Angola TV to be Digitally Tuned!

Angola could become, in 2012, the first African country endowed with a state-of-art Japanese digital TV system to be installed within the framework of cooperation with the Country of Japan.The news of this project was confirmed on December 23 of last week by the Japanese ambassador to Angola, Ryozo Myoi, after meeting with the Vice President of Angola, Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos.  Japan has installed a similar system in Brazil in 2006, and represents the most advanced terms of television broadcast technology.    The project has been approved by the international telecommunications organizations and pending the finals approvals of the Angolan government, will be initiated in 2012.

The Japanese digital TV system called ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting Terrestrial) is touted as the most flexible to respond better to the needs of mobility and portability. In addition to sending digital television signals,  the system allows transmission of data for mobile phones, computers and the websites of television programs, among other possibilities.The Japanese ambassador said, however, which are in final negotiations for an agreement on investment protection, considering the determinant to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

Currently there are eight Japanese companies currently operating in Angola, but Ambassador Ryozo Myoi is confident that this number will increase rapidly with the signing of investment protection protocol, recognizing the market entry of Angolan banks into Japan. The diplomat said that Angola annually exports to Japan about 20 million dollars in oil, while the reverse turnover stands at 200 million, primarily in the motor vehicle trade.  

Angolan Teeth Alterations

The practice of tooth filing and intentional tooth extraction is a longstanding cultural practice among some Angolan tribes, notable the Himba people living in the southern regions.

Anthropologists speculate that the Angolan teeth filing practice is a remarkable cultural hangover dating back to slavery. From 1575 onwards, Portuguese slavers shipped Angolans in shameful quantities to Brazil. As slaves were partly valued by the quality of their teeth, the local tribes took to intentionally despoiling their teeth to dissuade an attraction by Angolan slave gatherers. The practice still remains today, centuries after abolition.

Normally in Himba men, their two front incisors filed into a v-shaped notch revealing a triangular gap whenever they smile.  In Himba women, this ‘v’ is equally produced as well as the removal of the four central bottom front teeth.  Though the Himba women see these dental alterations as a feature of beauty, there is speculation that the bottom teeth are knocked out or filed to mimic that of a cow, in deference to their animistic cow worship rituals.

Angola's Queens of the Court

Basketball is Angola's most popular sport.  Angola’s female basketball team recently won the African Championship trophy in Mali qualifying them for the 2012 London Olympics. It was Angola’s first female continental basketball title and gained them automatic qualification for the London Olympic Games next year.

President José Eduardo dos Santos congratulated the team, describing the triumph as “a result of collective action and the victorious spirit of the Angolan people.”

The Angolan victory was all the sweeter as it came over Senegal, the reigning and ten-times champions of Afrobasket. On no fewer than five occasions, Angola’s best position in the competition had been third place, a feat repeated in the previous two championships.

Large crowds gathered at Luanda Airport for the team’s home- coming. Team captain Nacissela Maurício, trophy in hand, was first to emerge from the aircraft and led a 20-vehicle celebratory cavalcade in an open-top bus through the city, with hundreds of motorcyclists providing a noisy escort.

Nacissela was voted ‘most valued player’ in the championship and was also named a member of the competition’s dream team. (Sonangol Universo Magazine)

Angola Humor 6

See another example of a daily comic page from Journal de Angola, a daily Angola newspaper. This comic strip highlights the increasing rate of motorcycle accidents in Angola, which was recently rated as one of the highest accident rates in Africa.

Translation:  "The motorcycles never stop at red traffic lights!"
                                         "The bikers only stop at the cemetery!"

Angolan Christmas Tradition; 'Bolo-rei'

To celebrate the end of the year and the coming New Year, an Angolan Christmas tradition is the eating of ‘bolo-rei’ (translated ‘king-cake’);  a sweet, Portuguese cake.

The tradition of the bolo-rei began in France in the seventeenth century; it arrived in Portuguese lands in the late nineteenth century and never left.

The cake receipe is simple: a light yeast dough, filled with raisins, nuts and dried fruits, prepared in such a way as to resemble a crown. But it is laden with symbolism. The sweet that Portugal spread around the world (including towards Angola and Brazil) is an allusion to the three wise men (hence the form of a crown) and is stuffed with a fava bean and a present. The person “rewarded” with the slice containing the fava bean, it is usually designated to prepare the cake for the following year. Whoever receives the slice with the surprise has the right to make a special request and will have luck and wealth in that year.

Play and superstitions aside, the candy became a tradition and it begins to be eaten since the night of Christmas until the Three Kings’ Day, on January 6th. As a curiosity: the gâteau des rois, as the cake is called in France, is completely different as the French cake is made of puff pastry.  In spite of this, the legend surrounding its shape is the same. (TAAG Austral Magazine)

Big Oil!

