Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos ‘Nandó’ paid a four-day official visit to South Africa in mid-February.  He was accompanied by the Ministers of Defence, Kundy Paihama, Transport, André Luís Brandão, Assistance and Social Reintegration, João Baptista Kussumua, and Energy and Water, José Maria Botelho de Vasconcelos, as well as the Deputy Ministers of External Relations for cooperation, Irene Neto, and Geology and Mines, Mankenda Ambroise.

Several agreements were signed during the visit.  A military agreement provided for support for peacekeeping missions, demining and personnel training.   Under another agreement, experience is to be shared on development programmes in the areas of child protection, the integration of physically handicapped people, assistance and protection for the aged and post-conflict social reintegration.

An agreement on the reciprocal protection of investments was based on the principle that such investment would stimulate private economic initiative, contributing to the prosperity of both peoples.

In the area of electric power, an agreement was signed on the development of projects for the production, transmission and distribution of electricity, the electrification of rural areas and the restructuring of the electric power industry.

During his visit, the Prime Minister had a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki as well as with Baleka Mbete, speaker of the National Assembly, as well as official talks with Vice-President Jacob Zuma, his host. 

The delegation also visited Robben Island.

China’s Deputy Prime Minister visits Angola

Zeng Pei Yan, Deputy Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of China, arrived in Angola on 24 February for a three-day official visit. 

After being received by President José Eduardo dos Santos the following day, Zen Pei Yan and his delegation started official talks with an Angolan delegation headed by Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos.

The Chinese Deputy Prime Minister announced during the talks that China had decided to grant Angola further financing - a US$6.3 million interest-free loan.

He also said his government had responded favourably to Angola’s request to open a consulate in Hong Kong. 

This was followed by a private meeting with Desidério da Costa, Oil Minister, and Manuel Vicente, chairman of the board of directors of Sonangol, the state oil company.

He later launched the second phase of a project to rehabilitate the Luanda electric power grid.

Speaking before the signing of a number of agreements between the two countries, Zen Pei Yan said that Angola had become China’s second biggest trading partner in Africa – after South Africa – with trade amounting to US$4.9 billion in 2004.

The agreements signed were on cooperation in energy resources, minerals and infrastructure, economic and technical cooperation, cooperation between China’s National Development Commission and the Oil Ministry, and cooperation between China’s National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Geology and Mines.  An agreement on long-term oil supplies was signed by Sinopec and Sonangol, as well as a memorandum between Sinopec and Sonangol on joint appraisal of Block 3.

A memorandum of understanding on the joint use of the new Angolan refinery and a telephone network contract between ZTE and Mundostartel were also signed.

MPLA and opposition discuss election legislative package

There were a number of points of agreement during an exploratory meeting with opposition parties calleded by the MPLA on 24 February to discuss the legislative package for elections.

Bornito de Sousa, leader of the MPLA parliamentary group, said the aim of the meeting was to examine the methods to be used in assessing the legislative package and to exchange views on some of the most burning issues that had been raised.

The opposition parties preferred to postpone discussion of the document entitled National Consensus Agenda that the MPLA had brought to the meeting, saying that the legislative package was now the prime concern.

The following day, the MPLA had an exploratory meeting on the election laws with representatives of parties not represented in the National Assembly.

The package of election laws tabled in the National Assembly in January consists of the Election Law and laws on political parties, observers, code of conduct, registration, financing of political parties and the right to radio and television time.

Government working for transparent elections

The Angolan government, within the framework of its responsibilities, is working to ensure that the process of preparing for elections is transparent, objective and credible, through the participation of all those needed to do the work. This guarantee was given in Luanda on 15 February by Virgílio Fontes Pereira, coordinator of the inter-ministerial commission for preparing general elections in the country, after a meeting with the European ‘troika’ in Angola at which the process was discussed.

He said he had ensured the members of the troika – the ambassadors of Britain and the Netherlands, John Thompson and Robert Brinks, and Mathieu Bousquet, representative of the EU commission – of the government’s openness and willingness to involve the international community in the process.

