The appearance of the press in Angola dates back to 1845, with 46 titles at the turn of the last century. A notable detail is the reference to newspapers produced by “Angolans”, the term used at the time for those born in Angola, as opposed to settlers from Portugal. The first newspaper in a national language “Kimbundu” was published in New York, in February 1896.
The appearance of the daily A Província de Angola (PA) in 1923 is considered the beginning of the commercial press with regular circulation. In 1936, Diário de Luanda (DL) appeared, a newspaper that, together with PA, constituted the two oldest Angolan publications, in 1974.
At the time of the proclamation of independence, in November 1975, the Província de Angola had changed its name to Jornal de Angola (in 1974), becoming what it is today, a government newspaper. The newspapers O Comércio and ABC and the magazines Notícia and Semana Ilustrada, in Luanda, ceased publication, and the few newspapers published in the provinces, including O Planalto, published in Huambo, disappeared.
Diário de Luanda, after a brief interruption, returned to the streets of the capital as an afternoon newspaper, ceasing publication in May 1977, after its editorial line was connoted with “fractionism”, a split in the party in power in Luanda (which led to the massacre of many thousands of Angolans by the MPLA, on May 27, 1977). With the DL, several small, highly politicized publications disappeared, marking clear control of the press by the MPLA. Radio Ecclesia was officially closed on January 24, 1978.
In 1975, the national news agency, Angola Press (ANGOP), was created, a strategic information organ in the logic of the one-party system (its officialization took place in February 1978), in parallel with Rádio Nacional of Angola (RNA) and Televisão Popular de Angola (TPA), created “revolutionarily” in 1974 (almost a year before independence).
Angop is established throughout the country and creates delegations abroad, currently having sophisticated technical means: computerized broadcasts and news services on its own website. It is from Angop and RNA that the first generation of journalists trained after independence emerged. It was also at the news agency that some of the most important struggles for the liberalization of the information system in Angola took place in the 70s and 80s. Novembro magazine, a publication with liberal aims created within the system itself, never had a regular edition.
The media sector was opened to private participation in 1991 (the law guaranteeing press freedom was published on June 15, 1991). Shortly before the multiparty general elections of September 1992, with the liberalization of the regime, the weekly newspapers Correio da Semana and Comércio Actualidade appeared. Rádio Vorgan, belonging to UNITA, starts broadcasting from Luanda and the sale of the newspaper Terra Angolana (a UNITA publication published in Lisbon) is authorized on the streets of the capital. The first private radio stations also appeared: LAC, in Luanda, RCC, in Cabinda, Rádio Morena, in Benguela and Rádio 2000, in Lubango.
With the resumption of the war shortly after the elections, the development of the press suffered a setback. Vorgan and Terra Angolana began to have a clandestine existence in areas under government control. Even so, in 1993 Imparcial Fax was created, a small publication of great influence that was closed in January 1995, after the murder of its editor Ricardo Melo.
That year (1995) Folha 8 appeared, another publication initially distributed by fax and with great influence among the elite sectors in the capital.
A few months after the establishment of the Lusaka Protocol (signed on November 20, 1994 between the Government and UNITA), some journalists from Imparcial launched Actual Fax, later transformed into the weekly Actual.
In March 1997, Rádio Ecclesia reopened, broadcasting on FM for the Luanda region, and the weekly color tabloid, Agora, appeared on the streets. Angolense, another weekly color tabloid (published in 1998) and Independente, completed the overview of the generalist press in Angola.
The appearance of new titles and radio stations occurred in the period 91/92, simultaneously with the liberalization of the regime. But the situation suffered another setback with the armed confrontations that followed the September 1992 elections. Some international support and local initiatives dictated the appearance of new titles since 1997, in parallel with the reopening of Radio Ecclesia, a radio that, not Despite its religious scope, it constitutes a new opening space in the Angolan information panorama, although its broadcast radius is still restricted to the capital.
Today, Folha 8 continues to maintain its DNA of being more than a newspaper – Freedom, producing journalism with memory, which solemnly displeases all those who believe they are the sole owners of the truth and who, therefore, refuse (to contrary to us) to give a voice to those who don’t have one – the People.
William Tonet – the Best of Us All
William Tonet grew up a “child soldier.” His father was one of the founders of the 1st MPLA Political-Military Region. At the age of 8 he already mastered military communications. He was one of the youngest military commanders, at 16 years old.
He was in the São Nicolau Prison, with his father, who was arrested, when they tried to open a military political region for the MPLA, in Huambo, in 1968.
He was one of those who established the organization of MPLA pioneers, OPA, in Luanda, and was one of the commanders who carried the flag bearer, on November 11, 1975, on the day of the proclamation of Independence. He was also one of the promoters of the JMPA youth structures, in factories and workplaces, in 1975/6.
He worked in the office of the then Minister of Internal Administration, Commander Nito Alves, being responsible for communications and youth affairs.
He was arrested in 1977 (in his family there were four prisoners: him, his father and two uncles, buried alive)
In 1979 he joined the TPA, as a camera assistant, after being expelled from Jornal de Angola, by Costa Andrade, Ndunduma, accused of links to the so-called factionists.
On television there were programs with a large audience, notably Horizonte, dedicated to youth and with this program it contributed decisively to live broadcasts. Having a show at Sporting de Luanda, it was TPA’s first live show.
He was the first delegate of TPA (Televisão Pública de Angola) in Benguela and a secondary school teacher, in Ciclo Velho.
He created the Economic Panorama program during the single-party period. It was a novelty for the time. It earned him a lot of bitterness, which was the reason for his departure from TPA.
He was a founding member of the LUSA Delegation in Angola, with Sérgio Soares, being the first Angolan journalist to work as such at Voice of America and to cover both sides of the conflict (period of the Cold War, between UNITA and MPLA).
He is the journalist who most specialized in covering the Angolan military conflict, knowing and maintaining relations with both belligerents.
In 1991, as a result of these privileged relationships, he was the first mediator of the Angolan conflict, placing for the first time, military personnel from the government Armed Forces and UNITA, sitting at the same table, who signed a 19-point agreement, in Luena, in Upper Kauango, the May 19, 1991. Agreement initialed by the Chief of Staff of the Military Forces of UNITA, FALA, General Arlindo Chenda Pena “Ben Ben” and by the Chief of Operations of the Military Forces of the MPLA, Colonel Higino Carneiro. This was a decisive agreement for the signing of the Bicesse Accords.
Without these, perhaps, on May 31, 1991, Portugal would not have been possible, since the military, on the ground, continued to fight.
He created the first private television producer, responsible, among others, for disseminating satellite images of the reality of Angola’s military and social conflict to the world, namely, for CNN, CBS and in Portugal for SIC.
In Portugal, before the liberalization of the radio spectrum, there was a pirate station in Pontinha. He was part of the founding group of TSF with Emídio Rangel and SIC, the first private television in Portugal.
He worked for the weekly “O Jornal” and Visão magazine.
He is the Angolan journalist, arrested more times by the regime, as a result of his freedom of thought and with more legal proceedings.
Photo: The first edition of Folha 8