Photo: State Dept.

Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton during her meeting with in Luanda.

Luanda — The secretary general of the Council of Christian Churches in Angola (CICA), Reverend Luis Nguimbe, Wednesday in Luanda stressed the decisive role played by the churches in the national liberation struggle.

Speaking to Angop on celebration of the 37th anniversary of Independence to be marked on Sunday, the Reverend said that many people who had the active participation in the achievement of independence on November 11, 1975, were students from the church-owned centres.

Luis Nguimbe underlined that at that time the Portuguese were never satisfied with the preaching carried out by the Protestant churches.

According to him, the church awakened the people's consciousness to fight against colonization policy.

However, he said, this led many citizens to recover the national dignity and the staff from the missions joined the struggle against colonial regime in the 1960s.

As the result, the church authority added, this obliged the colonial regime to close the protestant churches and turned them into barracks and some members detained.

The national independence was proclaimed in 1975 by the first president of Angola, António Agostinho Neto.