Day of the Fallen against the Colonial Repression

The early history of Angola was defined by the emergence of powerful Bantu-speaking states which were later consumed by conflicts resulting from nearly 500 years of Portuguese colonial occupation. Angola’s modern history is defined by a nearconstant state of civil war that only ended in 2002.

Portugal granted Angola independence on November 11, 1975, at a time when multiple Angolan nationalist forces were fighting among themselves to establish control over the newly liberated state.

During the war for Independence in the 1960s and early 1970s, many Angolans held a negative view of the Catholic Church, which they primarily associated with the oppressive colonial regime. Having suffered sometimes severe repression under Portuguese colonial administrators, large numbers of Angolan Protestants participated in revolts against the Portuguese.