Over two separate twelve-year periods, two opposing ‘states’ governed in parallel in Angola (1979–1991) and Sudan (1990–2002), each with competing conceptions of society, history and national identity. Deeply dividing communities with their counter-nationalist programmes, rebel parties UNITA in Angola and the SPLM/A in Sudan, which had fought Africa’s longest and bloodiest civil wars, built political and military enterprises in opposition to the established governments.
Insurgent Nations unpacks the complexities of these movements, exploring the charisma of their leaders, the ruthlessness of their military operations, their political manoeuvrings, and their multiple transformations in war and peace. Using first-hand, unpublished accounts from their leaders and cadres, Paula Cristina Roque provides unique insight into UNITA and the SPLM/A’s governing strategies. She details the ‘nations’, ‘states’ and ‘societies’ that were forged by the parties’ ideologies, sub-nationalist concerns and interactions with the population. While UNITA’s political project in the Free Lands of Angola was centrally controlled and totalitarian, the SPLM/A’s New Sudan was decentralised and minimalist, built from the bottom up.
This is the first volume to compare the policies and perspectives of UNITA and the SPLM/A, offering a new understanding of territory-governing insurgencies. Ultimately, both rebel states were exercises in survival, resilience and adaptation.

Paula Cristina Roque is an author, researcher, and security sector analyst with extensive expertise in human rights, security, and surveillance in Africa.She is the Executive Director of Intelwatch since 2024, an organisationthat promotes democratic oversight of intelligence and surveillance, monitor and report on surveillance activities, raise awareness and provide education about the dangers of undemocratic intelligence and surveillance activities, and advocate for effective oversight of surveillance laws, policies, and practices. She has served as an advisor for the Crisis Management Initiative as well as a Senior Analyst for Southern Africa with the International Crisis Group. Previously, she worked with the South Sudan-Centre for Strategic and Policy Studies, the Institute for Security Studies, the South African Institute for International Affairs, and as a journalist in West Africa and the UK. Paula holds a Dphil in Development Studies from the University of Oxford, a Msc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, and a BA in Social Anthropology from the Instituto Superior de Ciencias do Trabalho e da Empresa.