There is hardly any country in the world where the population is rising faster than in Angola. Now the country, which is a search kingdom for oil and diamonds, is on its way into a new era. Because the country’s collective memory is about to be split in two. – A completely different value for the young The oldest Angolans have experienced the times when today’s ruling party, the MPLA, triumphed over the colonial power Portugal. And even more remember the years that followed, when the war of liberation was replaced by civil war between the MPLA and the opposition party Unita. But peace came to Angola 20 years ago, and the young people in the country have a quite different view of the MPLA. – It is quite clear that Angola stands out as a completely different country to those born in this century, to those who have experienced the wars, says Vegard Bye. Angola’s many young people can decide the election. Here are two of the guards in a polling station in the capital, Luanda. Photo: SIPHIWE SIBEKO / Reuters He is a researcher, Angola expert and is now in Angola to follow the elections that were held on Wednesday this week. The result of the election is expected to come in the next few days. Angola’s youth have never seen the MPLA as liberation heroes, but they have, on the other hand, witnessed corruption, inequality and poverty grow in Angola. – Many young people in this country see little future, even though this is one of Africa’s richest countries, says Bye. – I have hardly any chance on the job market, and things are so terrible in the schools. There should be more ways to get training, says 18-year-old Sofia to Deutsche Welle. Angola is among the countries with the youngest population in the entire world. 14 million people will now vote on who the country’s next president will be. Photo: Claudia Daut / Reuters The controversial Dos Santos family After the civil war ended in 2002, Angola had the greatest economic growth of any country in the world. But the income has largely only gone into the pockets of the elite. The person in charge is the former liberation hero José Eduardo dos Santos, who led both Angola and the MPLA from 1979 to 2017. The people around dos Santos became billionaires. Among other things, dos Santos’ daughter, Isabela dos Santos, is known to be among the world’s richest women. In recent years, Isabela dos Santos has been central to several serious corruption cases. The cases have been named “Luanda Leaks”, after Angola’s capital, and are part of the better-known excavation project Pandora Papers, of which, among other things, Aftenposten has been a part. In social media, the daughter of the former president may show a life of hustle and bustle, but the reality is quite different for many of her compatriots. – For the vast majority of young people, the main theme is access to education and work. There is a lot of unemployment, and especially if you count those who have come in from the countryside and stand in the streets selling, says Bye. Bye, and several other experts, fear that the election in Angola may be marred by cheating, and that such cheating could lead to widespread violence. There have been several occasions for social unrest among young Angolans in recent years. João Lourenco is president of Angola, and hopes for renewed trust. Photo: STRINGER / Reuters The president’s failed reform The pandemic has worsened the economy in Angola, where periods of low oil prices have also caused additional trouble. Now the opposition party Unita has gained more wind in its sails. They have teamed up with another opposition party, and opinion polls show that Unita is breathing down the MPLA’s neck. One of Unita’s main issues is that they want democratic reforms, so that political power is more distributed, also downwards at regional and local level. Today, it is the case that the winner of the election also gets a lot of power down in the system. And this sometimes creates great dissatisfaction. There have been outbreaks of unrest several times in Angola in recent years. Experts fear new unrest after the election, regardless of who wins. Photo: OSVALDO SILVA / AFP Unita has also gained support by the fact that they have never been a government party, and therefore do not need to be responsible for the country’s situation. For the MPLA and incumbent President João Lourenco, it is also a problem that he has failed to deliver on his promises about reform and the fight against corruption. – He started well, but gradually it proved difficult for Lourenco to continue this deal, because he had to deal with such strong forces within the MPLA who had themselves been part of the corrupt board, says Bye. Thus, many of Angola’s problems continue to exist. João Lourenco is president of Angola, and hopes for renewed trust. Photo: STRINGER / Reuters – Soap opera The president’s attempts to stop corruption have caused much dissatisfaction in the dos Santos family. And this dissatisfaction became particularly clear when the former president died in July. – It is a soap opera of another world, says Bye. President João Lourenco said he wanted to honor the former president by arranging a funeral at the state’s expense. But several of the children of Jose Eduardo dos Santos did not like this. Among other things, Isabel dos Santos risks prison if she travels to her home country to participate in a funeral, because she is under investigation for corruption. Jose Eduardo dos Santos rented Angola for years. Now he is dead, and his corpse is causing debate in the election campaign. Photo: MARCO LONGARI / AFP Dos Santos’ children believed that the remains of their father belonged to them, and that Lourenco tried to exploit the dead father in the election campaign to obtain extra votes. One of the former president’s daughters suggested that the father might have been killed by tampering with the equipment at the hospital. And the one she singled out as a suspect was her own stepmother, i.e. the last wife of dos Santos. Dos Santos died in a hospital in Barcelona, and therefore it was ultimately up to a Spanish court to decide who had ownership rights to the former president’s body. The whole thing with the fact that his last wife was allowed to decide, and thus the coffin with dos Santos has been sent to Angola against the will of the children. – This theme has been used by both parties in the election campaign. Lourenco makes dos Santos a father of the country, and an “architect of peace”, and would like to use this actively as a sign that he is passing on a tradition that has brought peace to Angola, says Bye. Despite fears of violence and unrest, election day went smoothly. The counting has started, and according to the constitution the result must be submitted within two weeks, but it usually goes much faster than that.
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Dead ex-president creates soap opera amid record-breaking election in Angola – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
