Angola's Slide into Totalitarianism: How the New Security Law Threatens Freedoms

Angola's latest legislative development has raised alarm bells about the state of democracy and freedom in the country. On January 25, the Angolan parliament passed a comprehensive bill on national security that has been widely criticized by human rights groups and political analysts. This bill centralizes control of security matters under the presidency and legalizes practices that otherwise breach constitutional rights.

Under the ruling MPLA party, which has maintained its grip on power for nearly five decades, Angola appears to be reinforcing an autocratic governance style. The enactment of the bill comes after a controversial 2022 election process, which critics argue was marred by significant irregularities that favored the ruling party, and highlighted the growing disenchantment among Angola's urban poor and youth.

The national security bill contains elements that echo the oppressive tactics utilized by other authoritarian regimes around the world. It allows the government to shut down the internet, perform searches on public and private premises without warrants, and criminalizes citizens who fail to report to authorities. It is a legal endorsement of sweeping surveillance and restriction of freedoms, normalizing what was previously reserved for war or national emergencies without necessitating judicial or parliamentary oversight.

This movement towards a totalitarian model raises the specter of unchecked centralized power, a monopolistic narrative of the nation's identity, and an intertwining of the state, party, government, security forces, economy, and civil society. By conflating these elements, the new law seeks not only to stifle dissent but also establish a culture of fear and control among the populace. The conflation of national security with the security of the ruling party positions the entire apparatus of the state against those who might threaten its hold on power.

Institutions of state security are granted extraordinary powers under this bill. The disappearance of accountability poses a grave danger to the preservation of basic civil liberties in Angola. Article 36 is among the most concerning sections of the bill, as it empowers security forces, including police, intelligence services, military units, and civil defense militias, to conduct warrantless searches and deploy surveillance at will.

Individual citizens are not spared from participating in this regime of securitization. In a move reminiscent of Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts, the law mandates a "patriotic and civic" duty to collaborate with authorities, essentially recruiting civilians as state informers under the pretense of patriotism, and provides them immunity in doing so.

The implications of this law go beyond the borders of Angola. Angola is now counted among a group of US military aid recipients in Africa, including Rwanda, Uganda, and Ethiopia, who have historically leveraged such aid to cement and militarize their hold on power. These states have often used the guise of national security to justify crackdowns on internal opposition and to establish sophisticated surveillance infrastructures.

By entrenching fear as a central tenet of public policy, Angola's new law provokes disturbing parallels with how democratic erosion can occur when citizens, under the pretense of security, are willing to relinquish freedoms. The psychology of fear - manifested through Pavlovian conditioning in societal behaviour - has been a tool of both authoritarian and democratic regimes to unify under a national cause, at times at the expense of rational and humane governance.