Somethings about Angola

[micheluk]

Its name may be synonymous with strife, but since the civil war ended in 2002 Angola has been enjoying something of a renaissance. Safe and welcoming, this friendly nation transports the laidback, community-orientated lifestyle of southern Portugal to continental Africa – and travellers are once again discovering its charms.

Most enter the country via the capital, Luanda, which has the dubious and surprising distinction of being the most expensive city in the world. With its gleaming skyscrapers, grand government buildings and palm-lined promenades, downtown Luanda’s prosperity probably comes as a revelation to many visitors. But the spoils of Angola’s considerable oil wealth soon give way to unofficial shantytowns, proving that not everyone is benefitting from the black gold rush.

It is along Angola’s stunning 1,700 km (1,000 mile) coastline, in cities like Luanda, where Portugal’s colonial influences are most striking. The faded, art deco splendour of cities like Benguela and Namibe provide a welcome distraction from the country’s sandy shores.

Further inland, the landscape becomes one of almost endless plains. Here remote national parks are slowly being restocked with wildlife, while the newly renovated Benguela railway wends through the seemingly endless countryside. One of the world’s most evocative rail journeys, riding through the landscape with its people is a great way to delve into the psyche of laughter loving Angolans.

To the north – and separated from the rest of Angola by a 40 km (25 mile) arm of the Democratic Republic of Congo – the exclave of Cabinda is Angola in miniature, with empty beaches once popular with expats, elegant towns and virgin rainforest full of wildlife.

Youthful and energetic, Angola, like its people, has its own way of doing things. Fun-loving and eager to impress, it is a country still shaking off its troubled past while looking firmly at the future.

[sankalppatil732]

Angola is bordered by Namibia to the south, Zambia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north-east, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west. The coastal exclave of Cabinda in the north, borders the Republic of the Congo to the north, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the south.

[jeffronald19]

The country's colonial history is reflected in its Portuguese-influenced cuisine and its landmarks including Fortaleza de São Miguel, a fortress built by the Portuguese in 1576 to defend the capital, Luanda.

[davidsmith36]

In spite of the fact that its domain has been occupied since the Paleolithic Era, what is presently the cutting edge nation of Angola was affected by Portuguese colonization, which started with, and was for quite a long time constrained to, beach front settlements and exchanging posts set up starting in the sixteenth century. In the nineteenth century, European pioneers gradually and reluctantly started to build up themselves in the inside. As a Portuguese province, Angola did not envelop its present fringes until the mid twentieth century, taking after resistance by gatherings, for example, the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda. Autonomy was accomplished in 1975 under socialist manage upheld by the Soviet Union after the extended freedom war. That same year, Angola slipped into an extraordinary common war that kept going until 2002. It has since turned into a moderately stable unitary presidential republic.

[zazcik]

I like this country, and I think I will come here one day