Angola's Disappearance: A Mystery To Unravel

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country located on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and the second-largest Lusophone country in terms of total area and population. Angola is bordered by Namibia to the south, Zambia to the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north-east, the Republic of the Congo to the north-west, and the South Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has a unique geographical landscape, with a long coastline, a central plateau, and diverse terrain ranging from desert to rainforest.

Angola's location and borders

Angola is located on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa and the second-largest Lusophone country in both total area and population. Angola has a land size of 1,246,700 km2 (481,400 sq mi).

Angola is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north and northeast, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. It also has an exclave province, Cabinda, which is separated from the rest of the country by the Democratic Republic of the Congo and borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Angola has a varied landscape, including a sparsely populated rainforest interior, a rugged highland, and a semidesert Atlantic littoral bordering Namibia's "Skeleton Coast". The coastal plain rises abruptly to the east, forming a series of escarpments leading to rugged highlands, which then slope down towards the centre of the continent. The highest point in the country is Mount Moco, reaching an elevation of 8,596 feet (2,620 metres).

The country has four principal natural regions: the arid coastal lowland, stretching from Namibia to Luanda; green hills and mountains rising inland from the coast; a large area of high inland plains of dry savanna, called the high plateau; and rainforests in the north and in Cabinda.

The country's landscape and climate

Angola is located on the western Atlantic coast of southern Africa, north of Namibia and west of Zambia, with a coastline extending nearly 1,000 miles along the South Atlantic Ocean. The country's landscape is characterised by three principal natural regions: the coastal lowland, the hills and mountains, and the high plateau.

The coastal lowland is a sparsely watered and somewhat sterile plain, extending inland from 31 to 99 miles. The region is relatively arid, especially south of Benguela, where it forms the northern extension of the Namib Desert. The coastal plain varies in width from about 16 miles near Benguela to more than 93 miles in the Cuanza River Valley, just south of Angola's capital, Luanda. The coast is mostly flat, with occasional low cliffs and bluffs of red sandstone.

The second region consists of a belt of hills and mountains that rise inland from the coast, forming a great escarpment. The Cuanza River divides this zone into two parts. The northern part rises gradually from the coastal zone to an average elevation of 1,600 feet, with crests as high as 3,300 to 5,900 feet. South of the Cuanza River, the hills form a high escarpment that extends from east of Luanda and runs south through Namibia. The highest peak in this region is Mount Moco, at 8,600 feet.

The third region is the high plateau, which dominates Angola's terrain. The surface of the plateau is typically flat or rolling, with some areas reaching heights of 8,200 feet or more. The plateau lies to the east of the hills and mountains and covers most of the country. The northern plateau is thickly vegetated, while the southern region becomes increasingly arid, with sand dunes and dry scrub.

Angola has a tropical climate with distinct rainy and dry seasons. The rainy season in the north lasts from September to April, while in the south, it begins in November and ends in February. The dry season, known as cacimbo, is characterised by heavy morning mist. Temperatures are generally higher in the north and decrease with altitude and distance from the equator. The average annual temperature in Soyo, at the mouth of the Congo River, is 79°F, while in Huambo, on the central plateau, it is 61°F. The coolest months are July and August, when frost may form at higher altitudes.

History of Angola

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. The formation of Angola as a nation-state can be traced back to the Kingdom of Kongo, a hegemonic state that ruled over several other kingdoms in and after the 14th century.

The Portuguese first landed in what is now northern Angola in 1482, encountering the Kingdom of the Congo, which stretched from modern-day Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal area through a series of treaties and wars throughout the 16th century. The Portuguese colony of Angola was founded in 1575 with the arrival of Paulo Dias de Novais, who came with a hundred Portuguese families and four hundred soldiers. The settlement was established at Luanda Bay, and the colony existed to profit from the transatlantic slave trade, which became the economic foundation for the next three centuries.

The slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1854, the colonial government freed all its existing slaves. However, Portugal did not achieve present-day Angola's borders until the early 20th century, facing strong resistance from native groups. In the 20th century, the colonial state consolidated military control over the entire territory, instituted an administrative infrastructure, and developed an economy based on resource extraction.

A nationalist sentiment developed among Luso-African thinkers in the early 20th century, and by the 1950s, these ideas coalesced into a nationalist movement aimed at independence. Simultaneously, anti-colonial movements developed among the mission-educated elites in the Kikongo-speaking north and the Umbundu-speaking central highlands. Portugal's authoritarian New State leaders brutally suppressed these nationalist movements during more than a decade of guerrilla warfare.

A revolution in Portugal in 1974 brought about negotiations that led to Angola's independence on November 11, 1975. However, competing nationalist movements, bolstered by foreign intervention, refused to share governance, plunging the country into a brutal civil war that lasted until 2002. Since the end of the civil war, Angola has emerged as a relatively stable constitutional republic with one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

Angola's economy

Angola's principal exports in the post-slave era of the 19th century were rubber, beeswax, and ivory. Before the First World War, exportation of coffee, palm kernels and oil, cattle, leather and hides, and salt fish joined the principal exports, with small quantities of gold and cotton also being produced.

Angola's financial system is maintained by the National Bank of Angola. Angola is a member of the International Monetary Fund; restrictions on the market economy have been reduced in an attempt to draw foreign investment. Angola's economy has grown significantly since the country achieved political stability in 2002, mainly due to fast-rising earnings in the oil sector. However, Angola faces huge social and economic problems due to continual armed conflict, which has resulted in high poverty rates and blatant social inequality.

Angola's politics

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in west-central Southern Africa. It is a presidential republic with a multi-party system. The President of Angola is both the head of state and the head of government. The President is advised by a Council of Ministers, which forms the national executive power alongside the President.

The legislative branch of the government is made up of a 220-seat unicameral legislature, the National Assembly. The President, together with the parliament, appoints the majority of the members of the two highest bodies of the judiciary, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.

The MPLA's dominance has led to a concentration of power in the presidency. The current President, João Lourenço, was elected in 2017, replacing long-time leader José Eduardo dos Santos, who had been in power since 1979. President Lourenço has made fighting corruption a key priority, leading to the jailing or prosecution of numerous individuals from the previous administration, including members of the dos Santos family.

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