Angola Celebrates 10 Years of Peace

On Wednesday April 4, Angola celebrated 10 years of peace after a devastating civil war, with parades and concerts hailing President Jose Eduardo dos Santos for ushering in an oil-fuelled economic boom. 

Dos Santos unveiled a peace monument in Luena, the capital of the eastern province of Moxico, near the site where Unita rebel leader Jonas Savimbi was killed in battle on February 22, 2002.  The monument featured two giant dark hands releasing a white dove to the sky and is installed in the town's Lenin Park, named after Russian communist leader, Vladimir Ilyich. Savimbi’s death paved the way to a peace deal signed in the capital Luanda on April 4, 2002, ending the 27-year civil conflict that erupted soon after independence from Portugal in 1975. 

The conflict left an estimated 500 000 dead, displaced four million others, involved three different liberation movements and saw intervention from the former Soviet Union, Cuba, the United States and apartheid South Africa.   The immensity and duration of the conflict left much of the road, bridge and farming infrastructure destroyed. 

How times have changed. Today Angola can now boast of a booming economy - forecast to grow 12% this year - and a growing regional and international diplomatic profile.

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Foreign investors are flocking to Angola hoping to share in the boom times ”

Angola's physical transformation since the end of the war has also been immense.  Oil revenues and associated Chinese loans have bankrolled an ambitious national reconstruction programme of roads, airports, bridges, hospitals and schools.

In the sprawling cities, where the war-weary sought refuge during the height of the conflict, urban slums are being given a facelift.

And once productive agricultural fields are now being cleared of landmines ready for replanting; industries like cotton and coffee are being revived and old copper, iron and gold mines are being re-opened for prospection.

Meanwhile, foreign investors are flocking to Angola hoping to share in the boom times and Luanda's tiny Fourth of February airport is overwhelmed by new flights coming from across Africa as well as Europe, Asia and the Middle East. (AFP, BBC News)

Angola Promotes the Cause of African Peace

The Republic of Angola since yesterday assumed the presidency of the Rotary Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU), a mechanism created with the aim of promoting peace, security and stability in Africa.

Angola's presidency of the Council of the AU Peace and Security comes at a time when there are still some areas of tension in the continent such as Darfur in Sudan, the situation prevailing in Madagascar and the recent coup in Mali. 

On the agenda of Angola to the front of this body, which will focus on managing and finding solutions to these major crises that disturb and affect the development of the African continent, are also the stabilization of Guinea-Bissau, the situation in Somalia, where the AU has a contingent of peacekeepers (AMISOM), as well as the "dossier" Libya as a result of so-called Arab Spring. The political crisis in Madagascar, the electoral processes in Africa and the issue of violence against women and children in situations of conflict on the continent are also among the priorities of the presidency of Angola's Peace and Security Council of the African Union. 

Angola was elected to the Council for Peace and Security at the 17th Summit Conference of Heads of State and Government of the AU, held in January 2012 in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), for a term of two years. Besides Angola, the other countries that are involved in the Peace and Security Council of the African Union, established in May 2004,  are Libya, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Djibouti, Cameroon, Congo, Tanzania, Ivory Coast , The Gambia and the Kingdom of Lesotho.  Five of the 15 Member States are elected for a term of three years and the remaining ten for a term of two years. 
The Peace and Security Council responsible for promoting security and stability on the continent, secure protection and welfare of the population and work to peacekeeping, including missions of good offices. It is also the mission of the board, promote and implement peace-building and post conflict reconstruction. 

Leading Angola

Luanda, February 12 — Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos will seek a new term with former state oil company head Manuel Vicente as his vice- president in the September polls, a source in the ruling MPLA said.

This announcement follows Friday's meeting of the ruling party's Central Committee Fourth Ordinary Session, which was attended by 286 members.

The southern African oil giant is expected to hold elections in September, and the run-up is being closely watched for signs of whether Dos Santos will seek a new term and whom the MPLA might pick to replace the long-serving leader, in power since 1979, when he eventually steps down.

A member of MPLA's central committee told AFP on condition of anonymity that the party had given Dos Santos the number one spot on its election list with Vicente at number two.

"Manuel Vicente appears as number two on the party's list for the next general election of September 2012, that is, as future vice-president of the republic or successor to the president as stipulated in the constitution," the source told AFP, saying the decision was taken at a central committee meeting held on Friday.

The election will be just the second since Angola's 27-year civil war ended in 2002. The MPLA took 81 per cent of the vote at the last polls, in 2008, and is again seen as the overwhelming favourite.

