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En breve
The story of how 17 young activists risked their lives in hunger strikes and flash mobs to force out Angola’s brutal dictator and bring an end to over 30 years of oppression.
On March 7, 2011, a group of young Angolans organized the first non-partisan protest in the country in 35 years. They decided to confront decades of oppression in pursuit of political rights, freedom of expression, social justice, and access to public services. This protest birthed the “7311 collective,” named after the date of that initial protest.
At the beginning, it was unclear what the objectives of the collective were, but they were certain about one thing: The time had come to stand up to José Eduardo dos Santos, the dictator who had been ruling Angola with an iron first for more than 30 years.
For decades, the State had monopolized media outlets, making accessibility to independent and uncensored news sources almost impossible. In response, the collective created a Facebook page called Central 7311 to directly communicate its purpose and demands with the Angolan public, as well as the actions it was planning. While social media presence may have been a no-brainer in some neighbouring countries across the continent, in Angola this was a radical act (see: PRINCIPLE: Define “hardcore” strategically).
We were now political prisoners, but our struggle continued. We switched to tactics like nudity and hunger strikes.
Social media also served as a self-defense mechanism for the safety of individual activists as well as the operations of the movement. The Facebook page played a crucial role in establishing a trust-based connection with supporters by sharing stories of everyday struggles like poor waste management or inadequate health services to which Angolans could relate (see: TACTIC: Storytelling).
Undertaking everything from small creative acts such as graffiti to larger, more conventional ones like street actions, the movement slowly gained visibility. However, this visibility was a double-edged sword. Under entrenched dictatorships, otherwise simple acts come with great risk, exposing individual activists, and making them targets of the regime. One activist was sentenced to prison for writing “disgusting dictator” on a wall, while others faced harassment or lost their jobs because of their affiliation with 7311.
By 2014, of all the youth initially involved in the collective, only 17 of us remained vocal. Realizing that our actions were no longer effective in drawing public attention, we changed tack (see: PRINCIPLE: Change is the only constant), repurposing our social media pages to journalistic reporting on issues like police violence, lack of infrastructure, unemployment, and other hardships our communities face on a daily basis.
We also shifted our tactics, engaging in what we came to call “surprise protests”: holding unannounced protests, filming them, and once done, immediately uploading the videos to social media as if the protest was “happening now.” This approach disoriented the regime (because they could not capture anyone at the site of the protest) and re-inspired the public with hope that protests were happening despite the overwhelming repression.
In 2015, in an attempt to further innovate, we created a study group around Gene Sharp’s 198 Methods of Nonviolent Action, but our study group was arrested after only four meetings, for allegedly planning a coup d’etat. This was when our trial began. The case was named “15 + 2” because two women, Rosa Conde and I, had been charged alongside 15 male activists. We were now political prisoners, but our struggle continued. While in prison, we used tactics like nudity and hunger strikes in order to claim our rights and to expose the violence and injustice of the regime.
2016 was a pivotal year for our struggle. After local and international solidarity efforts (see: TACTIC: Jail solidarity) forced the regime to release us from prison, it was announced that after 37 years of rule José Eduardo dos Santos would no longer be in charge of the country.
The 15+2 trials and the political events that followed led to the emergence of several initiatives in Angolan society, such as the Feminist movement - including Ondjango Feminista - and the Ubuntu project. Although freedom of expression remains limited in Angola today, our partial victory in booting Dos Santos has enabled the Angolan people to imagine that a better future is possible (see: THEORY: Prefigurative politics) and laid a firm foundation on which to continue our struggle.
Tácticas clave
The 7311 activists strategically used hunger strikes as a pressure tactic to draw global attention, significantly increasing pressure on the ruling regime. A hunger strike is a dramatic moral individual act, an “asymmetric” tactic that can be very effective even in the face of an extreme disparity in power (like 17 individuals against an entire regime). It proved very effective in garnering public sympathy and building political momentum for the 15+2 prisoners case and the broader demand for political rights and freedoms in Angola.
How can we instill a widespread feeling of revolt amongst the public without exposing anyone to vicious police attacks? By staging a string of light-speed actions, publicizing them on the spot, and disappearing just before the police arrive! The “surprise protest” was 7311’s most brilliant tactical innovation and is similar to other underground tactics such as clandestine leafleting, [noise-making protest or Cacerolazo] (Noise-making protest (Cacelarazo)), and guerrilla theatre, that are designed to work well even under circumstances of extreme repression.
Principios clave
We knew that winning a battle over a repressive regime that has a monopoly on violence and a near-monopoly on the media necessitated maintaining nonviolent discipline. Our strict commitment to nonviolent action made it difficult for the regime to accuse us of terrorism or treason, classic pretexts which a regime’s propaganda appartus uses against the popular oppossition.
Our larger political demands are absolutely crucial for achieving a truly just Angola. However, the harsh realities of people’s daily lives (such as poor sanitation services, police harassment, or lack of access to adequate health care) often take precedence over broader political goals and ideals. Focusing on images and stories that spoke to people’s everyday struggles and needs was vital in making our movement and its demands relevant to the public.