‘As soon as the parliament passes the legislation on international observers, other steps will be taken to formalise invitations for the international community to involve itself in the electoral tasks as soon as possible,’ he said.

He recalled that the timetable indicated by the government included three stages:  the preparatory one already in progress, voter registration and, finally, voting. 

Virgílio Fontes Pereira said the EU troika recognised that under current conditions voter registration had to be carried out by a state body, monitored by the international community, political parties and civil society. 

For this, he continued, the government had to ensure conditions in respect of demining, assistance to refugees, population resettlement and other activities to which the international community, political parties and civil society should contribute.

The Dutch ambassador said the EU was willing to give the Angolan financial assistance once the request was formalised.

Virgílio Fontes Pereira said the government planned to carry out voter registration during the dry season, which is usually from mid-May to the end of August, since this would make it easier for people to move about.  He said he thought all the preparatory work of training members of the registration brigades and organising the logistics could be completed by the end of May.  He stressed., however, that no one should have any illusions that it would be possible to rehabilitate everything in the country by 2006, but said everything would be done to create the best possible conditions for Angolans to be registered and then vote.

Sam Nujoma thanks Angola for support during liberation struggle

Speaking in the southern city of Lubango on 3 February, Sam Nujoma, the outgoing President of Namibia, expressed thanks for the hospitality and all the support that the Angolan people and government had given SWAPO over the long years of Namibia’s independence struggle.

‘Our aim this time is to express our thanks for all that you did to enable Namibia to achieve its independence,’ he said. 

Referring to the agricultural and livestock potential of Huíla Province, he told local government officials that he would involve himself personally in promoting cooperation in this area, through fairs and trade. 

Sam Nujoma had arrived in Lubango from Luanda the previous day during a visit to Angola within the framework of the joint commission for the delimitation of the maritime border between the two countries. His 48-hour private visit to Lubango included visits to a fruit growing project in Humpata, the Ngola brewery and the Loivo cemetery, where SWAPO combatants are buried. Sam Nujoma was very impressed by the fruit growing project, which was financed by the Social Security Fund of the Angolan Armed Forces and includes 58 eight-hectare orange orchards as well as processing plants. 

In Luanda the previous day, the final report and map on the delimitation of the maritime border were presented to Presidents Sam Nujoma and José Eduardo dos Santos at an official ceremony.  The border starts from the middle of the mouth of the Cunene River and runs 200 nautical miles to the east.

Manuel Aragão, Angola’s Minister of Justice, explained that luminous signs were visible at night and had already been seen from fishing boats more than three miles off the coast.  

‘They are operational and will enable navigators to position themselves and see the limit of the maritime border between the two countries,’ he said.

The terrestrial border is the result of a declaration signed in Lisbon by the colonial governments of Germany and Portugal on 30 December 1886.

Speaking in Ondjiva, capital of Cunene Province, which borders on Namibia, on 4 February, Sam Nujoma announced that work had already started on a railway line linking the two countries. 

Enthusiastically welcomed by the people of the provincial capital, he said:  ‘This link will facilitate the sending of goods between the two countries, both from northern Namibia and from southern Angola, through the ports of Walvis Bay and Namibe.  So both countries will benefit.’

Lucas Pohamba, President elect of Namibia, was with Sam Nujoma on the visit, and they were accompanied to the southern provinces by Osvaldo Serra Van-Dúnem, Angola’s Minister of the Interior.

44^th anniversary of start of armed struggle commemorated

The 44^th anniversary of the start of the armed struggle for national liberation was commemorated all over the country.  The main rally was in Mbanza Congo, capital of Zaire Province, addressed by José Van-Dúnem, Minister of Ex-Servicemen and War Veterans, who spoke of the courageous action of a handful of Angolan patriots at dawn on 4 February 1961.

The Minister, who was one of the participants in that action to try to free political prisoners in Luanda, said the most important thing was not just to recount all the events but to stress the great political and historical importance of that date.  Without the armed struggle, he said, the Portuguese colonial regime would never have recognised the Angolan people’s right to self-determination, freedom, social justice and respect for their social and cultural identity.

