From Being Bullied to a Dictator’s Nightmare

9 de March de 2016 Rafael Marques de Morais

Writing has been my life’s passion and my curse too. In my teens, I was bullied for being an avid reader and for wanting to express my opinions as informed by my readings. I vividly remember being taunted with the idea that “too much reading will bring you madness, and disgrace.” I had to endure periodic assaults. Each time I returned home crying, sobbing or bruised my mother would offer me two choices only. First, she would advise me to play by myself in the safety of our home. Second, she would warn me that if I went out to play with the bullies, I better return home quiet with no complaints or I would have to face her punishment for not knowing how to defend myself, and insisting on putting myself in harm’s way. As I grew, I set up a makeshift gym, with weights made out of tin […]

Low Oil Prices Undo Angola

8 de March de 2016 Rui Verde, MakaAngola Legal Analyst

The crash in the price of oil has hit Angola hard. Hospitals across the country are low on resources, including medicines. There are food shortages in the North, drought in the South. From Cabinda to Namibe, empty shelves in the stores attest to the government’s lack of response. If people are facing such serious difficulties in their day-to-day lives (in the so-called ‘micro’ economy) matters are no better on the macroeconomic scale where double-digit inflation is taking its toll. According to the National Institute of Statistics, inflation in the capital Luanda was running at 1.4% between September and October 2015. Additionally, in the first months of 2016, the Kwanza has been devalued by 26%. The reason for all this is the low price of oil. According to the United Nations Development Program, Angola has the least diversified economy in the world after Iraq. Any fall in the price of a barrel […]

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

7 de March de 2016 Rafael Marques de Morais

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 […]

Health

Yellow Fever Epidemic in Luanda Claims Three Siblings

5 de March de 2016 Rafael Marques de Morais

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 […]

Health

Justice Denied Amid Compassion Fatigue

4 de March de 2016 D. Quaresma dos Santos

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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