“Peace is already a reality in our country.  We are already living it.” Marcela Sabrinho

 

Angola has suffered many years since it gain independence from Portugal in 1975. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola party, backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba, became the country’s ruling party after independence.  In a Cold War move, the United States and South Africa supported a rival party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi. The International participants provided arms for the warring parties, fueling a bloody civil war. In 1992, Angola’s first multiparty elections took place. Savimbi, who ran as the UNITA candidate, came in second. The election ended in bloodshed and another two years of combat ensued. In 1994, a cease-fire agreement was signed in Lusaka, Zambia, but UNITA rearmed and the civil war resumed in 1998.

 

On February 22, 2002, Jonas Savimbi was killed in battle. His second-in-command, António Dembo, was also reported dead. Government troops, encouraged by President Bush’s remarks on ending terrorism, caused considerable damage to UNITA. The rebels and their families, isolated in rural areas, were ready to lay down their arms in return for basic necessities, such as food, shelter, and medical care. A new cease-fire agreement was signed on April 4, 2002, in Luanda.

 

After nearly four decades of war, before and after independence, much of the country’s infrastructure is in ruins. Landmines have claimed thousands of lives and crippled many. More mines remain unexploded, laying waste to good farmland. Thousands of people from the countryside, especially in the conflicted northern and eastern areas, sought refuge in Luanda but were never really absorbed as workers. Now they must be resettled. Is this a real peace for Angola? New World Outlook asked United Methodist bishops José Quipungo and Gaspar Domingos for their thoughts on Angola’s future.

 

Bishop José Quipungo: This cease fire is completely different from any other in the past. It inspires much more confidence and certainty than previous agreements.  Peace is here to stay. The reason for this is clear: one man, Jonas Savimbi, whose project was continuing this war, is dead. Those who stayed in the bush and fought beside him did so out of loyalty, but Savimbi wanted power at all costs. His followers did not necessarily agree with this ideology. Once he was killed, his followers were willing to adhere to the Lusaka Peace Accord.

 

We are assured of this peace because those who had the guns in their hands stopped the fighting—not the diplomats, the politicians, or the government officials. Both sides, the rebels and the government forces, immediately stopped the fighting. The agreements are so far being applied in full. The military officers of UNITA are coming out of the bush to the demobilization areas.

 

There are two important tasks that the government is undertaking right now. The first is to organize camps for the rebels and their families who were isolated in the bush. The second task is to mobilize all the resources necessary to provide the camps with food, shelter, and the basic supplies needed for decent living conditions.  The United Nations will provide some humanitarian aid.

 

There is an urgent need to return to normal life, but if the people expect too much and they do not receive the things they want quickly, there may be trouble.  They want a home, a car, the material things they have gone without. Their wanting to “have” is much stronger than their knowing how to obtain what they want. We’re hoping that the peace will allow people to reflect calmly—to learn a better way of life than the craziness that gripped us under the pretext of war. They need to acquire the necessary skills for a trade, to work for what they want.

 

 

The church speaks for peace.  We have always spoken for peace and reconciliation, but now our message is urgent. Now that the war has stopped, there are no victors, no defeated. We all lost something. All sides need to come together and work out the peace.

 

Even before the peace accords were signed, there was a great celebration—a great festival atmosphere and a great sense of relief. People had lived in tension and fear, and now they no longer have reasons to be afraid. Everyone raised their hands to the sky and said: “This time God has heard us.” In all the cities and in all the villages, in every corner, people celebrated with whatever they had. Some cried, others shouted—their behavior was unpredictable, as they had never felt this way before.

 

For The United Methodist Church in Angola, this is a new moment. We are able to reach out into those corners where we couldn’t before because it was not safe. Where roads were destroyed we couldn’t travel. Now we can travel on foot, on bicycle, or by car to spread the Gospel to all corners. We hope to rehabilitate the facilities that we lost—Quessua, Negaje, and many churches. We hope to resume activities in those areas of the north.

 

We have whole generations today that have been born and raised in a state of war—my colleague, Bishop Domingos, for example. This is the first time he has ever lived in a time of peace.

 

We’ve always thought: “We, too, are sons and daughters of God.” This war did not end simply because of the human efforts of a rebel leader and government officials. The common folk here believe that God has put an end to this war, not politicians, not the military, not the rebels. God has heard our prayer. A new situation, a delicate situation, has been created.

