Defining Angola's Poverty

(Capital Press Report)  Recent reports reveal that more than 30% of the Angolan population is relegated to the status of a 'poor condition', under defined parameters which evaluate the capabilities of ordinary citizens policy to purchase a common meal, translated into a simple dish of rice and beans, have adequate access to basic social services and live in a decent home. 

Analysts for Catholic University of Angola's research center say two in three Angolans still live on $2 or less a day.  In a study by the Institute of National Statistics which focuses on a series of social variables, 37% of Angola's population is poor, living with an average monthly income below 4,739 Kwanzas (approximately USD$50), an amount defined as the national poverty line in Angola.

The Statistics Institute reports that inadequate access to food and deprivation of some dimensions of well-being are factors that cause 37% of the Angolan population to be referred to as being in a situation of poverty and only surviving on one meal per day.

Available data indicates that one in three Angolans revealed have an inadequate consumption of goods services. The analytical report of the data on this survey also reveals that every person in Angola has a monthly consumption of 6.449 Kwanzas (approximately USD$70), which corresponds to the amount of consumable income needed to meet the consumption needs of food and non-food items as well as wellness and comfort. (Angonoticias)

Renaissance of Angolan Art

Following their country’s emergence from decades of strife, Angola’s artists are making their unique contribution to the wider contemporary art scene of southern Africa. The interest in Angolan art is growing rapidly.  This interest is fueled by the creative output of the local artists who are now beginning to appear, and reappear, and also by the global interest being shown in all art coming from Africa through exhibitions such as the highly successful Africa Remix, just concluding its tour to Europe and Japan.

Trienal of Luanda, is an art 'mega-project' with a budget around $6 million, was recently with a continental-focused African Imagery Observatory. The main objective of the Trienal is to build a new Center of Contemporary Art in Luanda which houses an art collection of 500 items representing 25 African countries.

An example of one Angolan artists’ exposition at the Art Center is entitled Angola Combatente, which opened in Luanda’s Soso gallery. This is a project to promote young Angolan artists and to give them an opportunity to determine the cultural and political contours of their country. The show was a big success and demonstrated different approaches of the Angolano combatente (Angolano combatante means Angolan soldier, a term created to show that in time of war the Angolan population were all soldiers and patriots). In the provinces and in collaboration with the local administrative bodies, the Trienal will be presented as an open-air cinema show, projecting the events as they happen in Luanda.

Meanwhile, Africa Remix features the work of several leading Angolan artists: Fernando Alvim, Paulo Capela, António Ole, Frank Lundangi and N’dilo Mutima.

Born in Luanda in 1963, Fernando Alvim is a leading influence in Angolan contemporary art. He has created several art-related projects in Europe, the United States and Africa. Fernando Alvim has participated in art exhibitions all over the world including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Biennale of Sidney, Australia, the Art Museum of La Rochelle, France, the Contemporary Art Centre of Calouste Gulbenkian, Portugal, La Louviere, Brussels, and also in Dakar, Senegal.

Paulo Capela, a self-taught artist and fervent Catholic, places his own paintings and drawings alongside objects in private shrines to represent an ideal world in which communism and capitalism co-exist.

António Ole, a famous Luanda-born painter and philosopher, is admired by collectors the world over. He has as one of his long-term projects the creation of a series of photo-walls featuring museque dwellings which, through images of decay, destruction and war, speak of the will to survive and thus of Angola’s past, present and future.

Born in  Maquela do Zombo in 1950, Frank Lundangi left the country to become footballer in France, but found his way through painting and sculpture, and now lives in Paris – one of the most sought-after African artists there.

N’dilo Mutima , another young artist and photographer is also gaining a strong reputation in Europe.

The influence of these five and whose inspiration has been shaped by the recent past, will have a significant effect on the art of southern Africa during the next decade at least. (Taken from Sonangol Magazine)

Emigration Role Reversal

During the height of Angola's civil war, many Angolans fled for safety to Portugal, the African country's old colonialist and imperial power.  Given the commonality of language, burgeoning economy and job opportunities in Portugal during the 70's to 90's, many Angolans prospered well.

Now in a reversal of traditional migration patterns, thousands of young unemployed professionals are escaping Portugal's crippling economic crisis by finding jobs in the former colony of Angola.  In the midst of national economic restructuring, Portugal's youth unemployment rate is 26.8%, with more than 95,000 people jobless between the ages of 16 and 25; many of the migrating, skilled youth have masters and PhD degrees that are valuable in a developing Angola that needs skilled people to rebuild its infrastructure.

Portugal’s foreign ministry says it registered 45,000 Portuguese citizens as resident in Angola in 2007-08. A year later the figure had jumped to 92,000. Today over 3,000 Portuguese companies operate in Angola and many of the Portuguese building companies such as Teixeira Duarte, Soares de Costa and Mota Engil have been switching from the home market to Angola’s to take advantage of Angola’s burgeoning economy.

