Angola
POPULATION 10,593,171
AFRICAN INDIGENOUS BELIEFS 47 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 38 percent
PROTESTANT 15 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
The Republic of Angola lies on the southwestern coast of Africa. It is bordered by Zaire on the north and east, Zambia on the southeast, Namibia on the south, and the Atlantic Ocean on the west. Also part of the country is Cabinda, a small enclave to the north along the Atlantic coast, which is separated from the rest of Angola by Zaire.
In precolonial times the region was inhabited by people with various political and religious traditions, some of which continue to be important. There was contact between the area and Portugal from the end of the fifteenth century, but formal Portuguese colonial rule was established only at the end of the nineteenth century. At the same time missionaries of various denominations sought to convert the people to Christianity. Most denominations focused their activities in a particular ethnic-linguistic region.
Beginning in 1961 nationalist movements led a war for the liberation of Angola from Portuguese rule. The most important of these were the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA; Popular Liberation Movement of Angola), which was Marxist in its outlook; the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (FNLA; National Front for the Liberation of Angola); and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (UNITA; National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), which later gained support from the West.
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