China to invest US$400 million in communications

China is to invest US$300 million in the national Angola Telecom mobile phone network and another US$100 million in military telecommunications, building a factory to produce mobile phones and an institute to train Angolan personnel and setting up a telecommunications research laboratory.

The standing commission of the Council of Ministers has approved the general lines of cooperation between Angola and ZTE Corporation International, the Chinese telecommunications equipment provider.

Russia has invested US$150 million in diamond industry

The Russian diamond company Alrosa has so far invested US$150 million in the Angolan diamond industry, according to Alexander Nichiporuk, president of the company.

Speaking to the press after been received by President José Eduardo dos Santos, he said that Alrosa, in partnership with Endiama, the Angolan diamond company, would open a diamond treating plant in Luô, Lunda Norte Province, at the end of March. 

He went on to say that, in addition to diamonds, Alrosa planned to invest in agriculture and the extraction of other minerals in Angola.  Russia, he said, was also involved in electric power production and was building a hydroelectric dam 20 km from Saurimo, the capital of Lunda Sul Province, which would initially supply the Catoca diamond project, for which generators are currently used. 

The Sociedade Mineira de Catoca, a 40-year project, involves the fourth largest kimberlite source in the world, providing annual profits of about US$50 million.

Sonangol and BP announce new oil strike

Sonangol, the national oil company, and BP announced the discovery of a new oil well, named Palas 1, in ultra-deep water in Block 31 on 15 February.  According to a press release, it was the fifth BP strike, after Plutão, Saturno, Marte and Venus.  Palas 1 is 62 km southeast of Plutão, in a new area.

It added that more work was needed to evaluate the potential of the discovery.

Sonangol is the concessionaire in Block 31.  BP, as operator, has a 26.67 percent interest, followed by Esso Exploration and Production Angola Ltd, 25 percent, Sonangol EP, 20 percent, Statoil Angola AS, 13.33 percent, Marathon Petroleum Angola Ltd, 10 percent, and Tepa Ltd (a subsidiary of the Total group), 5 percent.

Animal husbandry boosted in Uíje

The rearing of poultry and cattle in Uíje Province is gaining fresh momentum following the distribution last year of 2,331 animals to local peasants and farmers. 

Clementino Xavier, head of the provincial livestock and fisheries department of the Ministry of Agriculture, told the Angop news agency on 9 February that the animals included 2,290 chickens and 41 head of cattle.  He added that this year officials from his office would visit especially private farms engaged in animal husbandry, to see how work was developing.

UN special envoy for HIV/Aids visits Angola

Stephen Lewis, the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy for HIV/Aids in Africa, paid a seven-day visit to Angola, arriving in the country on 20 February.  

A UNDP press release announcing the visit said that Angola, with an estimated 5 percent of its 14 million inhabitants affected by the illness, was an exception in Southern Africa, where the rates were more than 10 percent.  This has been ascribed to the 30 years of war that limited the movement of people in the country. 

Addressing a press conference in Luanda, Stephen Lewis said that because the incidence of the illness was very low in Angola, the country was in a situation in which it was still possible to control the illness before it reached higher figures.  ‘Angola is an exception in this part of Africa, since some countries around Angola are doing whatever they can to survive.  HIV/Aids has devastated entire societies. The human cost is unbelievable,’ he said. 

Speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Fernando da Piedade dos Santos ‘Nandó’, Stephen Lewis said that Uganda and Senegal were models in combating Aids in East and West Africa, and that Angola could be a model in Southern Africa.

He said that he and the Prime Minister had discussed Angola’s vulnerability in the post-war period, with the opening of borders and the return to the country of thousands of refugees.

They had also spoken about high risk groups, which were street children, prostitutes and truck drivers. The government and the UN agreed that these groups required special attention. 

During a 24-hour visit to the southern province of Cunene, Stephen Lewis said he was very concerned about the situation there. Speaking at a meeting with local health officials and representatives of churches, civil society and NGOs, he said a UN report indicated an incidence of 12 to 15 percent among pregnant women. Everything should be done in the province to combat the virus, he stressed, so as to prevent a very high death rate.