On November 1, the Angolan Minister of Industry, Botelho de Vasconcelos, officially inaugurated the world's largest, floating oil platform in the world, named Pazflor.  Having a potential production capacity of 220,000 barrels of oil per day at a construction cost of some $9 billion, the unit is operated by the oil company Total.

Total began production on its new Pazflor project offshore Angola in August. Oil fields on the venture, which have estimated total reserves of 590m barrels, lie in water depths of between 600 and 1,200 metres and so add to Angola's growing list of deepwater and ultra-deepwater projects.

Standard oil rigs cannot be used in such deep water because they cannot be fixed to the sea bed and so oil companies use ships known as floating, production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels to tap deepwater fields.

Oil is pumped up into FPSOs and then stored until it can be transferred to waiting oil tankers for distribution. Although expensive, such operations remove the need to pipe oil onshore for shipping and allow oil to be tapped in water depths that would otherwise be beyond conventional oil production methods.

According to Total, the FPSO on Pazflor is the biggest in the world, measuring 325 metres by 62 metres with a weight of more than 120,000 tonnes. With storage capacity of 1.9m barrels per day, it could hold Angola's entire production for a single day. 

Production will be gradually increased to 220,000 b/d on 49 wells. Total E&P Angola operates the project with a 40% stake, with the remaining equity held by Statoil (23.33%), Esso Exploration Angola (20%) and BP Exploration Angola (16.67%). Most of the world's biggest oil companies are involved in one jumbo Angolan oil project or another. (ANGOP, APA News southern Africa)

Responsible Travel in Sierra Leone - Peninsula, Provinces and Palm Wine (Part 2)

Following on from the first installment of his adventure, Thomas recounts his experiences on his journey through Sierra Leone to discover tourism projects which work towards implementing the responsible tourism concept of "making destinations better places to live in, and better places to visit"

Part 2: The provinces - Waterloo to Bo & Beyond

My next mission was to visit another community tourism project based around an Island of outstanding natural beauty and rich in biodiversity found on the Moa River, and on the fringes of the Gola Forest in the South-East of Sierra Leone. Tiwai Island is owned by 8 communities who live around it, and, in theory, they all benefit equally from tourism. I am planning on basing my MSc Responsible Tourism Management dissertation on how this can be done successfully.

To reach Tiwai, I was to take a 'Poda Poda' (local mini-bus) from Waterloo to Bo, then travel from Bo to Potoru from where I was told to catch an 'Okada' (motorbike taxi) to Kambama where you can take a speedboat to reach the Island.

One of the villages dotting the side of the highway

The journey from Waterloo to Bo went without any incidents. We stopped a few times to pick people up or drop them off and this gave me the opportunity to learn a bit more about the differences between the coast and the hinterland. At every stop, tradesmen/women would come to the vehicles windows selling plantain crisps, 'Benny Cake' (sesame seed and sugar), grilled meat, bananas, oranges, corn, water, etc... you could never go hungry. The road was perfect. No pot-holes anywhere. I later learnt that an Italian prospecting company had invested in tarmacking the road which has now made a big difference between a day-long journey and a 3-4 hour journey.

The image which says: "West Africa" to me.

Arriving at Bo, I noticed a lot of social campaigns which were going on. Billboards denouncing domestic violence, encouraging family planning, addressing the AIDS/HIV issue, promoting agriculture and community, and many more. It was also my first reminder that there had been a civil war not so long ago. Billboards promoting the 'Guns for Development' campaign where an NGO was buying guns off people (very successful), 'Social Integration' and 'Peace Development' were common words around the city, even Diamond re-sellers were called 'Peace & Love'. Bo and the Provinces were the hardest hit by the civil war and where the worst atrocities were committed.

Example of social development billboards (terriblyfabulous.wordpress.com)

From Bo to Potoru - a ‘junction town’ leading to several villages, one of which was my destination - the road was less favorable. The rainy season was just ending, so heavy rain showers were common place. Pot-holes and mega-puddles dotted the road, and our driver - who's name is William 'Bobo' Decker - expertly guided the 'Poda Poda' without even breaking a sweat. Orange vendors and Plantain Crisp sellers were everywhere. The smell of 'the bush' is something you never forget. The sweet scent of tropical flowers mixed with the damp earth smell, the odour of oranges and limes; this coupled with the landscape of lush green vegetation, small streams meandering across the dirt road, the bridges crossing over fast flowing mighty rivers; time seems to go slowly yet you don't see it fly by.