Under a new constitution ratified in 2010, the president will be chosen from the top of the winning party's list in the parliamentary vote. Dos Santos, 69, has not said publicly whether he will run. (The NATION)

Massive Expansion of Angola's Conservation Areas

The Angolan minister of Environment, Fátima Jardim, recently announced the expansion of Angola's environmental conservation areas, currently at 6.6%, to 18%  by the year 2017.

Angola presently has 13 zones of integral protection. Some 82,000 square kilometres of protected lands totally 6,6% of the country’s territory; hosting six national parks, one regional park, two integrated natural reserves and four partial ones.

An increase to 18% of Angolan land usage would protect some 188,650 square kilometres of green zones in the national territory, potentially protecting existing 18 forest reserves and various game reserves.

In common with other African countries, Angola has a large number of environmental issues: the overuse of pastures and subsequent soil erosion; desertification; deforestation of tropical rain forest; and the inadequate supplies of drinking water.

Although Angola has a number of designated National Parks and Reserves, the previous civil war has had a devasting impact on conservation and most protected areas are without wardens.  On the positive side, soldiers are being trained as park wardens through a IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) / Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development Project.  In addition, there are extensive protected areas that remain relatively undisturbed and which adequately protect some vegetation and habitats for Angola's unique bird populations.

The IUCN currently lists six national parks in Angola; Bicauri, Cameia, Kissama, Cangandala, Iona, and Mupa. The wildlife in all the parks have been severely reduced after the devastation wrough by decades of war.

Environment Minister Jardim announced that a new system of national conservation areas will start to be created soon, seeking to meet the goals agreed upon at the Nagoya (Japan) meeting held last year. The Nagoya meeting recommended the expansion to 20 percent the national conservation areas in the territory of each country of the world. (Angop)

Momentous Goals Reached in Mine Clearance

Angola has long been known as having a significant number of residue landmines as a result of the 27 year-long civil war.   United Nations estimates in 2008 listed the number of Angolan landmines range between 10 and 20 million, which equates to at least 1 to 2 land mines for every person in the country.  The U.N. estimates put the number of Angolan amputees resulting from the silent killers at over 100,000. Land mines have a devastating effect upon the environment by restricting the movement of people, deterring farming, disrupting economies, and killing and mutilating many innocent men, women, and children .

Active landmine clearance is continuing and in 2010 a total of 5,512 landmines, 4989 of which were anti-personnel and 523 anti-tank mines, were cleared and destroyed in Angola's 17 provinces.

In conjunction with the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action, Monday, April 4th, The HALO Trust, the world's oldest and largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization, has released the results of a study it conducted on how previously mined land is used after HALO has cleared it. The study verified the tremendous impact that mine clearance has on food security in rural communities in Angola: 100% of HALO-demined land was put back into productive use: the vast majority for agriculture (72%) followed by animal grazing (16%). The release of former minefields to some of the world's most vulnerable people enables communities to become food self-sufficient and less reliant on aid . 

Other key findings include the fact that cleared land is normally put into productive use in about three months as well as the fact that 32% of beneficiaries interviewed reported selling crops (most commonly beans, maize and potatoes) they have grown on cleared land. 

In addition to making arable land safe for cultivation, HALO's mine clearance has opened over 3,250 miles of roads in Angola. This has enabled aid and development projects to occur in previously inaccessible areas and has helped farmers get their goods to market.

Angola's Day on the World Stage

Yesterday, Angola received a moment in the world spotlight during 'Angola Day' at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, China. Of the 228 countries and international organizations that are participating in the six month Exposition, yesterday was Angola's day to be showcased.

The World Expo is essentially a global exhibition where the participating world countries can not only develop their relationship with the host country China, but also create and grow national, commerical, and cross-culture dialogues with visiting dignitaries from around the world.

In a ceremony chaired by the Angolan Vice President, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, the Vice President explained to the public at the venue the current political and economic situation of Angola, highlighting the Angola' growing economic potential and the government’s commitment to improving the living conditions of citizens.

The design of the Angola Pavilion was inspired by the welwitchia mirabilis, a flower unique to Angola.  The brightly-colored dangling straps on the pavilion's exterior walls resemble the leaves of the flower that lives between 300 to 1,000 years. 

The graceful, modern and attractive pavilion has the theme of 'Angola Ensures a Better Life,"  Divided into seven exhibition areas, the pavilion exhibited Angola's diversified landscapes and beautiful scenery, history, and culture. The second floor of the pavilion houses a business center, which is a platform for cooperation and exchanges between Angola and investors from different parts of the world.

Rebuilding Angola's Roads

All African nations, Angola included, heavily rely on road transportation to move goods and people from one location to the other. Unfortunately the roads are limited in capacity, are poorly maintained, or in Angola's case been decimated by the war.

