Lubango's 'Feast on the Hill'

Each August 15, the people of the city of Lubango stage the annual Festival Nossa Senhora do Monte (translated "Lady of the Hill").  Tied historically to Catholic religious rituals, the highlight of this annual festival is a procession where up to 10,000 pilgrims share a Catholic mass at the symbolic church of the Nossa Senhora do Monte.

The festival and church building has deep historic roots connected to the Funcal region of the island of Madeira in Portugal.  History states that in 1470 a small chapel was build on a ridge in the mountainside rising behind Funcal.  Initially called the Chapel of Our Lady of the Incarnation, it was reassigned as Our Lady of the Mount some 90 years later.

Legend states that the later name of the chapel was adopted after a great spiritual experience.  Apparently, the daughter of a local shepherd had gone to drink from a spring that emerged from the hillside near the chapel and while there an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared on the rock face. When a new church in Funchal was restored in the early 1800's after a tragic earthquake, the church was officially proclaimed the church of Nossa Senhora do Monte, the Patron Saint of Madeira.

Because of testimonies of answered prayers from the Madeira parishioners, Nossa Senhora Do Monte was and is looked up to even today with the most affectionate veneration by all Roman Catholic mariners and farmers.  She is considered a protectress in all cases of peril and many miraculous interpositions of hers, under circumstances of appalling danger are recounted seriously and devoutly believed.

It was upon these beliefs in 1901 that a group of settlers from Madeira Portugal sought the sponsorship of the erection of Our Lady of Mount west of the village of Sa da Bandeira, named Lubango today.  Having the church situated on a hillside overlooking Lubango, the settlers wanted to perfectly imitate the traditions of their homeland, being able to look up to the church from their homes and fields and contemplate their crops to bless.

While the catholic parishioners faithfully have continued the traditional mass annually on August 15 to this day, several local, Ovimbundu cultural practices were syncretized into the festival.  In earlier times, the festival included bonfires and drumming ceremonies marking the ritual of 'Ekwenje' when boys were circumcised and 'Efiko', the ritual of puberty when girls get ready for marriage.   As these local, cultural celebrations naturally faded away, the festival's celebrations have become modernized to include beauty pageants and car races.

Clearing the Land of Landmines

(ANGOP) A total of 99,980 kilometres of road have been cleared of landmines around Angola from 1996 to Q1 of 2011 as confirmed by Angola Social Welfare minister, João Baptista Kussumua. The minister was chairing the opening of the 3rd National Meeting on Demining, in representation of the Angolan head of State, José Eduardo dos Santos. 

Millions of landmines were laid in Angola during the 27 years of bitter conflict that followed independence from Portugal in 1975.  Government and Cuban forces laid extensive minefields around their bases in and around towns as well as around infrastructure such as airports, water supply stations, electrical pylons and bridges.

 Both the Government and opposing UNITA forces laid a significant number of anti-tank mines on primary, secondary and tertiary roads and to this day anti-tank mines on roads pose a far greater problem than in any other mine affected country.

The Minister also confirmed that another 3,200 kilometres of railway have been cleared of mines, including 6,016 kilometres of fiber-optic and 5,571 of electricity conveying line. In the reporting period, a total of 930,191,457 square metres have been cleared involving the clearing of a sum total of 428,274 anti-personnel landmines of which 23,384 were anti-tank mines and 2.3 million were unexploded ordnances.

Also cleared were 2.7 million kilograms of lethal material, plus 3.7 million kilograms of assorted materials. He said that despite the excellent results achieved in the process, the threat of landmines continues, putting flow of people and goods and certain areas of the national territory at permanent risk.

A British NGO, The Halo Trust, the world's oldest and largest humanitarian landmine clearance organization, has been instrumental in clearing a majority of these mines in Angola. Halo has conducted extensive surveys of the five provinces in which it operates in Angola and, as of June 2010, has confirmed 778 minefields that require clearance. http://www.halousa.org/home/index.aspx (Angop, The Halo Trust)

An Award for 'Clean-Up' Advertising

Angola recently won the Grand Award of the Sixth International Advertising Festival of Maputo in addition to eight other medals.  The event’s Grand Award was attributed to a piece developed by the Advertising Agency Executive Center, an Angolan company, to support an awareness campaign to clean up the garbage left on the streets of the Angolan capital, commissioned by the Provincial Government of Luanda.