Stephen Lewis told the Angop news agency in Ondjiva, capital of Cunene Province, that the government had been doing its best to halt the spread of the disease in the country, adding that in countries like Angola it was always a tough struggle to ensure the money, medicines and personnel training needed. 

‘I am here to help and to reinforce what the government is already doing,’ he said.  It was important, he continued, for the UN family to move quickly to raise funds for personnel training for combating HIV/Aids.

‘We cannot provide medicines, but we can help to negotiate accessible prices,’ he continued.  He said the UN would be sending money to the authorities in Cunene Province to combat the disease.

The UN envoy said that if the incidence in Angola exceeded 5 percent, as was the case in Cunene, the virus would start to spread very rapidly and the consequences would be worse. 

He said the incidence was very high in some countries of Southern Africa, like Botswana, with 38 percent, Swaziland, about 39 percent, Lesotho, 30 percent, Zimbabwe, 25 percent, South Africa and Namibia, at least 20 percent, and Mozambique, more than 10 percent. 

Speaking at a meeting on the social effects of HIV/Aids on children on 25 February, attended by Stephen Lewis and officials from the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration, Minars, Minister João Baptista Kussumua said three decades of armed conflict had created an emergency situation for more than four million people.  It had resulted in social instability, deeply affecting families and leaving about 88,000 children orphaned.   HIV/Aids, he continued, meant that extra efforts were required and Minars needed to strengthen its role to face this new problem. 

A Ministry of Health source said that the number of notified Aids cases in the country between 1985 and December 2004 was 14,000. The most affected provinces were Luanda, Cabinda, Cunene, Lunda Norte and Malanje, with more women than men affected, while the most frequent means of transmission were heterosexual sex, infected blood, non-sterilised equipment and mother-to-child transmission.

Japanese demining experts assess needs

Four Japanese experts in the manufacture of mine clearance equipment visited Angola in mid-February to see what kind of material the country needed.  They went to Huambo Province to evaluate the situation in mined areas, and also to Catete and Calomboloca, in Bengo Province.

The delegation was headed by Kiyoshi Amemiya, president of the Yamanashi Hitachi company, which makes demining equipment. Japan has been one of Angola’s main partners in the area of mine clearance.  It granted one million US dollars in 2004 in support of this work. The delegation promised they would send the new technology to Angola to be tried out.

According to official statistics, there are about 4,000 minefields in Angola, but the exact number of landmines is not known. 

Meanwhile, Nelson Manuel Lionane, head of the mine risk action office of the national institute for demining and humanitarian assistance, CNIDAH, said that the programme of mine risk education and awareness had already covered 70 percent of the country, greatly reducing the number of accidents.

Speaking to the press during a national meeting on mine awareness, he said the programme launched last October operated at two levels, in schools and in the community.  Following the first phase of mine awareness, he continued, a new system of processing information would facilitate the gathering of reliable data.  A mines committee responsible for information and mine danger signals had been set up by CNIDAH, which would help the community groups working in educating the public on mines.

Balbina da Silva, coordinator of the committee, said it would facilitate access to assistance for mine victims and identify groups at risk and risky behaviour in the community.

More than 20,000 to be reintegrated in society this year

General Antonio Andrade, director-general of Irsem, the institute for the social and vocational reintegration of former soldiers, has said that 20,522 ex-servicemen will be integrated this year through 24 new projects currently being carried out in the country within the framework of the general programme for demobilisation and reintegration, PGDR. He revealed this to the press during a working meeting with the donor community and partners.

António Andrade said the training of former soldiers would be in keeping with the needs of the labour market.  He said that more than 50,000 people had already benefited from programmes of the PGDR, adding that the PGDR’s purpose was to respond to the political undertakings assumed by the government in the annex to the memorandum of understanding of 4 April 2002, when a definitive ceasefire was signed by the government and Unita forces.

The Irsem programme, he said, was to reintegrate in society 105,000 former Unita soldiers and their dependents and 33,000 government soldiers.

The World Bank had contributed US$32 million to be project and the European Union US$17 million, António Andrade said.