In 1994, Angola's usable road network totalled some 75,000 km (45,000 miles), but by the end of the civil war in 2002 little of the paved network remained outside the main cities. The war meant that much freight was transported by air, as road haulage was risky and limited, isolating most settlements in the interior. Since 2002 efforts to clear an estimated 7m landmines and rebuild roads and bridges have reopened most of the main arteries.

Considering that a large percentage of Angola's population live in rural areas, the resulting impact of no road travel means that in the remote areas infrastructures of every other kind scarcely exist and those that exist barely function. Until recently due to the war, there were few accessible roads in rural Angola and these few are poor, dirt and unpaved or hampered by the insecurity of land mines.

The role played by infrastructures in the economy of a rebuilding nation like Angola cannot be overemphasized especially its effect on sustainable development, foreign direct investment flow, GDP growth, inflation reduction, job creation, trade, agriculture, delivery of goods and services, lowering cost of business, improving health and standard of living and poverty reduction. Therefore, efficient and effective provision of infrastructure in a nation underlines all attempts to reduce poverty.

In April 2007 the Angolan government announced plans to rehabilitate and expand Angola's road network with loans from China and the European financial institutions. An initial US$2bn phase of works will build 5,300 km of roads by the end of 2008, rising to 14,000 km, and with 120 new bridges, by the end of 2011.

China itself has granted Angola a US$211 million loan to finance the first stage of a project to rebuild roads destroyed in the civil war; starting with a 300km stretch between the capital Luanda and the northern agricultural and mining province of Uige. The project will be carried out by the private Chinese company Roads and Bridges Corporation (CRBC) over the next two years. (Info adapted from Economist Intelligence Unit: Angola)

Angolan Sculptures

As like most African art, masks and wooden sculptures are not merely aesthetic creations. They have an important role in cultural rituals, representing the life and death , the passage from childhood to adulthood, the celebration of a new harvest and the beginning of hunting season . Angolan artisans work in wood , bronze and ivory , in masks or sculptures . Each ethno-linguistic group in Angola has its own unique artistic traits.

 Perhaps the most famous Angolan art or sculpture is the 'O Pensador' or 'Thinker', a hand-made crafted wood piece which is considered a national symbol in Angola. The 'Pensador' originates from the Tchokwe tribe and represents today a reference of the culture concerning all Angolans, as it is a symbol of the national culture.

It represents the figure of an elderly person that could be a man or a woman. Designed in a symmetric profile, with the face slightly bent down, it expresses an intentional subjectivism as, in Angola, the elderly represent wisdom and enjoy a privileged status. The elderly represent the wisdom, experience of long years and knowledge of the secrets of life.

This image today is Angola’s emblematic figure that is included in the watermark of the kwanza bank note, the national currency. It is considered as a native piece of art trustworthily Angolan. Alike any emblematic figure of a people, as it is the case of the "Zé Povinho" in Portugal, "John Bull" in England or the “Uncle Sam” in the United States, 'O Pensador' represents the same national tradition.

Angola: The New Detroit?

Angola so far does not have any car producing industry, as contrasted to the major vehicle producer South Africa.  Major investing countries such as China and Germany are seeking to take advantage of the new resurgence in the country as well as the centralized oil wealth in Angola's capital, Luanda.

CSG Automovel-Angola, a new venture, is set to begin producing cars in October at a new factory in Viana, on the outskirts of Angola’s capital, Luanda. Using technology from Nissan, the plant will make passenger cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs. Expected to produce some 5,000 units in its first year, it should reach its full capacity of 30,000 within a few years.  Funded also entirely by the China International Fund, the plant will employ some 680 people, with 510 of the jobs reserved for Angolan citizens, an unusually high percentage for a Chinese project in Africa.

Volkswagen and its Angolan partner ANCAR have announced that they are to build an assembly plant in the

Angolan Agriculture: On the Rebound

Eight years after the end of a 27 year civil war, Angola' agriculture is slowly rebounding.  This is a marked turnaround from the decimation that this sector experienced during the war, given the potential of the rich and fertile land that Angola possesses.

Before independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola had a flourishing tradition of family-based farming and was self-sufficient in all major food crops; Angola was the world's fourth largest exporter of coffee; a competitive exporter of sugarcane, bananas, palm oil and sisal; and self-sufficient in all crops but wheat. But leading up to political changes in 1975, poor global market prices and lack of investment began to severely limit the sector after independence.

The Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), the consequent deterioration of the rural economy and neglect of the farming sector dealt the devastating blow to the country’s agricultural productivity. During the civil war, most small-scale farmers reverted to subsistence farming.  Angola has been dependent on commercial imports since 1977 and was heavily dependent up to the end of the war.  By the 1990s Angola was producing less than 1 per cent of the volume of coffee it had produced in the early 1970s, while production of cotton, tobacco and sugar cane had ceased almost entirely.

The war reduced the nation from being one of the largest food exporters on the continent to being a major recipient of global food assistance. For 30 years, the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) conducted massive food aid assistance programs to feed the struggling population.  Even now, as the

Angola's Oil Wealth

Angola is sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer behind Nigeria and offshore Angola is recognised as a world-class area for oil exploration and production.

Producing almost 2 million barrels of oil per day, Angola is the biggest supplier of oil to China and the sixth biggest to the United States. Oil accounts for about 90 percent of Angola's exports accounting for 40% of GDP and 80% of government revenues.
 
Oil was first discovered in Angola in 1955, but production did not really start to climb until the discovery of oil offshore Cabinda in the 1960s. Now, many of Angola's remaining offshore oil blocks are being auctioned to the world's superpowers who are in need of the oil supplies.
 
Have a look at the Economist Magazine's recently written article, "Oil, Glorious Oil", describing Angola's oil wealth here....

Rebuilding the National Railway

In 1899, the Portuguese government initiated the construction of a trans-nation railway to give access to the central Angolan plateau and the mineral wealth of the then Congo Free State. A concession, running for 99 years, was granted to Sir Robert Williams, a Scottish mining engineer and a pioneering explorer of Africa, on 28 November 1902. His Benguela Railway Company took over the construction which commenced on 1 March 1903.  Construction was halted until 1920 after which the railway's connection to Luau at the border to the DR Congo was completed in 1929. The primary purpose was the export trade and the 'domestic Angolan traffic would be of secondary importance.'  The line proved very successful and profitable, especially in the early 1970s after Zambia closed the border with the then Rhodesia. 


The construction and running of the railway was a huge enterprise.  At the time of full operation of the railway, the railway company owned the world biggest private eucalyptus plantation. They had imported seedlings of fast growing Australian Eucalyptus and planted vast forests ready for harvesting for locomotive fuel. With not supplies of oil or coal along the rail route, this was the perfect fuel.  Some 37 000 ha of land was used to produce the annual need of 570,000 tonnes of wood to fuel locomotives from Lobito, at the coast, to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 

After Angola's independence in 1975, the Angolan civil war brought operations to a halt. In the 2000s, most of the infrastructure were still heavily damaged or destroyed. In 2005 talks were initiated between Angola and Zambia to restore operations. The government of Angola has invested to date $1.8 million dollars in repairing the Benguela Railroad, including demining, replacement of railroads, bridges construction and 16 stations construction. The People's Republic of China provided $300 to $500 million in financial aid to help the replacement of the war-damaged track.  Much of the reconstruction of the railway system has been accomplished by Chinese companies with Chinese workers transported to Angola.

Benguela - Angola's Success Story

During the present African Cup of Nations Soccer Tournament in Angola, the foreign press is discovering previously hidden examples of Angola's progress in rebuilding the country.

Here is a good BBC report  about the rebuilding and regeneration of the city of Benguela, located along the Atlantic Ocean, some 700 km south of the Angolan capital of Luanda.  Spared the worst by the civil war that reduced most other inland towns to piles of smouldering rubble, Benguela is Angola’s second city and self-appointed cultural capital. It was founded by the Portuguese in 1617 and is a former slave port and the erstwhile terminus of the cross-continental Benguela Railway. 

Many cast the future of Angola in the railway's reconstruction. Prior to Angola's civil war, the 1,500-kilometre Benguela Railroad was a major transportation thoroughfare that carried Zambian copper to Angolan ports in Lobito and Benguela.  As one government official recently stated, "The demolition of the railway, starting at Benguela was like cutting an artery. Reconnecting it and the economy will flow once again, and then….well, who knows? Anything is possible."  It is great to see the hope and positive outlook of the people of Benguela in the rebuilding effort.

Dinosaurs in Angola?

With the opening up of the country after the termination of the decades long civil war, researchers have now discovered a treasure of rare fossils in the country. Some palaeontologists describe Angola as, "The final frontier for palaeontology, since in some areas there are literally fossils sticking out of the rocks. It's like a museum in the ground." 

At this point, most of the fossils found, sauropods (land based dinosaurs as seen in this picture) and mosasaurs (aquatic based dinosaur species), have been discovered along the coast north of Luanda.

