Angola received independence from Portugal during November 1975. Instantly it became a cold war front line. Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev sent weapons, Fidel Castro, Cuban troops, and East Germany special forces to help the Marxist MPLA seize power. United States, Britain and France countered by backing Jonas Savimbi’s Maoist UNITA movement. The western allies encouraged South Africa’s President P.W. Botha to send his army to fight the Cubans and Germans.

Angolan and Cuban forces fought UNITA and its South African ally for 13 years until the new Soviet war initiative, under Mikhail Gorbachev, designed to end the war in their favor - failed. The Soviets had invested $1 billion to force South Africa and the western allies from their Angolan footholds. The offensive failed and a single tank battle left 600 soldiers dead. The aborted offensive culminated in the withdrawal from Angola of the Soviets and their Cuban and German allies. South Africa apparently from pressure from the west also pulled its forces. Savimbi continued the war against the MPLA, after the departure of foreign forces. He became quite ruthless with critics and disloyal comrades. Savimbi began burning on public bonfires the wives and children of senior comrades suspected of leadership ambitions. He ordered the beating to death with rifle butts of Tito Chingunji, his foreign secretary, along with his wife and their year-old twins.

With the war over, field collectors of Tribal Art entered Angola from the south. The first person technically in was Neil Munro, who crossed over to Angola during 2003.

Neil Munro - 2004

Neil had  served with the South African forces inside Angola between 1983 and 1984. During that period, his fascination with the people and their material culture was born. At the same time he experienced a first hand view of the war. During Operation Askari, 21 men in his unit were killed.

Between the two periods, his interest in things tribal led to attempts to enter Angola. During 1993 he managed to collect the Himba for a short while, after a number of failed attempts. In 1995 he again tried, but was expelled. That led to so a second attempt, where arrangements were successfully made with the local army. MPLA solders escorted him around Zemba peoples for  3 days.

The photographs to follow were taken by Neil Munro in Southern Angola during his most recent trip, which took place during August 2006. More than 20 years had past since his initial experiences there, and his trusted Land Cruiser stood up to the test of time.