Angola is a country that has been ruled by the same party, the MPLA, since independence in 1975. The party has effectively transformed itself from a socialist bloc into a purely capitalistic organization with a diverse array of business interests and impressive market-savvy, all thanks to the barrels upon barrels of oil the country has […]
A few months late to this story, the Wall Street Journal published a piece last Wednesday entitled “Angola Wealth Fund is Family Affair.” This was widely reported in the international press back in the fall when the Fundo Soberano de Angola was officially announced. The Fund, started with $5 billion, now puts Angola in line […]
Like many Angolans on Sunday I was forced to eat my share of humble pie and admit the superiority of Cape Verde’s national football team, which, through sheer grit and determination, qualified their country to the quarterfinals of the African Cup of Nations at their first time of asking. Thus the tiny island nation of […]
BREAKING NEWS: The 40-year-old businesswoman daughter of Angola’s long-serving president is rich.
This week the Twittersphere has gone mad over an article published by Forbes claiming that their “research” has uncovered the fact that 40-year-old Isabel Dos Santos is Africa’s “First Woman Billionaire.”
Eighty percent of Angolans today have only ever called one man President. Sure, some have had other allegiances; there was a serious armed opposition and there were 27 years of civil war, but José Eduardo dos Santos has remained the head of state for 33 years. His party hasn’t lost power since the anti-colonial war […]
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Cobalt International Energy, a Houston based company with investments in the Angolan oil sector, for possible violation of anti-corruption legislation. Last week the Financial Times reported that three Angolan officials – the same three officials named in muckraking journalist Rafael Marques’s case now waiting before Angola’s Supreme Court – “confirmed to […]
It’s been a busy week for Angolan politics. Elections are precisely six months away. On Wednesday, the long-time second-generation UNITA politician Abel Chivukuvuku officially split with his party to declare his candidacy for the presidency and his formation of CASA (meaning home in Portuguese) — short for ‘Ample Convergence of Angolan Salvation’. That same day, […]
The Angolan anti-corruption activist and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais recently made the pages of Africa Confidential, which discussed his having filed a criminal complaint against three prominent Angolans with the Angolan Attorney General’s Office.
The Angolan rap artist MCK (MC Kappa) released his third CD, Proíbido ouvir isto (Listening prohibited) in December 2011. Musically and lyrically it is his most complex and mature work yet and includes collaborations with a number of well-known Angolan musicians of variety of genres.
Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, was crowned Miss Universe over the weekend. One of the judges, a former American TV newsreader, Connie Chung, told the AP:”… You have to keep in mind that these women are not objects just to be looked at. They’re to be taken seriously.” Yeh. Meanwhile, here‘s what some other young Angolans–who […]
