ANGOLA: A Brief Ceremony, A Long Civil War

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In a deafening barrage of automatic weapons fire, independence came to Angola at midnight last Monday after nearly 500 years as a Portuguese colony. The territory's new beginning as an independent state was inauspicious: the liberation movements that have been fighting for control of Angola (TIME, Nov. 17) promptly set up two rival republics, each with its own government and capital. Faced with these opposing claims, the last Portuguese high commissioner, Admiral Leonel Cardoso, refused to turn over authority to anyone. "I regret that it is not possible for me to participate in any ceremony to mark this great hour for the people of Angola," he said.

In Luanda, Agostinho Neto, head of the Soviet-backed M.P.L.A., announced the birth of the People's Republic of Angola. More or less at the same time, Holden Roberto of the F.N.L.A. (backed by Zaire, France and the U.S.) and Jonas Savimbi of UNITA (aided by Portuguese and South African business interests) jointly declared that they had formed the Democratic People's Republic of Angola, with a temporary capital in the southern city of Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa.

TIME Nairobi Bureau Chief Lee Griggs, who observed independence-day celebrations in Luanda, reported that "the excited M.P.L.A. soldiers began indiscriminately firing their rifles in the air. Some shots whizzed less than 20 feet over the heads of the frightened crowd. A Red Cross DC-6, returning to the nearby airport from a relief mission, was hit by two bullets as it made its final approach but managed to land safely. The incident was quickly reported to a Portuguese Airways Boeing 747 entering the pattern, causing the cautious pilot to change course and head back to Lisbon. Ironically, the jumbo jet was packed with leftist dignitaries from Eastern Europe, Portugal and Viet Nam who were heading to Luanda to attend the M.P.L.A.'s independence festivities. Thus the ranks of visiting VIPS in Luanda were embarrassingly thin.

"The following day, after being sworn in as President in Luanda's faded green city hall, Neto reviewed his forces. Past him paraded M.P.L.A. regulars, with their Soviet-built mobile antiaircraft guns, automatic weapons and armored cars. Then came brigades of the Young Pioneers, boys aged eight to twelve, dressed in cut-down camouflage uniforms. They, along with recently trained civilians, will be mobilized if the capital comes under attack."

Blood and Tears. The chances of such an attack are growing. In Huambo, after lighting a freedom torch, UNITA's chief Savimbi told a crowd that "these celebrations may last a day, but our war for final victory —through blood and tears—will take much longer."