1960-2010: “The Year of Africa” 50 Years On (I)

Here we are – in 2010!
The beginning of a new decade and of the celebration of a founding moment in History: half a century since 1960, popularly known as “The Year of Africa” – the year of independence for 17 African countries.

Angola, however, was not among them. There and then I was born amidst a host of spurring events that would lead to the 14-year long struggle for independence that ensued from the following year until 1974. Elsewhere in the region, in that year events such as the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa were also to shape the continent’s 1960s decade.

Today, 50 years after “The Year of Africa” and on the way to the 35th anniversary of its independence from Portugal, Angola hosts an event that is also meant in some way to celebrate Africa and its achievements, in this instance in the realm of the 'king of sports': football and its Cup of African Nations (CAN).


Unfortunately, though, in an incident still reminiscent of Africa’s colonial legacy of arbitrarily drawn borders by the Europeans at the Berlin Conference , its start was stained by the saddening and indefensible event of a guerrilla attack, in Cabinda, to the participating team of Togo while in the bus on the road to their dreams of glory and victories at the stadiums so painstakingly built over the last few years for this continental event. Sad and damning.


Sad for all of us, but damning only for a faction of the FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) pro-independence movement. 50 years of so many bloody struggles for independence in Africa, and markedly in Angola, have surely left a number of profound lessons to be learned from for all of us. Among them, that indiscriminate, senseless bloodshed is hardly the way to achieve anything – certainly not immediate independence, self-determination or, perhaps most importantly, self-respect... But it has happened and all we have left is our deep sorrow for the team of Togo, the families of the athletes dead in the attack and their country.


Let us now hope that the CAN 2010 in Angola pursues its road to the success it deserves!

Here we are – in 2010!
The beginning of a new decade and of the celebration of a founding moment in History: half a century since 1960, popularly known as “The Year of Africa” – the year of independence for 17 African countries.

Angola, however, was not among them. There and then I was born amidst a host of spurring events that would lead to the 14-year long struggle for independence that ensued from the following year until 1974. Elsewhere in the region, in that year events such as the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa were also to shape the continent’s 1960s decade.

Today, 50 years after “The Year of Africa” and on the way to the 35th anniversary of its independence from Portugal, Angola hosts an event that is also meant in some way to celebrate Africa and its achievements, in this instance in the realm of the 'king of sports': football and its Cup of African Nations (CAN).


Unfortunately, though, in an incident still reminiscent of Africa’s colonial legacy of arbitrarily drawn borders by the Europeans at the Berlin Conference , its start was stained by the saddening and indefensible event of a guerrilla attack, in Cabinda, to the participating team of Togo while in the bus on the road to their dreams of glory and victories at the stadiums so painstakingly built over the last few years for this continental event. Sad and damning.


Sad for all of us, but damning only for a faction of the FLEC (Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda) pro-independence movement. 50 years of so many bloody struggles for independence in Africa, and markedly in Angola, have surely left a number of profound lessons to be learned from for all of us. Among them, that indiscriminate, senseless bloodshed is hardly the way to achieve anything – certainly not immediate independence, self-determination or, perhaps most importantly, self-respect... But it has happened and all we have left is our deep sorrow for the team of Togo, the families of the athletes dead in the attack and their country.


Let us now hope that the CAN 2010 in Angola pursues its road to the success it deserves!