The Republic of Angola (Portuguese: República de Angola) is a large country in Central Africa. Its capital is Luanda.
Angola is a former Portuguese colony, from which it attained independence in 1975. After that, the country suffered from a civil war that ended only in 2002, of which the remnants still linger today. It has many natural resources, including oil, diamonds (second-biggest producer in sub-Saharan Africa, actually) and arable land, though the nearly thirty years of civil war largely destroyed them, replacing them with minefields.
Since the war ended, Angola's GDP has gone up rapidly, courtesy of China who is heavily investing in the country's rich resources as well as its infrastructure to make extracting said resources much easier, and the country is now the fastest growing economy in Africa and third largest financial market in sub-Saharan Africa after Nigeria and South Africa. Luanda has seen massive reparation and construction projects that erased many of the scars the war left and turned it into a comparatively modern and growing city. Areas outside Luanda have yet to see the fruits of this growth, however.
The main problem now is a separatist movement in the province of Cabinda (that little part of the country that's separated from the rest of Angola by the Democratic Republic of the Congo). It is not wise to visit there.
The Mendonças from Depois do Adeus come from here. Pedro Passos Coelho, Portugal's former prime minister also spent his childhood in Angola, where he migrated to when he was one.
Angola in Fiction
- The first mission of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, "Pyrrhic Victory", is set during the Angolan Civil War, with Jonas Savimbi himself appearing as an ally in the first part of it.
- The latter half of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is mostly set in Angola, on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, then known as Zaire.
- Flame Hyenard's stage in Mega Man X7 is located in Angola, as seen on the globe when the cursor is over him.
- The Royal Diaries: "Nzinga, Warrior Queen of Matamba" focuses on Nzinga, future ruler of Ndongo and Matamba, both part of modern day Angola, in her youth as the region becomes heavily under Portuguese influence.
The Angolan flag
The Angolan national anthem
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Government
- Unitary dominant-party presidential constitutional republic
- President: João Lourenço
- Vice President: Esperança da Costa
Miscellaneous
- Capital and largest city: Luanda
- Population: 31,127,674
- Area: 1,246,700 km² (481,400 sq mi) (22nd)
- Currency: Angolan kwanza (Kz) (AOA)
- ISO-3166-1 Code: AO
- Country calling code: 244
- Highest point: Mount Moco (2620 m/8,596 ft) (87th)
- Lowest point: Atlantic Ocean (3,646 m/11,962 ft) (-)
