Cabinda's claim to separate status rests on a legal distinction that dates to the Scramble for Africa. The 1885 Treaty of Simulambuco designated Cabinda a Portuguese protectorate -- known as the Portuguese Congo -- administratively separate from the much larger colony of Portuguese West Africa, which was Angola. The Berlin Conference of the same year treated Cabinda and Angola as distinct entities. For decades, Cabinda oscillated within the Portuguese imperial framework between relative autonomy and administrative absorption. In 1956, a new Portuguese government quietly transferred Cabinda's administration to Angola without consulting local leaders. That unilateral act planted the seed of a grievance that has not been resolved. Cabinda is an exclave, physically disconnected from Angola by a strip of Democratic Republic of the Congo territory along the north bank of the Congo River. It covers 7,284 square kilometers, bordered by the Atlantic to the west, the Republic of the Congo to the north, and the DRC to the east and south.

Several independence movements emerged in the early 1960s. The Movement for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda formed in 1960, and by August 1963 various groups had merged into the Front for the Liberation of the State of Cabinda, or FLEC, under Ranque Franque's leadership. FLEC established a government in exile in Kinshasa, but most OAU members -- committed to the sanctity of existing African borders and wary of encouraging separatism -- refused recognition. When the Alvor Agreement was signed on January 15, 1975, laying the groundwork for Angolan independence, FLEC was not invited and no Cabindan representatives signed. The agreement confirmed Cabinda as part of Angola. Portugal later suspended the Alvor agreements before Angola's independence date, which Cabindans cite as invalidating the territorial claim. The argument has made no practical difference. MPLA forces, supported by Cuban troops, occupied Cabinda on independence day, and it has been administered as an Angolan province ever since.

What makes Cabinda strategically irreplaceable is what lies beneath its waters. The province's offshore oil fields produce the majority of Angola's petroleum output, making Cabinda one of the most valuable pieces of territory in sub-Saharan Africa relative to its size. For decades, FLEC waged a low-intensity guerrilla war, attacking economic targets and kidnapping foreign oil and construction workers. The conflict drew in Cold War powers: Cuba, East Germany, and the Soviet Union backed the MPLA, while France, Belgium, and Zaire allegedly provided support to FLEC. In July 2006, a faction of FLEC signed a peace memorandum with Angola, granting the province special economic status and local governance powers. But the Paris-based FLEC-FAC rejected the agreement, insisting that nothing short of total independence was acceptable. More than 3,500 Cabindans live in refugee camps in the DRC and Republic of the Congo -- displaced people caught between a government that claims their land and a resistance movement that claims their allegiance.

In February 2003, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos said during a visit to Washington, D.C., that he supported a referendum on Cabindan autonomy. He also said he intended to consult the broader Angolan electorate -- who, given the oil revenues at stake, would almost certainly vote against relinquishing the province. FLEC demanded an East Timor-style referendum that would include the option of full independence. No referendum has been held. Human Rights Watch has documented systematic abuses by Angolan military and security forces in Cabinda, including arbitrary detention, torture, and harassment of journalists and clergy accused of supporting FLEC. Reports also document abuses committed by FLEC itself. The conflict remains unresolved, simmering beneath the surface of a province whose wealth funds a nation that many of its inhabitants do not consider their own.