angola is a rich country. The government knows well that the level of discontent is growing,” said investigative journalist Rafael Marques. According to the Associated Press, Angolans also wanted to protest the country’s unequal wealth distribution. Currently, profits from the country's rich oil and diamond fields do not benefit the general population. The majority of Angola’s 18 million people live beneath the poverty line. However, during the 2008 election, more than 80 percent of voters elected the presidential party. The 2008 election was the first election held since the end of Angola’s 27-year civil war in 2002.
Reuters reports that according to the Human Rights Watch, the government warned that anyone participating in protests faced punishment for inciting violence and attempting to return the country to civil war. As a result, there were no reported large-scale opposition protests, but the government launched patriotic rallies during the weekend. On March 12, the MPLA held a peaceful, all-day demonstration.
Elias Isaac, head of Open Society's Angola office, said the country faces problems similar to those that sparked the unrest in North Africa, but was unlikely to return to violence so soon after its civil war. Isaac said, "There have only been eight years of peace here, and the people, who lost everything, aren't ready to let go of the little they've acquired," the AFP reports.
Angola is the continent's largest producer of crude oil along with Nigeria.
Sources:
AFP - Angola Arrests 15 Before Protests
AllAfrica.com - Mass Protests Fail but Activists Remain Defiant
Associated Press - Report: Angolan Govt Intimidates to Prevent March
Reuters - Angola Stifling Democracy Protests: Human Rights Watch
|
