Angola: Culture and Customs of Angola

Well, my project of learning at least a little about every country in Africa continues. It’s been, what, almost three years now? And I’m up to Angola.

This book, Culture and Customs of Angola (Cultures and Customs of the World) is an academic handbook, a basic reference to the life of the people in Angola. As such, it’s not particularly interesting to read – the downside of looking for books in an academic library (although that has yielded some pleasant surprises, such as the Wonga Coup.) If you needed background information as part of research on another paper or a novel, if you needed to make a comment about music or religion or family life, this is the source you would cite.

Angola is a poor nation, a former Portuguese colony wracked by civil war. It is rich in oil, but as with so many oil-rich nations, the money accrues elsewhere: per-capital GDP is $7,600, more than half the population is younger than 25, and adult literacy is 71%. The interesting angle from an investment standpoint are the ties to Brazil, the world’s largest Lusophone nation. (That, by the way, means “Portuguese speaking”. Who knew?) Brazil is on track to be a fully developed nation, and it may be the angle for growth in Angola. Among other things I learned in this book, the samba is related to Angolian semba music, which probably travelled to Brazil by way of the slave trade.

Next up: Zambia, a nation developed enough to have internationally available comedy shows.