Marking Luanda's Birthday; The 'Paris of Africa'

Today, the city of Luanda celebrates its 435th anniversary of its founding in 1576.  Being the country's largest city and capital, Luanda is located on the Atlantic coast and is the main port and administrative center of Angola. It has a population now of over 5 million inhabitants (UN estimate 2008), making it the third largest city of the Lusophone world, behind São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro of Brazil.   

In 1575 the Portuguese captain, Paulo Dias de Novais, landed on Cape Island and established the first group of Portuguese settlers, some 700 people which included 350 armed men, clergy, merchants and civil servants. A year later (1576), recognizing the limitations of the small island, the group moved onshore to the mainland and founded the town of São Paulo da Assunção de Luanda and laid the foundation stone for a Catholic church dedicated to St. Sebastian, today the site of the Armed Forces Museum.

Luanda was Portuguese Angola's administrative centre from 1627, except during the Dutch rule of Luanda, from 1640 to 1648, as Fort Aardenburgh. The city served as the centre of a large slave trade to Brazil from c.1550 to 1836. The slave trade was conducted mostly with the Portuguese colony of Brazil; Brazilian ships were the most numerous in the ports of Luanda and Benguela.

A strong degree of Brazilian influence was noted in Luanda until the independence of Brazil in 1822. In the 19th century, still under Portuguese rule, Luanda experienced a major economic revolution. The slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1844 Angola's ports were opened to foreign shipping. By 1850, Luanda was one of the greatest and most developed Portuguese cities in the vast Portuguese Empire outside mainland Portugal full of trading companies, exporting palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products. Maize, tobacco, dried meat and cassava flour also began to be produced locally. The Angolan bourgeoisie was born by this time.

In 1889 Governor Brito Capelo opened the gates of an aqueduct which supplied the city with water, a formerly scarce resource, laying the foundation for major growth. Like most of Portuguese Angola, the cosmopolitan city of Luanda was not affected by the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974); economic growth and development in the entire region reached record highs during this period. In 1972 a report called Luanda the 'Paris of Africa'. 

Angola, which is forecast by the World Bank and UN to be one of the world's fastest growing economies, has been undergoing a massive national reconstruction. The central government allocates funds to all regions of the country, but the capital region receives the bulk of these funds. Since the end of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), stability has been widespread in the country, and major reconstruction has been ongoing since 2002.

Around one-third of Angolans live in Luanda, 57% of whom live in poverty. Living conditions in Luanda are extremely poor, with essential services such as safe drinking water still in short supply. Luanda is one of the world's most expensive cities for overseas foreigners. (Angop, Wikipedia)

Angola's Railways are Back on Track

Today marks the initial full-length test of the newly reconstructed rail link between Luanda and Malange tinto Angola's agriculture-rich central north-eastern region.  This link will be put to the test before the first commercial trip planned for January 13.

Inaugurated in 1909, most of  railway company CFL's (Caminho de Ferro Luanda) 424 kilometers of track and rail traffic stopped for 18 years due to war, the CFL rail line linking Luanda to Malange via Ndalatando, capital of Kwanza Norte, is considered key to open up the interior of the country and is one of the major issues of program national reconstruction started after the war ended in 2002.

The rehabilitation of the line began in 2005 and has reported cost $350 million. The track was laid by the China Railway construction Company which also built various train stations enroute which can hold between  200 to 500 passengers.

In addition to the thousands of passengers who will utilize the trains between Luanda and Malange, the trains are planned to decrease transport times of locally grown agricultural produce and cattle to Luanda, overcoming the current problems that still exist regarding the storage and conservation of fresh products.  The reopening of the rail line also brings improvements in the distribution of gasoline and diesel fuel to interior regions with the creation of three storage depots by national fuel company Sonangol.

The fleet of diesel locomotives serving the CFL are proudly painted in the Angolan colors of red, black and yellow with a national flag attached to the door of the engineer's cab. Along with the replacement of track and infrastructure, a major challenge for the CFL administration has been the training and replacement of executive and technical staff after most of the employees have died or left the service during the many years of the civil war.  

For the railway system in Angola, the next two years will be decisive with the opening of an important eastward link in the south in 2012.  The Caminho de Ferro Benguela (CFB) is the longest railway in Africa, stretching 1,344 km (835 miles) from the port city of Lobito on the Atlantic coast to the small town of Luau, on the border of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Reopening the line will establish the only international connection to the DRC and Zambia, potentially utilizing the important transport of minerals from those regions. (Excerpts from BBC News, Angola)

Doubling of Electricity Production

The government of Angola has just announced that it intends to invest 18 billion dollars by 2016 in the construction of energy infrastructures, in order to remedy the shortfall which is affecting the country. Statistics show that less than 30 per cent of the Angolan population has access to electricity.

