Africa-Press – Angola. The Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the MPLA considered, this Tuesday, the celebration of the day of the Martyrs of the Colonial Repression, a milestone that reinforces the status of national heroes to its craftsmen.
In a statement, regarding the date, which is marked on Wednesday (4), the MPLA underlines the fact that the 4th of January 1961 was a determining factor for the Angolan people, for the “defense of their just interests and rights” .
As part of the event, the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the MPLA pays “a profound and well-deserved tribute to the protagonists of this historic event”.
The MPLA considers January 4, 1961, continues the Declaration, an act of effective revolt by the Angolan people against the Portuguese colonial regime.
He adds that the revolt, which took place in Baixa de Cassanje, was one of the most important milestones in the process of the Armed Struggle for National Liberation, which began on February 4, 1961.
It is a process that culminated with the proclamation of National Independence, on November 11, 1975.
In the document, the Political Bureau of the MPLA exhorts Angolan society to keep alive the flame of National Independence and other collective conquests.
That MPLA body reiterates the “value of the protests and uprisings of peasant communities linked to the cultivation of cotton in Baixa de Cassanje, on that date”, as well as exhorts the Executive to continue to promote measures for the sustainable relaunch of cotton production.
In the Declaration, the MPLA calls on Angolans to transform the date into a patriotic act of reflection and a catalyst for increasing citizenship awareness.
The ruling party in Angola also encourages the participation of the peasant class in tasks aimed at strengthening the construction of a society based on justice, solidarity, peace, equality and social progress.
On January 4, 1961, Portuguese colonists repressed around 20,000 Angolan peasants, in what became known as the Baixa de Cassanje Massacre, a territory located between the provinces of Malanje and Lunda Norte.
On that day, agricultural workers from the cotton plantations of the Luso-Belgian company Cotonang, in Baixa de Cassanje, revolted against slave labor, destroying plantations, bridges and houses.
The response of the colonial authorities was not long in sending the Portuguese Air Force, which bombed the region with projectiles, causing the death of thousands of citizens.
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