 

The church will receive those who left. When they come back to the villages from the cities or from the bush (and they are coming back), they will have a home in the church. Although the church doesn’t have the resources to help all the displaced people, it is doing what it can. Our churches are overflowing. Even before the war ended, our numbers were growing. The United Methodist Church strives to be a self-sustaining church, but with so many displaced people now returning with nothing, to nothing, we are in an odd situation. Instead of the members supporting the church, the members expect the church to support them.

 

Bishop Gaspar Domingos: There is a great enthusiasm right now among all the people concerning the peace process, especially in the churches. For so long, the church has pushed for dialogue between the rebels and the government. Congregation members would gather for prayer and fasting, praying for peace. We are happy that this turn of events has made a new dialogue possible. We have a lot of resources in the church that the country needs to build on this peace.

 

We are pleased to see that the military took the first step in negotiation with the rebels. The people know that with the military behind it, the peace will stand. The church continues to push for the same commitment on the part of the politicians to make this peace work. And we insist that the dialogue needs to be more inclusive. We feel that all Angolans need to be involved in discussing what the state is planning in the long-term process for peace.

 

We called upon the churches to hold a service of thanksgiving on May 4. We continue to focus on the peace. It was very worthwhile for us to bend out knees and pray for peace because it has come about. The church is also collecting clothing and other goods to take to those who were living in the conflict zones.

 

A year ago, we had just five young students who were studying to become pastors. We had one seminary professor who was also the theological school’s dean. We had to close the seminary in Negaje because it was in a conflict zone in the northern part of the country. We have reopened the seminary this year in Luanda with 16 professors and 45 candidates for ministry. We had to turn people away because so many wanted to apply.

 

Our church has the human resources needed to spread the Gospel, but we lack material resources. The infrastructure of the country was such that we could not train the people who were in the conflict zones, but the people were willing.

 

We have been asked how the international community should participate in this peace process. We appeal to those countries that accompanied us during the war, those who supported opposite sides of the conflict, to support us now in the peace process. We think that it is most important for the international community to listen to Angolans as we embark on this process. Do not bring us preconceived notions of how this process should work. It is not helpful to receive aid from those who bring their own agendas. Just listen to the Angolans; we can tell you our story. Angola must define for itself what these first steps toward peace will be.

 

* Bishops José Quipungo of the East Angola Conference and Gaspar Domingos of the West Angola Conference have served the episcopacy since 2000.

 

HEALTH AND WOMEN’S MINISTRIES IN ANGOLA

Dr. Luarinda Vidal Quipungo is the chancellor of East Angola Conference’s ministries with women, children, and youth, and also the director of the Health Department for The United Methodist Church in Angola. When she and José Quipungo were first married, she had finished the 6th grade level in her education. She took several years off when her first two children were born. Then she went back to school for a few years until the next two children were born. The Quipungos have six children. But Dr. Quipungo says her husband helped out with the family during her studies. Eventually she finished high school, college, and finally medical school.   Today she works for Angola’s state health system in Melanje. In the mornings she works at the Central Hospital, but in the afternoons, she travels outside the city to provide care for the displaced people in outlying areas. In the East Angola Conference, the 8000-acre Quessua mission station had provided a hospital, theological school, nurses’ training center, and agricultural school, but all of it was destroyed in the war. Dr. Quipungo established a health post in the outlying area, using her own salary from the hospital in Melanje. She has built the post up little by little and now has a 6-bed facility and three nurses to assist her. She is the only doctor for miles a round. The GBGM has provided medicine shipments to supplement what Dr. Quipungo provides.   “Now with the peace,” notes Dr. Quipungo, “people are already returning to Quessua, expecting to find something there. People from 50 or 60 kilometers away are coming, but my clinic is all there is. When I arrive in the afternoons, after working the morning in Melanje, there are 50 people waiting!”   Likewise, Marcela Sabrinho general director of women’s ministries for the West Angola Conference, says there is great need in the area of education for children and women of all ages. Because of the long-term fighting, many people in the rural areas could not attend school. Today, 50 to 60 percent of the women in these areas cannot read or write.  For the past 10 years, the women of the church in Luanda could not even visit the women in the outlying areas. The population was basically held captive.   “Now we are free,” says Sabrinho. “We can drive by car 300 kilometers to the eastern conference, whereas before, Bishop Quipungo had to fly in and out of Melanje to avoid the areas of conflict. People are flooding back into our churches. We are working with the women to open new horizons in our church, and for the society as a whole. Now we can start visiting all our districts again.”   Dr. Laurinda Vidal Quipungo and Marcela Sabrinho represented Angola at the Women’s Assembly in Philadelphia, April 2002.

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Emergency and development aid is being provided to both East and West Angola Conferences. You may contribute through UMCOR Advance #105720-5 “Angola War Recovery.”