Road to Potoru. Notice the storm in the distance.

Potoru, which I later learnt was a rebel stronghold during the 1992 to 2002 war, was a quiet village which had a certain vibe about it. People were very friendly, respectful and eager to please. It was noticeably a trading hub too, being at the junction linking several villages together. We briefly stopped before we headed direction Kambama. Bobo Decker kindly offered to take me all the way as he had noticed that a tropical storm was brewing in the distance and knew that I would've gotten soaked if I had taken an 'Okada' (motorbike taxi).

The road was still dirt but was much better than the Bo to Potoru route. This was partly due to the small amount of vehicles that rode this way. We could see the storm approaching. Like a grey blanket, it covered the landscape, engulfed the forest, roads and villages. I thanked Bobo, as you can imagine. Finally, we arrived at Kambama. It was dusk and the distance rumble of thunder reminded us that we didn't have much time before another storm would unleash its wrath. I was guided down a path, from the village to the river bank and got on a speedboat captained by Ibrahim who told us a story about how crocodiles in the river and villagers had a mutual respect for each other.

Tiwai Island

Local guide from Kambama leading me into the jungle

When we set foot on the island, I felt like an explorer. This was the real jungle! Creepers were hanging from the forest canopy, the sound of insects was overwhelming, birds were nesting above us. We started walking towards the camp where I would stay the night, and suddenly I heard something moving in the branches above me. I looked up and saw a black and white blur. A double take revealed that it was a monkey, a Diana monkey to be more precise. Ibrahim said: "This is a good start, you have already been very lucky!" and he was right.

Can anyone identify this spider?

Red Colobus Monkey

The next morning, after a beautiful night's sleep, I went with a local guide on a 3 hour jungle trek where I saw a group of Red Colobus Monkeys, Black & White Colobus', Diana Monkeys, Suti Mangabe's, Hornbills, 'big-as-your-hand' spiders building their webs which shone golden-greenish hues when reflecting the sun’s rays, and the cream of the crop: 2 duikers; a very rare sighting according to my guide. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, we did not come across the elusive pygmy hippo. Maybe next time.

Solar power at Tiwai. Tent hut in the distance.

Traditional building where the food was prepared

During my stay, I also took a canoe onto the Moa River and learnt about traditional fishing techniques, wildlife, plants and pygmy hippo habits, as well as how to call monkeys by pinching your nose, mouth and emitting a cry so that they come to you thinking that you are a baby monkey in distress. The local language is Mende (from the Mende tribe) of which I learnt how to say:

'Hi Man/Old Man/Young Woman/Children' = 'Dake/Keke/Niande/Dupui Boaa'

'How are you?' = 'Ka hui ye na?'

'I am fine' = ' Ka ing goma'

The next morning, I took the speedboat at 4am in the morning to catch the local transport back from mainland. I will never forget speeding up the River Moa lit only by moonlight. That was definitely an experience.

In the next installment, Part 3: Back to the Peninsula - Coconut & Poyo Paradise, Thomas visits the communities located on the Western Peninsula to discover the tourism projects already put in place and the potential for implementing the responsible tourism concept.

To learn more about Responsible Tourism in West Africa, you can either visit the West Africa Discovery web portal, or join the growing community of West Africa passionate people here.

Angolan Goals to Eradicate Malaria

The Angolan Government recently set goals to eliminate malaria in Angola by the year 2020, through the use of a vaccine against the disease, as outlined in the capital Luanda by the deputy director of the National Program to Fight Malaria, Nilton Saraiva. 
The official was speaking during a November 17 meeting organized by Pathfinder International in partnership with Esso Angola, called "A healthy life without malaria", which was attended by senior officials of the Angolan Ministry of Health

Saraiva commented, "The malaria vaccine has is being tested in Africa. In Angola, can be developed over the next five or seven years and it will be an important method for our ultimate goal of eliminating the disease in the country over the next ten years.  While the whole country is endemic, a special concentration will be placed on malaria prevention amongst pregnant women.’

The maternal mortality ratio in Angola—1,400 women die per 100,000 live births—is the highest in Africa and the third highest in the world. Despite the toll that malaria exacts on pregnant women and their infants, it was, until recently, a relatively neglected problem. The Ministry of Health recently reported that malaria accounts for approximately 25% of maternal mortality and is the cause of nearly 10% of pregnant women’s hospital admissions.

Working with Pathfinder International, oil company Esso Angola is contributing greatly to this malaria eradication plan and has supported the fight against malaria in the country since 2002 by investing more than $ 24 million. Their contributions have improved patient care, reconstructed hospitals and implemented advance health care to combat malaria. (ANGOP, Pathfinder International)