Category: Articles

The Children’s Corridor of Death in Angola’s Second Hospital

There are more than 40 people in the room, most of them sitting or lying on their cotton wraps on the floor. The heat is unbearable, as is the stink of sweat and dirt.  The windows are permanently left wide open to try to offset the stifling, oppressive atmosphere. It doesn’t help.  Just outside the windows at the back of the building, broken sewers add a horrible, nauseating stench to the air.  This sorry scene is repeated in every ward in the paediatric block, where relatives lie prostrate the length of the corridors, unable for lack of space to get any closer to their sick children. Welcome to the Paediatric Unit of Américo Boavida Hospital in Luanda, named for a doctor turned freedom fighter, known in the field as ‘Ngola Kimbanda’ (the chief healer).  He must be turning in his grave.  It’s the second largest hospital in Angola – only […]

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Yellow Fever Epidemic in Luanda Claims Three Siblings

An epidemic of yellow fever on the outskirts of the Angolan capital, Luanda, which has already claimed an estimated 100 lives, has scythed through one family , taking three of their four children in a single day.  The siblings, Mauro Julião dos Santos (7), Sofia Juliao dos Santos (5) and Lucrécia Julião dos Santos (3) succumbed to the fever within 24 hours of showing symptoms.  The youngest sister, Natália Julião dos Santos (1) is fighting for her life. The cause of death has been confirmed by Cajueiros hospital, which issued death certificates stating that the children died from yellow fever.  Tragically, the family – despite sharing a name with the Angolan President, Jose Eduardo dos Santos – is so poor that they cannot even afford makeshift coffins for the tiny victims.  The grandparents put out an appeal to the authorities to show compassion:  “Can the government please help us with […]

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Justice Denied Amid Compassion Fatigue

Remember this man?   He’s Angolan activist Manuel Chivonde Baptista Nito Alves – one of the defendants in a trial known abroad as the “Luanda Book Club” case.  He was one of 15 young men arrested for “plotting rebellion against the President” in June 2015 as they discussed Gene Sharp’s Book about peaceful ways to overturn dictatorships Nito Alves and his cohort (two others were subsequently added to the docket) have already endured seven months of ill treatment in preventative detention and a stop-start show trial so incompetent that witnesses were only notified by the state television newspaper reports that they must give evidence. The international outcry finally embarrassed the regime and just before Christmas, they passed a law on preventative detention which allowed the ‘15+2’ (as the expanded group are dubbed in Luanda) to be placed under house arrest for the remainder of the trial. It was seen as compassionate, […]

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Alas Poor Dos Santos, We Knew Him…

President José Eduardo dos Santos, growing old sucks, doesn’t it?  You lose your looks, your health and eventually your life.  And what will you leave behind?  A skull and bones in the dirt?  What will your legacy be?  Did you once dream that generations would revere you as Father of the Angolan nation?  (Pause for teeth kiss) Tsk… that ship sailed a long time ago.  No, the ‘Father of the Nation’ accolade is reserved for Agostinho Neto.  Perhaps he was fortunate not to have lived to see what Angola became. As you must be all too aware, the clock is ticking.  Quite soon now, the Angolan people will be lining up in their thousands, millions even, to pay homage at (or not on) your grave.  Sim, senhor. You are a mortal too. Even your friends and colleagues will hasten to betray you in the end: all those erstwhile brave and idealistic […]

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The Road to Dialogue or Things Fall Apart in Angola

Last Friday, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution paving the way for Angola to be promoted from a low to middle income country by 2020. This resolution is cause for celebration by the government, for it is an international endorsement of its stewardship of the country. From 2003 to 2013, the country’s oil revenues reached over US $450 billion, according to Angolan economic estimates, and for a decade it ranked among the ten fastest growing economies in the world. Meanwhile, the timing of the UN resolution seems to be a twist of irony for ordinary Angolan citizens. It comes at a time when the bust of the oil fueled economic boom is all too evident on the supermarket shelves, and poverty is on the rise. Food shortages are becoming severe in parts of the country, while in the capital retailers are imposing rationing of certain products. […]

