Angola: Political Parties Material

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0101 PP.AO
Held at	: Institute of Commonwealth Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/resources/library ›
Full title	: Angola: Political Parties Material
Date(s)	: 1960-
Level of description	: Collection (Fonds)
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Detailed catalogue	: Click here to view repository detailed catalogue

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

In the course of the 1960s three major guerrilla organisations emerged in opposition to Portuguese rule over Angola. The MPLA (Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola) had its headquarters in Zambia and was Marxist in outlook whilst the FNLA (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola) was based in the Congo. The other group, founded in 1966 under the leadership of Jonas Savimbi, was UNITA (União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola). Materials from all of these parties are held here, relating primarily to their roles in the liberation struggle (before the 1974 coup in Portugal hastened its departure from its colonies), but also dealing with their part in the civil wars and repeated foreign interventions which have subsequently dogged Angola.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Manifestos, speeches, constitutions, leaflets, newspapers, convention reports and communiques issued by the Angolan Revolutionary government in exile (GRAE), the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola, the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English and French

System of arrangement:

Alphabetically by party, and then in rough chronological order.

Conditions governing access:

Open to all for research purposes; access is free for anyone in higher education.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copies can usually be obtained - apply to library staff.

Finding aids:

Records at item level on library catalogue (SASCAT)

Archival Information

Archival history:

The Commonwealth Political Parties Materials collection was begun in 1960-61, with special emphasis being placed then, as now, on "primary material such as party constitutions, policy statements, convention reports and election manifestos." (ICS, Twelfth Annual Report 1960-1961). Since then, the main method of gathering material has been to appeal directly to political parties throughout the Commonwealth, though contributions from Institute members and staff following visits to relevant countries have been significant. More recently material has been collected by means of downloading documents from the websites of the major bodies.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Institute of Commonwealth Studies

Allied Materials

Related material:

See also Political Party, Trades Unions and Pressure Group Materials for other Commonwealth countries and related material in the library's main classified sequence, all held at the ICS.

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Description compiled by Daniel Millum, Political Archives Project Officer at the Institutes of Commonwealth and Latin American Studies.

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Created 11/02/2004 AIM25