The Republic of Angola - Research Paper Example

Facts about Angola: The Republic of Angola is a country located in south-central Africa and its importance can be judged by the fact that it is acclaimed as the second-largest diamond and oil producer in the whole sub-Saharan Africa. This is an interesting fact that the official motto of Angola goes in English like this, “Virtue is stronger when united” (wanttoknowit.com, 2010). Though Angola has acquired significant fame owing to the vast oil reserves, it still lags far behind in the terms of infant mortality and life expectancy rates. Wanttoknowit.com (2010) claims that the total area of this country is generally identified as twice the size of Texas and it is bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of Congo on the north side, Zambia on the west, while it meets with the Atlantic ocean on the west side. Majority of the people in this country are Roman Catholics and Protestants are a minority. If the history of Angola is scrutinized, all the documents have a little obscured knowledge related to the early inhabitants of this region. According to Gascoigne (2001), it is the general consensus among various historians that owing to the extreme poverty plaguing the people of Angola back in the 15th century, the trading Portuguese businessmen marked out the Angolans as the best “commodity” available in Angola at that time. Millions of poverty-stricken Angolans were sold shamelessly at negligible rates to the influential Portuguese people, who took the bought slaves with them to other countries where they were worked cruelly. Still, contemporary historians believe that the local Africans never let the invading foreigners bag top position in the local trade business, and they strived a great deal in spite of limited resources to confine the Portuguese traders to a little area in the whole Angola. Slavery is a dark and rotting feature when talking about the history of Angola, that plagued the Angolans for many years and of course, intense poverty and hopeless socio-economic conditions stimulated this social evil of human trading. Even after centuries, this human export business continued to be acclaimed as one of the most prosperous business in Angola for the Portuguese traders, and later in the 19th century, when local African slaves could no longer be sold abroad due to strict official laws, Angolans were worked in their own country for establishing different crops like coffee, cotton, tobacco, and corn. Gascoigne (2001) has identified that by 1920s, almost whole of the Angolan region was under control and though slavery was mostly abolished in Angola, still the local Africans were forcedly made to work in the fields for minimal wages. Nonetheless, relentless efforts continued to progress in Angola for independence, no matter how much influence was exercised by Portuguese and French people on the Angolans. According to US Department of State (2010), independence movements like Popular Liberation Movement of Angola (MPLA), National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola were formed in the 1950s and 1960s against the influence and control of Portugal. Along with the vigorous help from such freedom movements, the rebellious attitudes of the local people and labor force against the forced rule collectively managed in creating chaos and pandemonium in Angola, and later in November 1975, Angola became independent. Sadly, Angola had a highly terrific and gruesome start to independence. An intense civil war initiated after independence concerning the power of government. The three independence movements mentioned before passionately fought against each other for acquiring control over the government. According to Ryan (2009), from independence to 2002, thousands and millions of Angolans have been driven from their homes and brought to famish, owing to the brutal civil war continuous in Angola. Most of the countryside in Angola was under the control of UNITA, which refused to provide various dietary items to the people living in areas that were under the control of MPLA, and this ceaseless conflict has led to creating disastrous socio-economic conditions in Angola. Currently, the government type in Angola is Republic and the President is both head of the government and head of the state. According to ebizguides (2008, p. 20), no matter how much catastrophic situation Angola has been experiencing for many years, it still has some of the best resources in the whole wide world. At the top of the list come the oil reserves which, owing to the quality of the oil, are highly remarkable and beneficial, and the biggest wealth of the country. Other than that, myriad crops can be cultivated on the soil of Angola like coffee, cotton, sugarcane since the soil is very rich and favorable for cultivation of a broad range of crops. The domain of agriculture is not yet fully developed in Angola, owing to which it still lags behind in utilizing the thick and vast forests and Atlantic fisheries. Obviously, modernized technical knowledge is required to tap the extensive resources, but Angola certainly lacks that knowledge. afrol News (2010) claims that the according to the latest research reports, an area of almost 2,681 square kilometers in southern Angola is naturally and generously blessed with gold and vast mineral resources like copper, zinc, and iron ore which, if appropriately handled and utilized, can produce 10 million tons of minerals worth 320 million US$ every year. Gold, diamonds, and copper are the three biggest mineral reserves of this country, and almost 90% of the gold is produced in the province of Cabinda. The official language of Angola is Portuguese but almost 95% of the public prefers to communicate in Bantu language, and this shows how much the people of Angola gravitate toward their personal identity and culture. Summing up, this much becomes clear from the above facts that Angola and its people have gone through a lot since the independence. Angola could have been a highly developed and progressive country, were it not for the self-inflicted wounds that almost ruined the country’s whole future perspective. Still, Angola is striving for development through utilizing its extensive natural resources. References: Afrol News. (2010). Angola seeks to increase investments in mining. Retrieved from http://www.afrol.com/articles/18320 Ebizguides. (2008). Angola: All You Need to Know to Do Business and Have Fun. MTH Multimedia S.L. Publishers. Gascoigne, B. (2001). HISTORY OF ANGOLA. Retrieved from http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad33 Ryan, H. (2009). Angolan Civil War (1975-2002). Retrieved from http://www.blackpast.org/?q=gah/angolan-civil-war-1975-2002 US Department of State. (2010). A Brief History of Angola - Part 1. Retrieved from http://africanhistory.about.com/od/angola/p/AngolaHist1.htm Wanttoknowit.com. (2010). Background Note: Angola. 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