Africa/Portugal: Three Decades After Last Colonial Empire Came to an End

The 30th anniversary of Angola's independence, commemorated this month, also marked the same period of time since nearly six centuries of European colonialism in Africa came to an end. As in Asia, it was the Portuguese who initiated the long era of colonialism in Africa, on Aug. 21, 1415, when Henry the Navigator's fleet landed at what is today the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, in modern-day Morocco. A total of 560 years passed before Portugal pulled out of its colonies. On Nov. 11, 1975, then governor of Angola Admiral Antonio D'Alva Rosa Coutinho, a member of the Armed Forces Movement, handed over the reins of power to independence leader Agostinho Neto, the first president of Angola, which was the last European colony in Africa.