Reintegration of former Unita soldiers in Huambo to start

A programme for the social and economic reintegration of former Unita soldiers in Huambo Province was starting in February, according to João Valente Borges, acting provincial director of Irsem.

He said they would be reintegrated through vocational training projects. The Angolan government and the World Bank had already approved ten social and economic projects for the province, which has more former Unita soldiers than any other province, currently totalling 24,881. Training would be given in agriculture and animal husbandry, small businesses designed to generate family income, micro-credit projects and participation in the rehabilitation of social and economic facilities for community development.

The PGDR, through which the projects are being carried out, has an estimated US$801,186, provided by the World Bank, the Angolan government and international donors. The Huambo PGDR is to take three years and will involve a number of Angolan and foreign NGOs.

Under the PGDR, which started two years ago, former Unita soldiers have already received US$100 each, resettlement kits and food, in addition to agricultural inputs provided by the local government and the FAO. The programme drawn up by the government, is aimed at strengthening the local economy and improving the social conditions of people in the communities in which former Unita soldiers and their dependents are being resettled.

It was earlier reported that a group of 200 wives and widows of former Unita soldiers in the municipalities of Huambo and Caála, Huambo Province, would receive micro-credit this month from Irsem as part of the programme to combat hunger and poverty. This was the second phase of the project, another 200 wives and widows having benefited in late 2004.

According to João Valente Borges, the World Bank, through the Canadian government, provided US$89,000 for the project, which is to be extended to other parts of Huambo province.

New teachers for Luanda

Luanda Province has another 1,992 teachers for the 2005-2006 school year, which started two months ago.  This was revealed by António Cipriano, press adviser of the provincial education department, who said they would help to meet the needs presented by municipal departments.

He said the new medium and higher level teachers had been taken on after passing tests set by his department.  Unlike previous years, only candidates with teacher training sat for the exams.

The country needs 39,380 teachers at various levels for this school year, to boost the existing 118,000, half of whom have no teacher training.

Pre-school community education

Assistance for flood victims

An official source in the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration, Minars, announced on 10 February that the Ministry had 78,871 tonnes of food - including rice, maize meal, beans, cooking oil and salt for families recently affected by rains in the provinces of Benguela and Kuando Kubango. 

Together with other goods, it was to meet needs for one month. At the same time, the source said, the Benguela provincial government would need to muster building materials and rent machines and equipment to prepare areas where people made homeless could be resettled and to clear the rubble. Other needs included 1,000 tents for transit camps and material for setting up a medical post. Three people died in the flooding.

A report by the Kuando Kubango local government said that one person had been killed and 25 injured, while 612 homes had been destroyed by flood waters. 

Among other measures taken, the local authorities had provided tents and corrugated metal sheets. 

A road convoy of about 100 tonnes of food and non-food aid had left Luanda for Dondo, Kwanza Norte Province, on 8 February. An initiative of Minars, it was to help people affected by the floods that had been causing severe damage, as a result of heavy rains. About 4,800 people in Dondo were in urgent need of assistance.

Seeing the convoy off in Luanda, Pedro Wallipi Kalenga, director general of the technical unit for the coordination of humanitarian aid, a Minars institution, said the assorted goods included rice, cooking oil, blankets and tents, among other things.

He went on to say that although there were some constraints such as mines and bad roads, and many people were still facing food shortages, the situation had already greatly changed. 

Many people had now returned to their home areas with government support, he said, adding that about 95 percent of the more than 4.5 million displaced persons had already returned home.

This entire situation was a result of the war, he continued, and these people were no longer displaced but should be regarded as vulnerable.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development sent five tonnes of maize and four tonnes of beans to the province, while the Ministry of Public Works sent a technician and earth moving equipment.

18,115 people still missing in Angola

According to a report by the International Committee of the Red Cross, there are still 18,115 missing adults and children in Angola and 397 children seeking their parents. The report on ICRC activities in Angola over the past year stated that efforts to resolve this situation included the distribution in the country and abroad of copies of the Red Cross Gazette, a publication providing lists of names to help families to re-establish contact with missing relatives.

