Word: luanda
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...ebony embraced each new arrival. He was Jonas Savimbi, 44, who had convened the annual congress of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) to prove a point: far from being wiped out, as Savimbi's foes in the Soviet-and Cuban-supported government in Luanda have claimed, UNITA was still carrying on its struggle to drive the Communists out of the country...
...most African cities the central marketplace is a carnival, where women mass in daylong congregation, squat amid bundles and babies, haggle over prices, cluck over misfortunes and paw over food for sale. Not in Luanda. Its central market, a dank, echoing, three-story concrete structure, is virtually empty of food. Long, bare counters stretch away into the urine-scented gloom. Weighing scales swing empty in the hot breeze, and the women sit quietly, waiting...
...people in the Angolan capital appear to be living on the edge of starvation. But many children's bellies are swollen with malnutrition, and the garbage heaps are well picked. The outdoor cafes and surfside sea food restaurants that once gave Luanda a festive air are empty and shuttered. Most of the storefronts in the city are empty too, and long lines form daily at the few shops still open...
...against the low retail prices set by the government. Swordfish, for example, is listed at about 200 a pound at the market, and is unavailable. But a few lucky consumers get swordfish from fishermen friends, who peddle their catch out on the "island," the curving sand peninsula that protects Luanda harbor from the sea. There, a pound of swordfish goes for about 45¢ or 55?...
...crippling the food distribution system. Much of the richest agricultural land in Angola is under the sporadic control of UNITA, the South Africa-backed guerrilla force of Jonas Savimbi, who contested and lost control of the capital in 1976. Much of Angola's produce rots before it can reach Luanda...