According to topschoolsintheusa, Angola is a state of southwestern Africa, bathed by the Atlantic Ocean. The population of the Angola, belonging mainly to the pobantu group (Ovimbundu, 25%; Kim bundu, 23%; Bakongo, 13%), is very young (48% are under the age of 15) and is growing at a rapid pace (3.1% in the period 2010-15): it went from 5,673,046 residents (1970 census) to 22,137,261 residents (estimate UNDESA, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, of 2014). Since 2005, the urban population has grown by 13 percentage points, exceeding 43% and mainly affecting Luanda, the capital (5,288,000 residents, according to a 2014 estimate), and Huambo (1,204,000 residents). Among other cities, Lubango alone exceeds 300,000 residents. Life expectancy at birth has gradually increased, up to the current approximately 52 years, accompanied, since 2004, by a progressive decrease in the spread of AIDS / HIV (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome / Human Immuno deficiency Virus), which today affects approximately 250,000 people, according to a 2013 UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Program on HIV and AIDS) estimate.
Economic conditions. – For the relaunch of the economy, 2002 was an important year, because it marked the end of the armed struggle which, on several occasions, saw the Movimento popular de libertação de Angola (MPLA) and the União nacional para a independência face off against each other. total de Angola (UNITA), and the beginning of the difficult process of pacification and reconstruction. The choice of president José Eduardo dos Santos (in office since 1979) was to focus above all on oil sector. With over 90 million tons (2012), it represents about 50% of GDP and 85% of exports, in particular to China, which, together with the European Union, is the country’s main investor (especially in transport and communications). Diamonds are the other great wealth of Angola, with 7.2 billion carats in 2012 (fifth largest producer in the world). Paradoxically, if on the one hand these resources make the country’s fortune (GDP of 131.407 billion dollars in 2014; annual growth rate of 3.9%; duplication, from 2002 to 2013, of the GDP per capita with purchasing power parity, PPA, which reached 8,186 dollars in 2014), on the other hand they reveal its fragility (as in the crisis of 2009) due to exposure to price fluctuations on the international market and corruption, and to profound social disparities (149th place in the Human Development Index).
History. – The pacification process started after the end of the civil war (2002) continued, despite a thousand uncertainties, in the following years. The government, monopolized by the MPLA, promoted the progressive demining of the territory, a gradual reconstruction of the infrastructure, the disarmament of the population and the resettlement of tens of thousands of refugees who fled because of the fighting. The achieved internal stability made it possible to fully exploit the enormous wealth of the country (oil and diamonds), to attract foreign investors (especially Chinese) and allowed sustained economic growth. The poverty rate declined, but economic inequalities remained strong nonetheless. The MPLA maintained control of all positions of power by relegating UNITA, the main opposition party, to the margins of political life. Scheduled for 2006, but continually postponed, the first political elections were held in 2008 after that of 1992. The MPLA won more than 81% of the votes, while UNITA barely exceeded 10% of the votes. The latter, while accepting the defeat peacefully, accused the government of irregularities. In 2010, without the votes of the opposition, a new Constitution was approved that strengthened the powers of the president and abolished the direct election for this office, automatically attributed to the leader of the winning party. The political elections of 2012 left the political balance unchanged: the MPLA regained Parliament despite registering a decline in consensus (72% of votes) and José Eduardo Dos Santos, in power for 35 years, was reconfirmed as head of state. In the following years the situation remained unchanged, but the protest of the opponents intensified. In foreign policy the Angola he played an active role in the regional pacification process and intensified economic and commercial relations with China and the countries of the European Union.
Literature. – In the last ten years, Angolan literature has been confirmed as the most prolific among those of the five countries belonging to the group of PALOP (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa), thanks also to institutions, such as the UEA (União dos Escritores Angolanos), which they sponsor its activity. Among the authors by now consecrated and also internationally known, there are the figures of José Luandino Vieira (pseud. Of José Vieira Mateus da Graça, b.1935 ; O livro dos rios, 2006), who in his narrative works has been able to reinvent the language Portuguese filtering it through Angolan orality, and Pepetela (pseud. by Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos, b. 1941; Predadores, 2005; A on. O sombreiro, 2011; O tímido e as mulheres, 2013), who continues in his profound, critical and ironic vision of the reality of his country, as well as Manuel Rui (b.1941; A casa do rio, 2007; O semba da nova ortografia, 2009), Ana Paula Tavares (b.1952 ; Os olhos do homem que choravano rio, 2005; Manual para amantes desesperados, 2007), João Melo (b.1955 ; O homem que não tira o palito da boca, 2009; Cântico da terra e dos homens, 2010), José Luís Mendonça (b.1955, O reino das casuarinas, 2014), Adriano Botelho de Vasconcelos (b.1955), João Maimona (b.1955), Maria Alexandre Dáskalos (b.1957) and, finally, José Eduardo Agualusa (Barroco tropical, 2009; A rainha Jinga, 2014), author among the best known internationally, of great success and widely translated. On the other hand, the important figure of Ruy Duarte de Carvalho (1941-2010; Lavra, 2006; A terceira metade, 2009) disappeared, as well as a poet and narrator, also a filmmaker and anthropologist. Among the writers of the last generations, the figure, already known also internationally, of Ondjaki (pseud. Of Ndalu de Almeida, n. 1977; Os transparentes, 2012; Sonhos azuis pelas esquinas, 2014), as well as Roderick Nehone (b.1965), Albino Carlos (b.1965) and Gociante Patissa (b.1978).