Speaking on the sidelines of the recent state visit of Angolan President Eduardo dos Santos to South Africa, Minister of Energy and Water, Emanuela Vieire Lopes stressed that a substantial increase in the production of energy in Angola, some 7,000 megawats, would be achieved only with use of hydroelectric generation.  At least 68 sites for building of mini-hydroelectric powers have been identified with the objective of reaching 100% of power supply to the population.

The realization of these investments  is stated to be accomplished by setting up a fund which will be fed by oil revenues on 100 thousand barrels/day and executed in accordance with the rules of the General State Budget. (ANGOP)

Opening 'Roads' to Freedom and Mobility

One of the most impressive rebuilding efforts in rehabilitating Angola's infrastructure has been in area of rebuilding the road system.  During the armed conflict, the interprovincial roads were not able to receive any maintenance services which resulted in the gradual deterioration and destruction of much of the infrastructure.  Aside from air transport, this lack of road access essentially isolated the isolated, interior regions from the major urban areas.

New 2010 year-end reports show that the efforts of this reconstruction have rebuilt more than 6,000 kilometres (3,600 miles) of roads in Angola between 2005 and 2010 under the National Reconstruction programme.

Joaquim Sebastião, director general of the Angolan National Roads Institute (INEA), said more than 7,500km would be rebuilt between 2011 and 2013. Future construction programmes also included repairing and rebuilding 1,400 bridges.

The rebuilding of the roads and bridges has now re-established links between the provinces' chief towns, showing the direct effects of increased trade and decreased transport costs of produce and products. (ANGOP)

New Driving Freedom and its Effects

With the new economic and mobility freedoms enjoyed by Angolans now after the many years of civil war, there has been an explosion of road traffic.  Drivers with economic means are now able to experience the ability to drive their vehicles to different provinces on vastly improved roads, in addition to the the compounding increase in motorcycle and public road transport for the middle and lower economic class populations.

This increase in road traffic has not only brought unbelievable 'road confusion' in the urban areas, but has also lead to an astronomical number of road injuries and deaths.  In a Global Status Report on Road Safety for 2009 published by the World Health Organization, Angola was listed as 7th in the world in accordance to the rate of traffic deaths.  The WHO report for 2009 lists Angola as experiencing 37.7 deaths per 100,000 people and having 2358 traffic deaths.  Comparatively, the USA and Canada have road death rates of 13.9 and 8.8 respectively.  While these figures in 2009 do not list the number of traffic injuries per capita, a preliminary WHO report for Q1 - Q3 of 2010 list Angola as having the 3rd most traffic injuries per capita.  Non scientifically, the CEML Hospital medical staff are seeing a greater percentage of interned patients as those suffering from injuries experienced from either motorcycle or car accidents.

In order to combat the growing trend of road accidents, the Angolan government issued a new Highway Code in 2009, which has divided society. On one hand, the new code is seen as a good measure taken by the Government as it will educate some of the drivers who are less attached to life. Nevertheless, the legislation contains costs that not everyone is able to meet. The compulsory use of seats for children under twelve, may be an example. There are now well informed thieves who have begun stealing these items each of which costs around 30 thousand Cuanza (approximately 385 USD at the date this piece was published).

The Rise of the 'Rural Mercedes': the Bicycle

Transport and development go hand-in-hand. In Angola's burgeoning rural economy and society, virtually everything traded must be transported, and almost everyone needs wheels to develope social structures.  The rise of bicycle use in rural Angolan areas represents simple, affordable transportion which can generate wealth, as well as saving lots of time and back-breaking work.  Most importantly, this rise has occurred due to widespread war damage and devastation that has left many secondary roads decrepit and rivers uncrossable by 4 X 4 vehicles swept away by floods.

Bicycle use is also widespread amongst NGO and relief agencies trying to reach remote populations overcome with logistical difficulties in efforts to bring aid and medical relief.  Recently, MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres) an international medical response organization, used bicyles to reach many remote villages in the remote northern parts of Angola; in regions where many of the paths are not big enough for a car. As well, the roads are suspected of being mined so access is often only on foot or by bicycle. MSF frequently uses bicycles in Malange to do vaccinations in communities without access by road.
 

Bicycles are now being used as a useful tool in Angola to present the Gospel and build up church congregations. Angola, much like many other parts of Africa presents a unique challenge to Christian pastors and evangelists. Due to the high illiteracy rate among the Angolan population, often the gospel has to be spread orally. However, communities are far-flung which means that great distances have to be covered in the quest to spread the gospel. In addition to this, the terrain is frequently inhospitable and unforgiving, making the lack of a properly developed transport infrastructure more sorely felt.  Since most rural Angolan pastors are very poor, the bicycle is the most practical and affordable answer to these financial and logistical challenges. A bicycle can go where a 4 X 4 cannot go.