The Festival promotes the work of international advertising agencies, producers and communications companies from the African and Indian Ocean regions whose creativity and originality particularly contribute to the development of the African advertising market.

In this integrated advertising work, the agency Executive Center draws attention to the need to combat the garbage in the streets of Luanda, with educational messages to appeal to the problem, which had great impact on the international jury of the festival, which was unanimous in handing over the award to Angola.

The Sixth International Advertising Festival of Maputo reported this year the participation of 28 agencies from several countries, including Mozambique, the host country, Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Mauritius, France, Portugal, Seychelles, breaking the record of presented work in this annual competition.

According to the team of judges, chaired by the Mozambican creative José Ricardo, Cabaço who works in the United States as Global Brand Director of Nike’s Worldwide Communication,“the competition was tough because the standards were high”. (TAAG Austral Magazine)

Angola Humor 5

See another example of a daily comic page from Journal de Angola, a daily Angola newspaper. This comic strip highlights the reaction of some Angolans to the massive influx of the Chinese workers to the country. Some 30 - 40 thousand Chinese are in-country now to rebuild the main infrastructure and most certainly the culture and language of these short-term workers have had an impact.

Translation: "I have arranged some books to learn Chinese."

                                           "The Chinese must learn Portuguese"                                                  (Angola's national language)!            

Angola's Giant (Dinosaur)

The first dinosaur found in Angola has been named the Angolatitan adamastor.  Angolatitan means ‘Angolan giant’ and adamastor refers to the mythical sea giant of the South Atlantic feared by Portuguese sailors. The long-necked sauropod was uncovered in 2005 about 70km north of Luanda by Portuguese paleontologist Octávio Mateus from Portugal’s Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museum of Lourinhã.

Remains of the large plant-eating dinosaur, which was believed to have been 13 metres long and lived 90 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, were found in marine sediments. “These and other fossils tell us an amazing story about the climate and climate change in this part of the world,” says Louis Jacobs from the Southern Methodist University, who is a member of the Mateus PaleoAngola Project team. “In an oilproducing country like Angola, this project helps us to understand the geology of the region and the implications for its richness.”

The detailed description, in which the Angolatitan adamastor officially received its scientific name, was presented in the publication Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences).

As well as discovering Angola’s first dinosaur, the PaleoAngola team has uncovered mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles and other cretaceous marine animals. The long-term goal of the project is to create a strong and lasting institutional and scientific collaboration with Angolan academia.  (Sonangol Universo Magazine, June 2011)

High Dollar Luanda

(CNN Report) Luanda, Angola's capital has been named the world's most expensive city for expats for the second year in a row. According to a new survey, Tokyo is the next most expensive, with N'Djamena, in Chad, the third-most expensive city for expats. The results are part of the Worldwide Cost of Living Survey 2011, carried out by HR consultants Mercer Record accommodation prices are the main driver of high living expenses for expats in African cities, according to the report.

In Luanda, renting a luxury two-bedroom unfurnished apartment costs an average of $7,000 per month, compared to $4,300 in New York, $3,345 in Shanghai, $2,456 in Rome and $1,800 in Buenos Aires.

"In Luanda, accommodation costs are very, very high," explained Mercer senior associate Nathalie Constantin-Metral."Availability is limited and most expats are looking for accommodation in secure compounds and prices for accommodation with international standards are high," she added.

The high cost of living in Luanda and N'Djamena is also down to the fact that expats shop differently to locals. Expats tend to look for international brands they are used to at home, which have to be imported.  A club sandwich and soda meal costs $20.38 in Luanda, compared to $6.29 for a fast-food meal in New York and $3.57 in Shanghai. Angola's oil reserves do at least mean that gas is cheap in Luanda -- 59 cents per liter, compared to 87 cents in New York and $1.12 in Shanghai.

In recent years Angola has been attracting expats with its growing economy, driven by oil production. It produces up to 1.9 million barrels a day, with oil contributing about 85% of its GDP, according to the CIA World Factbook.

Despite its oil, the vast majority of Angolans work in agriculture and more than a third live below the poverty line, according to the U.N. Development Program.