With regard to mine action, it said that 583 people were given artificial limbs, and 3,115 pairs of crutches and 249 wheelchairs were distributed.

The report also gave data on mine awareness programmes, education on diseases and hygiene and the training of traditional midwives, as well as the distribution of mosquito nets treated with insecticide and the improvement of water supply facilities. 

It further stated that the ICRC was currently engaged in actively promoting the principles of international law and the Red Cross movement among members of the armed forces, the police, traditional authorities and civilians.

Electric power for Quilengues

More than US$150,000 was spent by the Huíla provincial government in the last quarter of 2004 on restoring the electric power system and street lighting in the municipality of Quilengues, 150 km north of the city Lubango. Part of a programme to improve basic services, it involved establishing a thermal station and 100 lamp posts.

Amélia Metódio, provincial director of the Ministry of the Family and the Advancement of Women, who inaugurated the new system on 4 February, advised ‘the rational use of the electricity that has come back after 27 years’. Everyone, she said, should establish contracts, so as to contribute to maintenance, spare parts, fuel and other expenses, while teaching children not to throw stones at street lights.

Adão César, the municipal administrator, stressed that among the other benefits, people would now be able to follow programmes on the radio and television and attend night classes.

It was earlier announced that central government  spent US$300,000 last year on the construction and repair of social and economic facilities in the municipality of Quilengues. This included the building of two fresh drinking water sources with manual pumps. Other work in progress included the rehabilitation of the road from Quilengues to Cacula and the building of a health centre, a primary school and agricultural and livestock projects, all financed through the public investment fund.

There are about 160,000 people in Quilengues, most of them small farmers and herders.

Clean water projects

Bocoio, 110 km from the city of Benguela, has clean drinking water after 20 years without, following the building of a new water harnessing centre that cost the government US$200,000. A system that draws water from a spring about 5 km from the municipal seat, it provides water of international standard.  This had been linked to the existing system and five public fountains have also been made available for the most deprived areas. In addition to the new water supply system, electricity supplies have been ensured since late 2004.

The Kwanza Sul local government has spent US$980,000 on a new clean water supply system for the Chingo e Salinas neighbourhood of Sumbe, the provincial capital. The project includes a water reservoir and a 5-km conduit from the upper Chingo. Paulo Cunha, municipal administrator of Sumbe, said the new system was a boon, since people would no longer have to cover a distance of about 4 km to seek water. He added that it was more than 20 years since the people of Chingo e Salinas had had clean drinking water.

African Development Bank funds environment survey

New schools and medical centres

Pedro Mutinde, provincial governor in Cunene, opened a school in Ondjiva on 4 February, as part of the commemorations of the start of the liberation struggle.  The ten-classroom school, fitted with desks, can accommodate 1,700 pupils, using a shift system.  Among those present at the ceremony were General Kundy Paihama, Minister of Defence and head of the central government monitoring team for Cunene Province, members of the government, church representatives and local representatives of political parties.

Pedro Mutinde said similar projects would be carried out throughout the province, in keeping with the Ministry of Education’s programme aimed at eradicating illiteracy in Angola by the year 2015.  He appealed to the local population to help the government to care for the school.

In Tômbua, Namibe Province, Cândida Celeste, Minister of the Family and the Advancement of Women, opened a school and a health centre on 4 February. The school, with twelve classrooms, built at a cost of US$314,000, can provide places for 1,260 pupils in three shifts.

Cândida Celeste said that with the advent of peace, the government intended to improve conditions for the people, starting by combating poverty and building more schools and health centres, ensuring supplies of medicines and rehabilitating facilities, bridges and roads.

Later that morning the Minister inaugurated another 40 classrooms in outlying neighbourhoods of the city of Namibe, 34 for primary schooling and six for secondary education. 

Diakunpuna Sita José, Minister of Town Planning and the Environment, inaugurated a health centre built by the government for 20,000 people in Ekunha, about 48 km northeast of the city of Huambo, on 4 February. The 20-bed centre had been built from scratch.  It has piped water and electric power, a waiting room, emergency ward, obstetrics room, two wards, a delivery room, a clinical laboratory, a paediatrics room, a pharmacy, a general clinic room, a child welfare room, a small surgery and an administrative area. Another two health centres were nearing completion in Ekunha, a municipality with more than 129,000 inhabitants.

