SU_17_for web:Layout 1 21/2/08 12:10 Page 1 UniversoSPRING 2008 Sonangol’s International Magazine Coming home Angolans are flooding back with a passion to help rebuild their country LUANDA’S BANKING BOOM AFRICA’S OIL RUSH A STADIUM FOR THE FUTURE SONANGOL NEWS pages 42-51 SU_17_for web:Layout 1 21/2/08 12:10 Page 2 THE BIG CONTENTS PICTURE Work is starting this. year on R Sonangol Department for o Inside Angola’s most expensiveg con- n Communication & Image o struction projectC – the $8 Brazil is to give $30million to Director Letter from the editor 4 Tiger, tiger burning bright 26 billion Liquefied Natural Gas develop a 33,0000 hectare João Rosa Santos Banking on a secure future Cabinda complex in Soyo. pp46-7 agricultural project in Pungo Cabinda Corporate Communications Assistants Readers’ letters 5 Andongo, Malanje. The Cristina de Novaes, Roberto Graça, Beauty against all odds 30 land will produce maize and Raimundo Vilares Mbanza Angola news 6 The Miss Landmine pageant Soyo Congo sugar cane. Publisher Sheila O’Callaghan Zaire Coming back to the future 8 Uige The paving of 95km of road Editor Angolan talent floods back between Munenga and Alex Bellos Kibala in Kwanza Sul Uige Art Directors has been completed Lisa Pampillonia Bengo David Gould Lucapa Caxito o R. l Sub Editor i Kwanza u Ron Gribble Luanda Malanje C Luanda Norte Lunda Norte Editorial & Design Consultant Richard Addis Ndalatando Saurimo Malanje Advertising Design Miss Landmine 2008 © Bernd Wojtczack Kwanza C u Lunda Sul a Sul n C Circulation Manager Fever pitch 34 z u a a Matthew Alexander n R. José Silva Pinto Angola’s biggest-ever sporting project g o R Group President . Ca . ssai R John Charles Gasser Opinion: David Brookshaw 14 Angola’s gentle giant 38 Sumbe R. i bez am Protecting the Palanca Negra Luena Z Project Consultant Africa’s deepwater riches 16 Huambo Bie Nathalie MacCarthy All go in the Gulf of Guinea Lobito Lu ngu This magazine is produced for Sonangol by Benguela Kuito a-B Sonangol News uag Impact Media Custom Publishing. The views o Angolan beat that’s 20 Benguela R expressed in the publication are not neces- Huambo Moxico . sarily those of Sonangol or the publishers. shaking the world Reproduction in whole or in part without The growth of kuduro prior permission is prohibited. This magazine is distributed to a closed circulation. To receive a copy please contact Huila [email protected] Menongue Impact Media Custom Publishing Lubango 53 Chandos Place, London WC2N 4HS Tel + 44 20 7812 6400 C u Fax +44 20 7812 6413 Namibe . an R d o e R [email protected] n . e Cuando Cubango n C Cover: Miraldina de Carvalho Ribeira, u Cunene u Namibe C b photo by José Silva Pinto. a n g o R . Photolibrary Onjiva Briefing 42 Inside Sonangol o Rua 1 Congresso do MPLA, No 8-16 Caixa Postal 1316, Luanda Republica de Angola Interview 46 Following Angola’s agreement Sonangol USA (SONUSA) 1177 Enclave Parkway, Antonio Orfão, president of Sonagás Second Floor, Houston TX 77077 to honour debts with the Paris The rehabilitation of the Ngove Dam on the Cunene River, Sonangol UK Mereval House Brompton Place Club, Japan will provide and the installation of a hydro-electrical station, is due to start in London SW3 1QE United Kingdom Focus 48 credit to finance the early 2008 and will last approximately two years. The dam was Sonangol Asia 3 Temasek Avenue 31-04 Runners and riders in the second reconstruction of the posts of badly damaged during the war. It’s restoration will aid economic Centennial Tower Singapore 039190 licensing round Lobito and Namibe. development of the provinces of Huambo and Bié. www.sonangol.co.ao João Reis SPRING 2008 3 SU_17_for web:Layout 1 21/2/08 12:10 Page 4 OVERVIEW READER’S LETTERS Fast forward Dear Sir I have just finished a documentary about Luanda’s National Music School, called Escape from Luanda. I think it offers an interesting insight into modern Angola. The first director of the school felt it was enough for the students, all of whom had suffered badly during the war, to turn up at the school on a regular basis. It was a time of dealing with a terrible past by re- introducing some order, some education, Alex Bellos some culture. To the director, the quality of the learning was not as important. Escape from Luanda: DVD is The director who replaced her had availalble at www.seventh-art.com other thoughts; he believed that musical standards had to be improved. I wonder Letter from the editor if this small change of emphasis in one cles to development. We are committed ernment official and journalist, who from school in Luanda represents where mod- to doing as much as we can to