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1
- Political Status
Angola
is a People's Republic. The constitution was
adopted on 15th November 1975 and modified in
October 1976, September 1990 and March
1991.
Executive
power is in the hands of the President of the
Republic, who is elected by universal suffrage for
a five year term of office. The present President,
nominated by the MPLA (Popular Movement for the
Liberation of Angola) is José Eduardo Dos
Santos, born on 28th August 1942. He took power on
20th September 1979, replacing Agostinho di Neto
who died on 10th September 1979.
The Vice President is Jonas Savimbi from the UNITA
party.
Legislative
power is held by the National Assembly (220 seats +
3 reserved for Angolans from other countries).
There are 18 provinces.
The
Angolan army (FAA) is made up of 20,000 soldiers
and a riot police with 30-40,000 men.
The
political parties are :
-MPLA-PT : the Angolan Popular Liberation Movement
/ Labour Party, created in 1956
-FNLA : the Angolan National Liberation Front,
created in 1962
-UNITA : the National Union for the total
independence of Angola, created in 1966
Short
historical outline :
In 13th century Angola was called the kingdom of
Kongo, the capital was Mbanza (later Sao Salvador)
1482 : the country is discovered by Diogo Cao
1484 : the coast is occupied by the Portuguese
1574 : the country adopts the name of the king
N'Gola
In 16th century Portuguese trading stations were
set up
In 17th century Angola was a centre of the slave
trade. When the Spanish took possession of America,
opening the route to the slave trade, the
Portuguese took on the role of suppliers of labour
for South America.
1617 : King N'Gola is decapitated
1641 : arrival of the Dutch, chased out by the
Brazilians in 1648
1656 : treaty of independence of Ndongo
1705 : with the aid of the clergy King Pedro IV
takes power
1956 : founding of the MPLA party
1957 : founding of the FLNA party
1961 : rebellion, murder of 2000 whites, 10,000
people were killed in revenge, thousands of
Angolans fled to the Congo
1966 : founding of the UNITA party
1972 : Supreme council of liberation formed with
the President Roberto Holden
1974 : confrontations between blacks and whites (35
dead in July)
1975 : transition government, independence, civil
war. 400,000 Portuguese leave the country. South
African intervention. Independence.
Since independence
1975 : Agostinho di Neto (1922-79) President of
the Republic
1975-1991 : 230,000 dead, 1 million displaced
people, 10,000 children sent to Cuba for
training
1976 : several thousand dead, coffee plantations
destroyed
1977 : failed coup attempt in Luanda (20,000
dead)
1978 : the FAPLA (regular army of 30,000 men) and
the Cubans (23,000 men) fight UNITA
1981-82 : South African raids
1988 : South African bombing
1991 : multi-party law passed. United Nations
supervision. The Estoril agreements between Dos
Santos and Savimbi.
1992 : Legislative and presidential elections, Mr
Dos Santos wins them, the results are contested by
Savimbi who starts the war again
1994 : peace treaties signed in Lusaka (Zambia),
between Dos Santos and Savimbi
1995 : the peace agreement is broken (signed
between the goverment army chiefs and UNITA).
Meeting in Lusaka between Dos Santos and Savimbi
for a reconciliation.
1996 : Fernando José de Franca Dias Van
Dunem is nominated Prime Minister.
2 - Geographical situation
Angola is the biggest country south of the
Sahara. It is situated between the equator and the
Tropic of Capricorn, between the Congo and Namibia
on the west coast of southern Africa.
The capital is Luanda.
The geographical relief rises gradually from the
coast to the interior, reaching a height of 2620 m
at Mt Morro Moco. There is an Angolan
plateau.
The
total surface of Angola is 1,246,700 sq. kms.
including the Cabinda zone. From north to south it
stretches 1277 kms and from west to east 1236 kms.
The region of Cabina, off which are the petrol
fields, was occupied by Angola in 1975 with
Cuban-Soviet aid. This enclave, separated from
Angola by a strip of land belonging to the Congo
Republic with the southern boundary which follows
the estuary of the Zaire River, has a surface of
7270 sq.kms. and 300,000 inhabitants.
The
main rivers are the Zaire and the Kwango in the
north, and from north to south the rivers Cuanza,
Cunene Cubango, Cuito, Cuandro, Lungue Bungo
(tributary of the Zambeze) Cassai and
Cuilo.
The
main provinces are : Zaire - Uige - Malanie -
North Lunda - South Lunda - Moxico - Cuando Cubango
- Cunen - Nambe - Huila Huambo - Benguela- Bengo -
North Cuanza - South Cuanza.
The
main game reserves are : in the west, the Ambriz
and the Namibia parks, in the east the National
Park of Cangandola, Mupa and Cameia.
3 - Economy & statistics
Angola's economic life is marked from years of
civil war.
Its
economy has been devastated by a soviet-style
regime and a total absence of capital. The growth
of economic activity has fallen by 35%. All the
economic sectors have been touched and the
perspectives depend entirely on severe political
measures.
In
spite of the foreign currency revenues from petrol
and diamonds, the population's situation is
catastrophic : 3 million people live from
humanitarian aid; food shortages menace most of the
provinces. Entire parts of the country are
completely isolated, the roads are in such a bad
condition. The rising prices are out of control.
Life expectancy is only 42 and one and a half
million children live way under the poverty
threshhold. Most investments and reforms are
frozen. The Angolan leaders have used more than
half of the money coming in from petrol to buy arms
and at the same time corruption has cut down tax
revenues dramatically.
As
well as trying to control the economy the
government is attempting to get financial backing
from western international organizations and
private investors. The main preoccupation of the
Angolan economic institutions is to relaunch the
economic activity of the country.
