area now known as Angola became home to Portuguese settlers and
traders in the 16th Century, and became a Portuguese Colony in
1655, before its status changed when it became a province of
Portugal in 1951.
By the end of that
decade there was growing unrest in the province, mainly due to
enforced cotton harvesting and the Angolan War of Independence
erupted in 1961, lasting a long fourteen years and ending with
independence just as Portugal's own regime fell.
Angola was given independence on 11th November
1975, however, despite a long and bloody war to
overthrow Portugal, a further twenty-seven year civil war raged until 2002 as
the country broke down into factions. It is estimated that around one and a half
million of the country's eighteen million citizens were killed during this
Angola war, with millions more being displaced.
Today Angola is ruled by a
president who held legislative elections in 2008, but not the promised
presidential election in 2009. Ravaged by decades of war, the country faces many
acute problems, not least being the landmines that litter the country,
presenting an imminent danger to transport and life there. In fact, visitors are
strongly advised not to even venture outside the capital city of Luanda.
Angola is in 148th place out of 186 countries and
territories in 2013 when ranked in terms of life expectancy, literacy, access to
knowledge and the living standards of a country with a life expectancy for males
and females at a staggering low 48 years and Angola has one of the highest
infant mortality rates of any country in the world.
Half of all children in Angola live below the
poverty line, just 51% of the child population has access to safe water supplies
and 16% of all children are underweight. Yet, despite a high level of disease
and low take up rates of education, improvements are being felt across the
country as stability takes hold.