Page 33 - Nile Explorer 10 Final-3-FINAL O-WITH NEW ALDO PHO COPY FOR PRINT

That allegation of impropriety prompted recovering from the conflict that killed
dos Santos, who is Africa’s richest thousands and displaced millions before
woman with an estimated worth of peace was reached in 2002.
$2.6 billion, to fire back with a 13-page Much of Angola’s oil wealth lies in
statement denouncing the “slanderous” Cabinda, a province separated from the
and “defamatory campaigns” against her rest of the country by the Congo River
and saying the transaction was “totally and an arm of Congo. The oil industry
legitimate.” drives about half of the country’s gross

President Joao Lourenço The Republic of Angola is bordered by domestic product and constitutes about
Namibia and Congo along the Atlantic 90 percent of its exports. Though also
Ocean. Its shimmering shores rise to rich in diamonds, a great majority of the
But that tide of change may have hit a high plateau with both desert and country live in poverty.
some snags, analysts say, amid recent rainforest terrain. Originally colonized Nearly a third of all Angolans are
corruption allegations, accusations by Portugal in the 16th century, the illiterate, and many support themselves
of uneven prosecutions and vocal Portuguese withdrew from Angola in as subsistence farmers. The birth rate in
pushback from the former ruling family. 1975, and the newly independent nation Angola is one of the highest in the world.
In December, 2017, Lourenco removed was thrown into a decade long civil war Tens of thousands of displaced citizens
Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of among rival independence movements. are returning home to a country at peace,
the former president, from her post at The nation’s people and economy are still further contributing to rapid population
the head of the nation’s oil company. growth and strain on the economy.
While Portuguese is the official language,
a variety of Bantu languages are spoken
by the nearly 100 ethnic tribes that call
Angola home. Vibrant textile arts and
wood carvings are popular traditions,
and capoeira, an athletic form of martial
art, is said to have roots among Angolans
who were taken to Brazil as slaves.
Angola is party to a number of
international and regional organizations,
including the United Nations, the
African Union and OPEC
More than a decade after the end of
Angola’s 27-year civil war, the country
still faces a variety of socioeconomic
problems, including poverty, high
Luanda Bay in the capital of Angola. The country has been badly affected by volatile maternal and child mortality, and
oil prices (photo: Ademar Rangal) illiteracy.

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