The
government has adopted liberal methods to develope
partnerships with local and international companies
in numerous domains. A process of privatization
which has been started by the government, will
hopefully dynamize the local economy and the
principle companies concerned.
The
return of Portuguese companies and massive
investment from South Africa are major assets in
the country's developement perspectives.
There
are very few French companies permanently installed
in Angola.
The
basic foodstuffs like rice and oil have become more
difficult to find and more expensive since the
expulsion of West African shopkeepers.
External trade
(in billions of dollars)
|
|
1995
|
1996
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1997
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1998
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|
exports
|
3.836
|
5.363
|
5.223
|
3.879
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|
imports
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-3.519
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-4.464
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-5.389
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-4.546
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balance
of trade
|
-0.295
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3.266
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-0.852
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-1.776
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(Source: Atlas éco 2001)
Imports
come from the United States : 17.1%, Japan : 2.3%,
the European Union : 53.6% (19.8% comes from
Portugal), Africa : 12.6%
Division of GDP by activity sector
Agriculture
: 12.3%
Industry : 5.7%
Mining : 45.8%
Services :36.3%
Economy
(in billions of dollars, except GNP per capita
in dollars)
|
|
1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
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|
Gross
National Product
|
4.11
|
4.28
|
4.10
|
1.87
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|
PNB
par habitant
|
210
|
250
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380
|
160
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|
croiss.volume
du PIB
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11.7%
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6.6%
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5.0%
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1.9%
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aide
(+ ou -)
|
0.379
|
0.882
|
1.171
|
-
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dette
extérieure brute
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6.836
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7.488
|
7.951
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-
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taux
d'inflation
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905.3%
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111.2%
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86.9%
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286.1%
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taux
d'intérêt
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147.13%
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29.25%
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36.88%
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37.50%
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recettes
touristiques
|
0.009
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0.009
|
0.008
|
-
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|
investissement
étrangers
|
0.181
|
0.350
|
0.360
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-
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cours
US dollar
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128029
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229040
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392823
|
2790706
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(Source: Atlas éco 2001)
General
information
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Purchasing
power parity (PPP)
|
1200
dollars
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|
GNP
growth 1990-1997
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-10%
per capita per annum
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Households
with PPP+$30000pa
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35
000 = 1.5%
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|
Households
with PPP +$15000pa
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95
000 = 4%
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Households
with PPP -$5000 pa
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1
830 000 = 9%
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4 - Agriculture
Before Angola was ravaged by civil war it had a
prosperous agriculture and was one of the leading
African producers of coffee and fruit. On the high
plateaus the soil was very fertile, strawberries
grew all the year round.
Today
the agriculture has been reduced to a few food
crops which are not even enough to cover the
population's needs.
Agriculture
(livestock in millions of head, timber in millions
of m3, other products in millions of tons)
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1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
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wheat
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0.005
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0.005
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0.006
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0.004
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wood
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6.073
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6.272
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6.472
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-
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coffee
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0.003
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0.004
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0.005
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0.005
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sugar
cane
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0.290
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0.310
|
0.340
|
0.340
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cotton
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0.004
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0.004
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0.004
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-
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maize
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0.398
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0.370
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0.505
|
0.428
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millet
|
0.102
|
0.062
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0.089
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0.102
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potatoes
|
0.028
|
0.024
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0.025
|
0.019
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rice
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0.020
|
0.021
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0.021
|
0.016
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cattle
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3.309
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3.556
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3.898
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3.900
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sheep
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0.260
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0.280
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0.305
|
0.336
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pigs
|
0.810
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0.820
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0.810
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0.800
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fishing
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0.073
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0.072
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-
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-
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(Source: Atlas éco 2001)
5 - Industries & mining
Petrol and diamonds : the core of the war. If you
compare the amount of petrol and diamonds and other
precious minerals that it produces with its low
number of inhabitants Angola should be the richest
country in Africa, but thirty odd years of civil
war have totally bled the country dry.
In
1973 950,000 tons of manganese were extracted, as
well as copper, iron (the Assigna region), uranium,
natural bitumen.
In
1999 Angola claims to have produced diamonds for a
value of 614 million dollars, but most analysts
estimate that the amount is exaggerated. Since
January 2000 Ascorp, which is the government
organism in charge of controlling the diamond
trade, is dealing with the transactions.
UNITA
exploits most of the diamond mines. Qualified
labour is rare.
The main mine is Cuongo.
After the United Nations peace mission had been
declared a failure, the Security Council adopted a
new strategy to defuse the Angolan conflict by
decreeing in July 1998 an embargo on the diamond
exports of the Angolan rebels. But by October 1999
the UN experts in charge of following up the
sanctions against UNITA concluded that the embargo
had failed. The diamonds now go through other
diverted channels (West Africa, southern Africa).
The giant De Beers went one further than the UN and
decreed unilaterally in October 1999 an embargo on
all the Angolese production, legal or not, and on
other African countries as well.
Angola
is the second biggest petrol producer in Black
Africa after Nigeria with nearly 650,000 barrels a
day. Its attractive petrol policies concerning
foreign partners has developed its offshore
drilling. The petrol revenues in 1999 came to 4.5
billion dollars and represent 90% of the public
revenue.
Mining
(in millions of tons : diamonds in thousands of
carats)
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1996
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1997
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1998
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1999
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Rating
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diamonds
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2250
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1110
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3000
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3400
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5
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petrol
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34.8
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35.3
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35.3
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38.5
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25
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(Source: Atlas éco 2001)
Some
industries exist manufacturing wood products,
paper, sugar, gas, cement and metal
containers.
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