Word: luanda
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...wounds of war take time to heal," said an Angolan government spokesman in Luanda last week. "A bit of bad blood is bound to persist." That is quite an understatement. Nearly four months after it won the ferocious civil war for control of Angola, with the vital help of 12,000 Cuban soldiers and $300 million in Soviet military aid, Agostinho Neto's Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) is still having trouble consolidating its control over the country, which is roughly twice the size of France. The cities, the Atlantic coastline and most of the central...
...Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (F.L.E.C.) and diehard remnants of the defeated National Front for the Liberation of Angola (F.N.L.A.). They have apparently been successful in quieting the area-especially since Zaïre President Mobutu Sese Seko closed his border with Cabinda after Luanda protested that supplies were being funneled to the rebels. The rebel problem is more persistent in the south, where Cubans are also guarding the Benguela railway. Running clear across central Angola, the railway is difficult to defend against sabotage. The line has been blown up in a dozen places in recent...
Peeling Paint. Because of the traffic disruption, the food-rich Central Highlands are short of flour, sugar and salt, while fresh fruit, meat and vegetables are on sale in Luanda (pop. 400,000) only three days a week. Long lines form for everything from bread and cigarettes to beer and bottled cooking gas. Three of every four buses in Luanda have been sidelined for lack of spare parts, and only about 20 taxis (of a prewar fleet of 600) are still operating...
...Luanda is a pretty seaside town of red-roofed buildings with typically Portuguese pastel-colored walls in soft hues of pink, blue, green and yellow. But the paint is peeling badly, and the broad, tree-shaded boulevards are developing potholes and are littered with derelict cars. Huge shells of buildings started by the Portuguese now stand idle and abandoned. Most stores, cafes and restaurants are shuttered. The language of the capital remains Portuguese, but otherwise, reminders of the departed colonialists are fast being removed...
...Portuguese and Angolan whites fled the country. The administrative and technical gap has only partly been filled by a few trained Angolan blacks, the few whites who stayed behind and an influx of Communist helpers (mostly Cubans, Yugoslavs and East Germans). They have helped Luanda to limp along, but nonetheless most restaurants have closed for lack of food and fuel, mountains of uncollected garbage pile up, and street crime is on the increase-more because of desperation than avarice. Almost every day, the government paper Diario de Luanda rages against "reactionary elements whose antisocial behavior is sabotaging our revolution...