One Tall Tower!

An oil-production facility offshore Angola, featuring one the tallest man-made structures in the world has started producing oil.  It's one of the world's largest structures and its helping Angola maintain its position as Africa's biggest crude oil producer.

The Tombua Landana tower in Angolan waters is an incredible 474 m high (1554 ft).  That makes it more than a third higher than the Eiffel tower and almost as high as the Taipei Financial Center in Taiwan, one of the tallest skycrapers in the world. The oil rig is located 80 km (48 miles) from the Angolan coast in approximately 366m (1200 ft) of water.

Chevron's $3.8 billion development, which is designed to allow zero discarge of produced water and zero routine gas flaring, is expected to reach peak production of 100,000 barrels of oil per day by 2011.

Luanda: Most Expensive City

Angola's capital Luanda, topped this year's Mercer Worldwide Cost of Living Survey as the world's most expensive city for expatriates, with Tokyo in second spot and Ndjamena, Chad, in third.

According to the report, which compare cost living in 370 cities around the world, the presence of many African cities in top spots was due to the fact that many expatriates purchase imported products at high prices, thus inflating cost of living.  Additionally, the tide of petrodollars surging into the city has created a massive property boom which has spilled over into the general economy.

"The fact that Luanda lead the top of the list may surprise some," said Lee Quane, ECA International, adding that this is because "the study includes goods and services typically purchased by expatriates, which can be very expensive in places like this, but not exceeding the local market."

Please click here to read the whole report.

Angola's Resurging Power Grid

Approximately 77% of Angola's power supply is generated by hydropower: the remaining is diesel generated. With numerous powerful rivers crossing the country, Angola has tremendous potential for generating electricity with an estimated hydropower potential of 150 000 GWh/year, of which about 65 000 GWh/year is considered to be firm potential. With 10 hydro plants constructed in Angola, the power industry is making progress in rehabilitation after years of wars and neglect; several dams are still out of service following damage sustained during the civil war.

Despite the rapid expansion of capacity, Angola's internal electricity grid is weak and poorly integrated, with much power lost in transmission. Power outages are common, worsened by poor maintenance and below-cost tariff structures. Less than 20% of Angola's population has access to electricity, with most depending on wood or charcoal. Around 75% of national electricity output is consumed in Luanda, but only around one-quarter of the city's residents have access to a regular power supply. Owing to power cuts, 68% of businesses are forced to rely on their own generators for power, the highest recorded rate in Africa. The  government is attempting to reduce this constraint on economic growth, and in April 2007 it announced plans to invest US$2bn in electricity infrastructure, with a focus on boosting output and extending the national grid. (Info adapted from Economist Intelligence Unit: Angola)

Getting Connected!

In 2001, Africa became the first continent where the number of mobile subscribers exceed fixed line users.  With almost 280 million customers, Africa is now the fastest-growing market in the world.  Analysts estimated that by 2010, a third of Africans will own a mobile phone.  This trend is definitely bearing out in Angola, where it is calculated that there are as many mobile phones in the country as adults!

In all the areas of infrastructure rebuilding, the telecommunications / mobile phone industry has been one of the success stories.  Since the licencing of mobile phone operators in 2000, the market has boomed to add some 8 million subscribers.  Mobile phone usage has experienced this amazing growth because of the real need; the ending of the three-decade war left a precarious traditional communications infrastructure with only about 200,000 working landlines. 

More than just a technical toy, mobile phones are so important in the developing world in fact, that they have been hailed as one of the best ways to improve livelihoods.  A study by the London Business School concluded that an increase in mobile phone penetration by 10% leads to an increase in GDP by 0.6%.  If this can be applied to Angola's burgeoning economy, this will be a welcome boost.

Mobile phone are now being used in Angola in very ingenious ways.  For example, in the very isolated, rural southern areas of Angola, the mobile phone is being used as an important weapon in the war against the spread of the HIV infection.  It is common for a phone's young owner in these areas to recieve a text message that reads, "Life is stronger that AIDS. Get an HIV test!" 

This campaign, initiated by the INLS (Angolan National Institute for the Fight Against Aids), realizes that text messages are great way to raise awareness, combat the stigma against the disease and provide information on the treatment since text messages are direct and personal, yet do not infringe on people's privacy.

In another unique usage of mobile phone telecommunications, last year during the general election, Angolan phone users could text their voter registration number to a central number, which would send back a text informing them of the nearest polling station.  This potentially saved many days of travel from isolated areas on many unimproved roads.  (Info Adapted from Sonangol Universo Magazine)