Also inaugurated on the same day were health posts in the communes of Catata and Cuima, in the municipality of Caála. Huambo Province, which has more than two million inhabitants, has 77 health posts, 42 medical centres and four hospitals.

Five schools for more than 1,700 pupils were completed by the government at the end of January in Gambos, Huíla Province, as part of the public investment programme. According to a local government statement, the purpose is to provide school places for children still outside the education system. About 13,260 pupils have already been enrolled in schools this year. 

The Chibia medical centre in Huíla Province was rehabilitated by the government in late January at a cost of US$10,000.   It has 40 beds and can attend to about 50 patients a day.

A new 40-bed health centre has been built in Quipungo, Huíla Province, at a cost of more than US$400,000.   A local teacher, António Firmino, stressed its importance, saying that people had either been using traditional cures, which often worsened their condition, or went by train or car to the central hospital in Lubango, sometimes arriving in a critical condition, so that there was nothing doctors could do for them.        

Quipungo, 130 km east of Lubango, has an estimated population of 300,000 engaged mainly in raising cattle and goats and in subsistence agriculture.

Nutrition centre for Khoi San people

The Huíla provincial office of the Ministry of Health is to build a nutritional centre in the municipality of Quipungo, 120 km from the city of Lubango, for people from the Khoi San ethno-linguistic group.

This was revealed on 2 February by Judith Santos, provincial malnutrition supervisor, who stressed the urgent need to set up the centre.

 The project, she said, would be carried out this month in partnership with the provincial office of the Ministry of Assistance and Social Reintegration, Minars, the municipal administration and NGOs working in the area. She added that at least five people from the ethnic group living in the village of Vinquenha had died of malnutrition and malaria and it was necessary to establish ways of supporting them.

Victória Correia, provincial director of Minars, said her office was providing food, clothing and medical care to prevent the extinction of the Khoi San, and she appealed to the general public to support the government’s efforts.

History of Angolan literature

Minister of Culture Boaventura Cardoso has stressed the importance to teachers, students and the general public of having a history of Angolan literature. 

Speaking at a meeting on 21 February of a team of specialists set up to write such a history., he said Angolan literature warranted this effort, since it had developed and been enriched over the years, despite the turbulent events that had accompanied the formation of the Angolan nation.

Stating that creative work was influenced by both internal factors and international trends and styles, he stressed the two aspects of this important part of the national heritage: oral and written literature.

‘Angola’s oral literature is virtually millenary and it is omnipresent, since our people, yesterday and today,  have a mainly non-written culture at a time when more than half our population  cannot read or write,’ he said.

Oral literature had also been a source of inspiration for many writers, like Joaquim Cordeiro da Matta, Óscar Ribas, António Jacinto and others.

‘I hope the specialists will help to ensure that the history of Angolan literature reflects the most diverse trends and convergent and divergent interpretations and especially the cultural prospects,’ he said

The commission set up, which will have three years to present the results of its work, is made up of 14 specialists - Angolans, Brazilians and Portuguese. 

During their two-day meeting, they discussed the basic conditions for starting to compile data, and also the general principles for writing the history, the periods, generations and movements. 

This year’s carnival ends with firework display

During this year’s three-day Luanda carnival, the 27^th since Angola’s independence, carnival groups paraded on the Marginal, the seafront avenue, the brightly dressed dancers vying for the coveted first prize.

Points were given for the best song, choreography and dancing and king and queen, among other factors. This year the carnival was organised by the Luanda provincial government.

There was a firework display on the last day.  In all, fifty carnival groups had taken part, including the children’s groups with which the carnival opened.

The winners among the adult groups  were Unidos do Caxinde, a group formed by the Chá de Caxinde bookshop, whose theme was the political and literary life and work of the writer and nationalist Agostinho Mendes de Carvalho, whose pen name is Uahenga Xitu.

The carnival, a long-standing tradition, was also celebrated in other parts of the country.