We, Angolans don’t speak Portuguese because we want to, we speak Portuguese because we were forced to. The Portuguese would beat or kill Angolans who spoke Bantu languages. It got to the point where Angolans stopped speaking their languages just to stop getting beat up/ killed.

After gaining independence, Angola had a civil war from 1975 to 2002. During this time, many people fled to different Angolan provinces for protection. Due to the different tribes mixing together, the only language that they had in common, to communicate, was Portuguese.

Portuguese then became the main language that Angolans used for communication.

The Portuguese arrived in 1483, and only left in 1975 (Angola has only been independent for 45 years), which just shows how much time the Portuguese had to ‘remove’ our languages.

However, our languages are not completely ‘forgotten’ and many Angolans (especially older adults) still speak them today. The life expectancy age is very low in , so many people didn’t grow up with grandparents or parents (an older adult) who could teach them their language.

Laughing at Angolans because we speak “the colonisers language” is actually not funny especially with all the history behind it. It’s not as if we wanted to be colonised, and we defo didn’t “purposely” stop speaking our Bantu languages because we “prefer/ love Portuguese”.

Angola’s history is more complex than what you think. Angolans love being Angolan, we just speak Portuguese because it’s basically the only language that the Portuguese left us with.

Some Angolans “claim” Portugal because they either grew up or were born there when their families fled the civil war etc. It’s like black bristish people saying that they are black British because they grew up/ were born in Britain. Not because “they love the coloniser”.