In another reversal, an economic one, now Angolan state and private investors are eyeing Portugal’s assets recently freed up through Portugal’s privatization plans.  Recently, the IMF made the sale of BPN, a national bank, a condition for Portugal to get its recent financial bail-out. Other large Portuguese energy, mining and banking firms are under scrutiny for purchase by wealthy Angolan state and private investors. (Excerpts from BBC Report and The Economist)

Learning to Read for a Better Future

September 1st marked the opening of the International Literacy and Learning Week in Angola's capital, Luanda.  The meeting, focusing on "Literacy and peace, fights hunger and poverty" aims at exchanging experience between linguists of national vernacular languages. According to Angola National Director of Education of Adults, Guiherme Tuluca, " National language literacy helps fight hunger and poverty as it opens horizons for the population to change habits with a view to better build a domestic economy with qualified staff and workers."

Being a former Portuguese colony, Angola predominately speaks the Portuguese language.  Of 42 individual languages in Angola, there are six national or official languages: Portuguese, Kikongo, Kimbumdu, Mbundu, Chokwe and Oshiwambo. The literacy rate among Angolan males is 82.1% while only 53.8% of Angola females are literate. A high rate of Angolan illiteracy occurs in the predominately rural, remote areas where girls drop out of school at higher rates than boys and thus have a very low exposure to primary education.

Angola National Director of Education of Adults, Guiherme Tuluca adds in relation to building a better economy through literacy, "A trained peasant better analyzes the fertilizers and land information and produce markets.  An improvement in a farmer's own harvests helps boost the family's economy.  Tuluca urged the need for the rural population to benefit from the program. (Angop, Save the Children)

Building Blocks for a Nation

In 2010, the country of Angola imported more than 14 million tonnes of goods, of which 19% or 2 million long tonnes were of cement (2 billion kgs or 2.2 short tons).   Given that Angola is involved in a massive nation-wide infrastructure rebuilding project after almost 30 years of civil war, this importation and consumption of cement places the country with the 10 top global countries of cement consumption.  The predominant share of these cement imports arrive from neighboring Namibia and from China which is involved in many of the largest infrastructure rebuilding projects.


Angola has its own burgeoning cement production industry which is rebuilding and ramping up production with the aid of over $500 million in foreign direct investment.  An Angolan Government plan has been initiated to construct six new Angolan cement plants in the next three year to build up the national industry, reduce imports and to capitalize on the country's large natural deposits of limestone, sandstone and clay; all key ingredients for the production of cement. (compiled from Angop)

Searching for a Good Drink of Water

(VOA) A recent study from the Catholic University of Angola shows that well over 50% Angola's population lacks access to safe water and sanitation. The study was carried out by experts from the Center for Studies and Scientific Research in Angola in partnership with the Open Society Foundation. Professor Nelson Pestana Bonavena states that the study reveals that some 38-42 % of the population has an ‘access to water’ while 25-40% have access to appropriate sanitation.   These figures are supported by the Angolan government’s own figures from the 2010 IBEP Population and Well-Being Survey.

The lack of clean water for those living in the country’s poorest neighborhoods, coupled with the still-common practice of open-air defecation, means there is a high risk of diseases like cholera and typhoid, especially during the rainy season.   Experts say that Angola’s lack of clean water and poor sanitation is the main reason it is among the highest under-five mortality rate in the world and is a major driver for the recent resurgence of polio that is now spreading northward into the neighboring country of Congo.

With 1 600km of Atlantic coastline and its interior criss-crossed by the Zambezi, Congo and Okavango rivers, Angola is one of Africa's most water-endowed countries. It enjoys the most rainfall in Southern Africa and has twice as much available water per capita as Zambia or Mozambique and an estimated 10 times more than South Africa, according to the United Nations.  

Yet because of the pace of development of the potable water resources, many Angolans still lack access to ‘local and safe’ drinking water infrastructures.  When local water sources malfunction and the nearest river is too far, the only alternative for city dwellers is to buy water from private trucks which fill up at rivers and charge rather exorbitant fees. 

With global media exposure to these water access and sanitation problems, many private corporations are supplying funds to alleviate the problem.  Diageo, a global beverage company, has struck a three-year accord with WaterAid, an international charity organization, to fund a project that will provide water and sanitation to over 38,000 people in Angola. 

With new boreholes being drilled, new taps installed or existing ones repaired, and localized water treatment facilities being set up in rural areas next to rivers, a development plan is moving ahead.   Programs relying on extensive social mobilization about the importance of hand washing and water treatment are being initiated to decrease the number of cholera cases.  With these programs being initiated, the Angolan government confirms it will meet the 2015 United Nations millennium development goal for environmental sustainability and halve the number of people who don’t currently have sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. (VOA, Business Day, ReliefWeb)