help the 1870s to 1890 analysed many key ern Angola is positioned. Perhaps, just Angola halve the deaths from malaria problems of colonial Angola: from the A fresh start perhaps, the country has been able to among children under five. We also are slave trade to bureaucratic inefficiency; reconcile itself with its past and is now in committed to the fight against HIV/Aids, from race relations to Portuguese migra- a position to move forward – to look not and are supporting Angolan efforts to tion. His trenchant writing style back but ahead. prevent the pandemic from taking root fomented controversy. or Angola, 2008 will be a crucial In it I hope to publish stories that express will benefit the country in micro and Phil Grabsky, England here. Our bilateral relations also encom- In 1890, when Portugal was forced to year. The country is taking giant the diversity and versatility of the nation macroeconomic terms. More Angolans pass strong educational and cultural give up territorial claims in Central Fstrides forward in the spheres of as it faces the challenges of growth and are opening bank accounts, and more Special relationship exchanges. Angolans have studied in the Africa, Fontes Pereira wrote an editorial politics, finance and industry. In development. When I visited Luanda for international investors are willing to lend Dear Sir United States through the Fulbright in a Luanda newspaper which openly September, the first elections will be held the first time last year, I was struck by the money. Already inflation is at its lowest I am so pleased to be in Luanda to repre- Scholarship programme since 1998. I attacked Portuguese rule. Boldly, he since 1992. The year will also see the amount of activity going on and the com- level for 16 years. sent the United States. My wife Grace plan to work hard to expand and deepen urged Angolans to replace Portugal with opening of the Luanda stock exchange, as mitment of Angolans to rebuild. As Yet it is only six years since the end and I arrived here in November and we these exchanges. Born and raised on a another colonial power, England. Due to well as the country repaying its arrears to Raquel de Oliveira, one of the many of fighting, and the shadow of the war is can already tell that we are going to enjoy dairy farm in the state of Iowa, I have a what was deemed a treasonous opinion the Paris Club. Reconstruction work in Angolans who has come home since the still present all over the country. We greatly our stay. We come to Angola at an special interest in promoting economic in the colonial press, Fontes Pereira lost the capital and the provinces continues end of the war in 2002, told me: “People report on a controversial beauty competi- historic moment as the nation further diversification through agricultural devel- his newspaper and government jobs and apace. are starting to believe in the country.” tion for women who have suffered brutal consolidates peace and prepares for leg- opment, which will be a priority focus for died soon afterwards. This year is also a big one for Raquel was interviewed as part of injuries from landmines. The hope is to islative elections in 2008, a sign of me. Fontes Pereira’s writings are a pre- Sonangol. For the first time since Angola the cover story on Angolans who have change the perception of the women significant progress after many decades During our service in Angola, Grace cious legacy. In fact, his writings joined OPEC it has a quota – 1.9 million moved back from abroad. The flow of from ‘victims’ to ‘survivors’. of war and devastation. This is an excit- and I are determined to visit all 18 represent an example of a modern anti- barrels per day – a limit that is expected nationals returning home is one of the From this issue, the corporate side of ing time in Angola’s history, and I am glad provinces. In reaching out to Angolans colonial written protest in Western and to be reached in the first half of the year. most obvious demonstrations of a new Sonangol’s activities will have its own to be here to do what I can to help the across this great nation, I hope to create West Central Africa, before there were In March, the winners of the second optimism. section at the back of the magazine. people of Angola harvest the fruits of this greater understanding and stronger ties organised nationalist parties. José de licensing round will be known, opening In this magazine there is more evi- Antonio Orfão, the president of Sonagás, well-earned peace. between the people of Angola and the Fontes Pereira of Luanda, indeed, was the up seven offshore and three onshore dence of this self-confidence.