| Angola is located on the South Atlantic Coast of West Africa between Namibia and the Republic of the Congo. It also is bordered by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia to the east. The country is divided into an arid coastal strip stretching from Namibia to Luanda; a wet, interior highland; a dry savanna in the interior south and southeast; and rain forest in the north and in Cabinda. The Zambezi River and several tributaries of the Congo River have their sources in Angola. The coastal strip is tempered by the cool Benguela current, resulting in a climate similar to coastal Baja California. There is a short rainy season lasting from February to April. Summers are hot and dry, while winters are mild.
The original inhabitants of Angola are thought to have been Khoisan speakers. After 1000, large numbers of Bantu speakers migrated to the region and became the dominant group. Angola derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola.
Explored by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cão in 1482, Angola became a link in trade with India and Southeast Asia. Later it was a major source of slaves for Portugal's New World colony of Brazil. Development of the interior began after the Berlin Conference in 1885 fixed the colony's borders, and British and Portuguese investment fostered mining, railways, and agriculture.
Following World War II, independence movements began but were sternly suppressed by Portuguese military forces. The major nationalist organizations were the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), a Marxist party; National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA); and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). After 14 years of war, Portugal finally granted independence to Angola in 1975. The MPLA, which had led the independence movement, has controlled the government ever since. But no period of peace followed Angola's long war for independence. UNITA disputed the MPLA's ascendancy, and civil war broke out almost immediately. With the Soviet Union and Cuba supporting the Marxist MPLA, and the United States and South Africa supporting the anti-Communist UNITA, the country became a cold war battleground.
With the waning of the cold war and the withdrawal of Cuban troops in 1989, the MPLA began to make the transition to a multiparty democracy. Despite shifting ideologies, the civil war continued, with UNITA's charismatic rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, armed and sustained by his control of approximately 80% of the country's diamond trade. Free elections took place in 1992, with incumbent president José Eduardo dos Santos and the MPLA winning the UN-certified election over Savimbi and UNITA. Savimbi then withdrew, charging election fraud, and the civil war resumed.
Angola is the second-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, yet its people are among the continent's poorest. The corruption of the dos Santos government bears much of the blame. According to the International Monetary Fund, more than $4 billion in oil receipts have disappeared from Angola's treasury in the last six years.
Republic of Angola
National name: Republica de Angola
Area: 481,351 sq mi (1,246,700 sq km)
Population (2005 est.): 11,190,786 (growth rate: 1.9%); birth rate: 44.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 191.2/1000; life expectancy: 36.6; density per sq mi: 23
Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Luanda, 2,297,200
Other large cities: Huambo, 171,000; Lubango, 136,000
Monetary unit: New Kwanza
Languages: Portuguese (official), Bantu and other African languages
Ethnicity/race: Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, mestico (mixed European and Native African) 2%, European 1%, other 22%
Religions: Indigenous 47%, Roman Catholic 38%, Protestant 15% (1998 est.)
Literacy rate: 42% (1998 est.)
Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 96,300 (2003); mobile cellular: 130,000 (2002). Radio broadcast stations: AM 36, FM 7, shortwave 9 (2000). Television broadcast stations: 6 (2000). Internet hosts: 17 (2003). Internet users: 41,000 (2002).
Transportation: Railways: total: 2,771 km (2004). Highways: total: 51,429 km; paved: 5,328 km; unpaved: 46,101 km (2001). Waterways: 1,300 km (2004). Ports and harbors: Cabinda, Luanda, Soyo. Airports: 243 (2004 est.). |