Much of Angola's fossil richness results from dramatic continental shifts thousands of years ago, which saw the land transform from tropic-rich areas that supported dinosaurs to a desert region along the coast.  According to similiar geology findings, these particular shifts contributed to the formation of the vast oil deposits off of the same Angolan north coasts.  More can be found on these explorations and research on this Discovery site. 

Though I personally struggle with the viewpoint of the timeline of millions of years required in the life of these fossils since I hold to a 'biblical young-earth, creationist' view i.e. a literal six day earth age as described in the book of Genesis, I find these fossil discoveries exciting.  Let us hope that influx of funds and effort in this research will ultimately benefit the Angola people.

Mountains!

Angola is not usually thought of as a mountainous land, yet more than half the country is on a vast plateau between 1,000 - 2,000 metres (3280 - 6550 feet) in altitude.

The most mountainous parts of Angola are mainly situated in a zone 100 - 200 km (60 - 120 miles) from the Atlantic coast. Many of the countries biggest cities are well over a thousand metres (3280 feet) above sea level:  Huambo (1710 m or 5610 ft), Lubango (1178 m or 3860 ft).  The highest point in Angola is the Morro do Moco which reaches a height of 2620 m or 8595 ft and is located to the northwest of Huambo.

For our assignment, we will be located in Lubango which is close to the two most famous landmarks in Angola.  An impressive, man-made switchback road was constructed on the face of the Serra da Bandeira mountains at Leba. During colonial rule in the 1960s, the Portuguese engineer chose the shortest route to climb the mountain to connect Lubango with the coastal city of Namibe.  The road incorporates numerous hairpin bends in the road using methods employed in the Swiss Alps.

The other marvel is Tundavala (2252 m or 7390 ft), a massive gorge on the main escarpment which gives a breathtaking view down to the desert and coastal plain well over 1,000 m or 3200 ft below. (Adapted with info from the Sonangol magazine Universo, December 2009)

Luanda: World's Most Expensive City

The capital city of Angola, Luanda,  recently snatched the title of "most expensive city" away from better-known capitals such as London, Oslo and Tokyo, according to a number of international surveys. The survey measured the cost of food, basic items including drinks and tobacco, and other costs such as clothing and electrical goods.  A liter of imported milk is $5 and a can of locally produced Coke is $.90.

The tide of petrodollars surging into the once sleepy port has widened the gulf of disparity between the rich and the poor in the city and moreso in the whole country. More than three-quarters of Luanda's residents, nearly four million people, live in the informal settlements, and these are grim. Most have no sanitation services; people must buy water from tanker trucks for nearly $1 a bucket. Infant and maternal mortality rates are some of the worst in the world. Many of the slums have no schools; when they do, they lack teachers, desks and books.

What has risen most significantly is the cost of real estate. For sale in a mediocre neighbourhood of Luanda: pokey two-bedroom apartment in a Soviet-style 1960s apartment block, fourteenth floor, elevator last operated in 1990, erratic plumbing, no maintenance in the past 22 years. Asking $300,000 (U.S.) And that's about all you're going to get in Luanda for $300,000: any new one-bedroom apartment in this city starts at $1-million. (The Globe and Mail, September 9, 2009)

The rising cost of goods and land in Luanda directly impacts church activities.  More and more new and growing congregations are being pushed to the outer limits of the city in a quest to afford the rising cost of land.   Bare land that has been secured comes with the government caveat that a church building must be erected in certain period of time or else the land must be forfeited.  These are challenging, yet faith-building times for the Angolan Church.

Chinatown Africa

Angola's rapid reconstruction after 30 years of civil war is literally changing the face of the nation.  Evidence of this is the current presence of over 50,000 Chinese workers in the country.

China has been one of the main financiers of oil-rich Angola's rapid development since the end of the civil war ended in 2002 and  in exchange for loans and aid, estimated to total more than US$4 billion since 2004, China has been guaranteed a generous chunk of Angola's future petroleum production.  The accords also stipulate that 70 percent of the country's development projects be given to Chinese companies, which prefer to import their own workers. 

It is interesting now to see the contrast  and clash of Asian cultures with the harshness of Africa.  Current news in Angola highlights how Angolan gangs are now targeting Chinese workers with 'mafia-style' tactics.  This seems to be an Angolan opportunity to steal from the easy prey of the rich Chinese and as well a backlash against the perception of the Chinese infiltration of the Angolan economy and jobs markets. In Angola, Chinese street sellers are fast putting out of business thousands of locals and Malian sellers who have been there for generations. The fact that many Chinese tend to live in isolation with little or no contact with the local population further aggravates the resentment already present.

Check out this link to a documentary which exposes the influx and influence of China upon the Angolan nation .  "Chinatown Africa"