About Angola

Location

Located on the Southwest Coast of the African continent, Angola borders to the North and Northeast with the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Congo, to the East with Zambia and to the South with Namibia .

The west is bathed by the immense Atlantic Ocean. With a coastline of 1,650km, it extends inland, occupying an area of ​​1,246,700km2.

The highest point in the country is the Moco hill at 2,620m, followed by a plateau area where the basins of the main rivers are formed: Zaire, Cunene, Kwanza, Kubango and Keve. Administratively it is divided into 18 provinces: Bengo, Benguela, Bié, Cabinda, Cunene, Huambo, Huíla, Kuando Kubango, Kwanza Norte, Kwanza Sul, Luanda, Lunda Norte, Lunda Sul, Malange, Moxico, Namibe, Uíge and Zaire, which for They are in turn divided into municipalities, and these into communes.

Cultura

One of the most fantastic things in Angola is the culture within all its manifestation. The traditional music (Semba, Rebita) and the so called modern music (kizomba, kuduro, and zouk) have been already internationa-lized to certain extent.

Some musical instruments are worthy to be mentioned such as the drum, kissange and marimba. "From marimba to Kissange, to our Carnival, we will be back." Traditional dance with its rhythm has a special space.

Each and every time new rhythm and variations enrich them demonstrating the creativity of the Angolan people. The Carnival is one of the biggest cultural expressions together with music, dance and tradition. Concerning Angolan han-dcraft, the nation has a lot to offer.

Wooden handcraft is the most expressive probably (black-wood, grey wood, pink wood and Panga-Panga) but, there are other materials being used with high care and art such as Clay, Mateba (palm fibre), bronze, ivory, horn, etc.

Important Note – If you get a handcraft objects and you want to take it home with you, you need a stamp from the Ministry of Culture and affix it on the object.

Historia

The Portuguese Navigator Diogo Cão, at his arrival at the Angolan coast in 1482, met a well structured kingdom – the Congo kingdom, basically inhabited by the Bantu people, coming mainly from north of Africa.

Good relationship was then established between the Portuguese people and the Congo Kingdom with intensive trade exchanges.

The good relationship came to an end when the Portuguese national, Paulo Dias de Novais started occupying directly the seacoast by establishing captainships. At the same time, the slavery trade was started, from Afri-ca to Brazil until the 19th century when slavery was abolished.

Angola is a young country which became independent in 1975 500 years after colonization of the Portuguese. the struggle for independence was started on February 04, 1960 with the emergence of the 3 main armed parties – MPLA, FNLA and UNITA).

On the 11th of November 1975, Doctor Antonio Agostinho Neto declared the independence of Angola. But, peace was not yet reality by that time. The main warring parties started another round of war among themselves for power which lasted for long time. Now that peace is a fact, Angola has entered into a dynamic process of national reconstruction.

All sectors of the Angolan economy including infrastructures are being revitalized.