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The Road to Dialogue in Angola or Things Fall Apart in Angola

Last Friday, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a resolution paving the way for Angola to be promoted from a low to middle income country by 2020. This resolution is cause for celebration by the government, for it is an international endorsement of its stewardship of the country. From 2003 to 2013, the country’s oil revenues reached over US $450 billion, according to Angolan economic estimates, and for a decade it ranked among the ten fastest growing economies in the world. Meanwhile, the timing of the UN resolution seems to be a twist of irony for ordinary Angolan citizens. It comes at a time when the bust of the oil fueled economic boom is all too evident on the supermarket shelves, and poverty is on the rise. Food shortages are becoming severe in parts of the country, while in the capital retailers are imposing rationing of certain products. […]

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Methodist Corruption: God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

The Methodist University of Angola (MUA) is in disarray amid allegations of corruption at the highest levels leading to calls from the United Methodist Church for a thorough audit and a full investigation. There are also demands that certain members of the Board of Directors to be replaced and that the Church take responsibility for bank debts of US $21 million. The private sector university, designed to serve an estimated 9,000 students, is at the centre of a dispute between the Church and its main commercial partner, the Portuguese company LisTorres, which controls 57% of MUA stock through two Angolan subsidiaries, Turpolis and Imolis. According to the published accounts prepared by the MUA’s Board of Directors, the institution has turned a profit of US $16 million over its eight-year existence, with a total income of  US $112 million and costs of US $95.3 million. Now, however, LisTorres is said to be demanding US$25 million to give up its interest […]

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Stoney Angolan Hearts

Manuel Baptista Chivonde Nito Alves, 19, has just started serving a six month sentence for contempt of court at Viana prison outside the Angolan capital, Luanda. Nito Alves, as he is commonly known, was under house arrest, having earlier spent fifty one days in prison after being charged, along with fifteen other activists, of plotting acts against the Angolan government.  It was during the trial for this original charge that Nito Alves cried out, saying, “I do not fear for my life; this trial is a farce.” The young activist felt the court was trying to humiliate his father, who was being interrogated at the time. The authorities took him away, tried him summarily, and slapped a six month sentence on him. Sadly, some have come to accept this lack of compassion on the part of the Angolan authorities as being normal. Nito Alves and I have much in common: we were both born […]

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Six Months in Prison for Calling the Trial a Farce

The Angolan judge presiding over the ‘Luanda Book Club’ trial of 17 Angolan activists accused of preparing a rebellion, has pronounced one of the activists guilty of contempt of court and sentenced him to six months in prison and a fine of 50,000 Kwanzas. Defendant Manuel Chivonde Baptista Nito Alves, 19,  had “interjected disrespectfully”, said Judge Januário Domingos, accusing him of “offending and disrespecting the court.” Nito Alves was allegedly heard to make a comment when his own father, Fernando Baptista, was being asked whether he had been heard in the preparatory phase of the trial,  to which he said “no”. Counsel for the public prosecutor’s office referred Fernando Baptista to records of the proceedings.  That was when Nito Alves “interjected disrespectfully” said the judge,  to “belittle and slander the court.” The defence lawyer asked for moderation and a corrective measure, arguing in mitigation that the accused had been under intense pressure, including six months […]

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No-Shows Force Adjournments at the Show Trial of the Luanda Book Club 

Late last year, after a torrid few weeks under the gaze of the world’s media, the trial of dissidents charged with rebellion against Angola’s MPLA government was abruptly adjourned in time for Christmas.  This was seen as less a gesture of seasonal goodwill, more an attempt to shake off some increasingly uncomfortable scrutiny by the outside world. The initial 15 defendants, known as the “Luanda Book Club”, are a group of youthful dissidents and activists who were arrested for having gathered to read and discuss Gene Sharp’s ‘From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation”.  The book is described as a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes.  For the heinous act of reading about resistance, they were charged with conspiracy to overthrow the state.  Two other human rights activists were later added to the charge sheet, though not held in detention. After months in preventative custody, Rapper Luaty Beirão and his […]

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