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War has been a way of life in Angola, a former Portuguese colony, for almost two generations. Dubbed by some analysts as “an orphan of the Cold War,” Angola’s story is a sad and complex one; however, the church’s influence is being felt in the search for peace.

“There is a growing openness to the gospel in Angola,” said Paulo Mandavela, general secretary of GBECA, the Angolan Student Bible Studies Group, which ministers in the schools and colleges of Angola. People are searching for meaning, and profound needs abound. “An entire generation has known nothing but war.”

The government’s hard-line Marxist stance of the 1970s and 1980s has changed with the end of the Cold War. Now the government embraces capitalism, and the constitution guarantees freedom of worship. Ministries like GBECA, founded in 1980 while Angola’s church was severely persecuted, are now being registered and allowed to operate.

For its part, GBECA’s ministry has both evangelism and discipleship components as it reaches the nation’s Christian students and spreads the gospel among students who aren’t believers. Mandavela said that churches are growing fast and new ones are being planted.

Several UN-sponsored peace initiatives-the most prominent being the Lusaka Peace Accord-have failed to stop the violence. This failed peace process is Angolan believers’ most urgent prayer request. Fighting began in 1961 in a struggle to gain independence from Portugal. Today, Luanda, the capital, is perhaps the safest place in this ravaged nation.

Independence came in 1975 to this Western African coastal nation through what was then a Marxist, pro-Soviet group, the Angolan People’s Liberation Movement (MPLA for its Portuguese acronym). The ideological dispute between the pro-West liberation group UNITA, or the Union for the Total Independence of Angola, developed into civil war. The war has not ended in the 26 years since Angola gained independence. UNITA rebels tap into Angola’s rich gold and diamond wealth to fund the conflict-thus the term “blood diamonds.” Literally all the nation’s oil revenue funds the govern-ment’s side of this terrible war.

To bring the gospel to a country in a state of war is a nightmare for church bodies and anyone else doing ministry work in Angola. The danger of being caught in the crossfire is ever present. Roads are mined, and UNITA attacks planes and trains. A few months ago, rebels blew up a train, killing 160 people, mostly women and children.

The danger makes effective ministry so expensive that it’s out of reach of most churches and Christian groups. For example, to arrange a training conference, a group must plan to fly all delegates to that gathering because it’s simply too dangerous to use cheaper land travel. And even for groups that might have resources to use air travel, fighting has destroyed airfields in some parts of the country.

Still, ministries find ways to share Christ. TransWorld Radio’s studio records teaching programs in Luanda and produces and broadcasts music throughout Angola. Jose Neto, the ministry’s director, said that plans are underway to open an FM station that will broadcast some evangelical messages. He hopes the state grants permission this year for the station. A Luanda Catholic FM station already addresses untouchable topics, such as the peace process between UNITA and the ruling MPLA government. While the government is pushing for a military solution to Angola’s woes, the church is calling for dialogue to end the violence.

Angola’s economy is potentially one of Africa’s richest with oil, diamonds, gold and coffee. Visitors flying into Luanda can see offshore rigs extracting the country’s oil. According to a recent Oxfam briefing paper, “In a country that earns 90 percent of its revenues from oil, the national energy sector has been left to decay; many of the provincial capitals have been without electricity for more than ten years.” Despite its $8 billion economy, nearly one-third of the country’s population-3.8 million people-has been displaced by the war and plunged into poverty. Church groups like World Vision are among the many agencies that are trying to cope with this humanitarian disaster that has no immediate prospects for ending.

Not everything has been lost in the war. While most of southern Africa has soaring HIV/AIDS infection rates, the year 2000 UN Human Development Report puts Angola’s levels of infections at one of the lowest, with 2.78 percent of adults living with the disease. This contrasts with Zambia’s 19.95 percent adults living with HIV/AIDS. Sadly, this has more to do with the war disrupting Angolans’ lives than with any church program to stop the disease’s spread. The church in Angola has not addressed the subject.

There are no easy solutions to Angola’s conflict. Peace-absolutely essential for the country to go forward-is the yearning of many in Angola. There is an urgent need to get government and the UNITA rebels on the negotiating table; however, a missing link in this scenario is a strong Christian voice that will call for peace. Those voices are few. Unlike South Africa with Desmond Tutu, Angola has no prominent Christian urging on the process.

Aggrey Mugisha is media and communications secretary of IFES-EPSA, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students in the English and Portuguese speaking Africa.

March 22, 2002