The Physical and Physiological Damage of A Rebuilding Angola
By
Linda E. Black
Mid – South Community College
November 19, 2009

A southwestern African country by the name of Angola, bordering the South Atlantic Ocean, Namibia, and Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country that is known for its colossal oil production, which is roughly 85% of its GDP. Angola is almost twice the size of the state of Texas (USA). It is separated into 18 provinces, and its capital city is Luanda. Angola’s climate in the south is semiarid while the north has cool, dry weather for their winter and hot, rainy weather for their summer. Angola is no stranger to war and conflict. After enduring Portuguese rule since the mid 16th century until Angola received its independence in 1975, this country was catapulted in a civil war that ravaged the country. The war initiated almost immediately after its liberation from Portugal and ended in 2002. The disagreement was between the party behind helping Angola gain independence from Portugal, the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, led by Jose Eduardo Dos Santos and another political party, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, led by Jonas Savimbi (Wertimer 2004) . After a grand victory, there are many tribulations that Angola has to overcome in order to rebuild its country back to normalcy, such as overcoming educational, emotional, social and physical damage that has been done within her borders.
The Angolan Civil War caused great physical damage to its infrastructure. The great majority of Angola’s buildings were demolished including hospitals, churches and government facilities. Most buildings still contain artillery fire piercings and shrapnel holes. This serves as a constant reminder to many Angolans about the recent ending war and keeps afresh the horror that it embodied. Not only does the infrastructure reveal signs of a damaging war, but also the citizens. Many of them have lost limbs by landmines and the hostility of the war. This makes physically demanding task in Angola even the more demanding, if not impossible.
Children have been greatly affected by the nearly three decades of civil war. The psychological effects of the war have thwarted many young Angolan’s educational development. Many children were torn apart from their familial structure creating an overwhelming stress on their developing mental faculties. Their young minds are overpowered with the horrible images they have witnessed, such as their close friends dying, the considerably lengthy hikes to places of refuge, the environment that they have become acquainted with demolished by the hands of other Angolans and being forced into an unknown environment (Fish 2001). These children can easily become hostile and narrow-minded about people who try to get involved in their lives even if their objective is to offer help. They have been forcibly taught to familiarize themselves with whatever surroundings is being presented through the adults. For hundreds of thousands of displaced children, they have been abandoned by their country and many find relief in places where their lack of learning will cause the least resistance, chiefly the streets.
For these three decades of terror, there were no structured educational facilities. Children were left struggling, in such a hostile environment or in unfamiliar surroundings, without the ability to process everything through an education point of view. Whatever the grade level the children were in or whatever college level students were in at time of war, they were left at that exact level of learning (Malaquias 2007). Children that were eight years old were only able to read on third grade level when they turned twenty-three years old because of the 15 year gap of non-schooling due to war time.
Women were hit the hardest with the burdens of the war. They were held accountable for their families’ well-being while their husbands were out searching for work. These women often had the responsibility of looking after their husband and his parents, their parents, and other relatives on both sides of the family. They were looked to for provisions such as food and water as well as for the welfare and learning of their children. Many of them are faced with adaptations of their new environment. Also, some face the horror of taking on new tasks which were left by a husband who has not returned from the war due to displacement or death (Wertimer 2004). These mental stresses coupled with the physical demands of life in Angola take its toil on numerous women. Irregular menstruation, high blood pressure, life-threatening complications surrounding pregnancies and a lack of prenatal help are just a few catastrophes which arise within this war torn environment. These pressures help give rise to Angola being number one in the world in infant mortality rates. In the presence of such insurmountable stresses, many Angolan women have turned to prostitution which also affects their children, and deserted their conventional roles (Oyebade 2006).
Adolescent males were also taken aback by the high demands of the war. These young men desperately need answers and resources on how to integrate back into their society. For the most part, they feel as if they do not belong to society and that they have positioned them in a lose-lose situation because of the collapse of their upbringing. These young men fought bravely for the government which was in order and now that those officials have been dethroned, life has gotten more difficult as they try to blend into the social order.
Although they are no longer connected to the previous government officials who wreaked havoc in their country, many of their families are unwilling to accept them because of those previous ties that devastated their families. Society sees them as being friends with their opposition. These adolescents must be extremely careful when trying to incorporate back into their environment. If they are to vent anything about the presence of new government authorities or are slow to accept the change, only allegations have to circulate about them contesting current leaders and their lives will be at stake (Malaquias 2007). For those who have returned from various places and did not seek refuge in Angola, they are also treated with disdain and with disrespect, particularly if they have a hint of any language other than Portuguese. They are given the most menial and underpaid jobs. They are stopped from reaching any type of substantial recognition in the sports arena, if allowed to participate.
Pre-Civil War, the population of Angola was this population’s confidence level, for the most part, was at its peak. They were being educated, in both pre-college and college, most of their businesses did not suffer from lack of loyalty, and they knew where family members and loved ones were located if at any time there was a need. Angolans, at this time, were able to live in the comfort of their loving homes and not have their minds on whether it is their time to pack and run for their lives (Chabal 2007).
An entire population ravaged by war and subsequently disregarded in peace generated a multitude of emotional and social crises in Angola. In 1975, Angola was granted total independence. The UNITA disputed the MPLA’s ascendancy, and civil war broke out immediately (Tvedten 1997). To have their victory of gaining independence interrupted by such a thing is a devastating act to be forced to endure. They were being knocked off their high horse, figuratively speaking.
During the time of Civil War, 1975-2002, there were 4 million people displaced and 1.5 million lives lost. The impact of such calamity is agonizing; the loss of lives coupled with displacement of individual’s amounts to 82.7 percent of Angola’s population! At some point, many mothers were separated from children, many wives were separated from husbands, several brothers separated from sisters, close friends forced apart, loads of deaths, and businesses bombed down to the ground causing many jobs to be depleted. People who stayed behind and fought for their country either triumphed or got triumphed over.
Rebuilding the emotional and social level of, what was, such a thriving population is not an easy charge, howbeit, it can be accomplished with much invested time and effort. It is going to take much psychological intervention to bring the population’s mind toward normalcy. There is a need for family and close friend locator services, rebuilding of businesses, and rebuilding of homes for families that are in need of that stability. Angola’s citizens must have a willing and a determined mind to restore all that was taken from them. Although Angola is a major world producer of oil and other mineral reserves, the people of Angola have considerable struggles in their everyday living. Even though Angola has a wealth of resources, it also home to one of the highest presence of landmines and those who have lost limbs due to landmines in the world. Some of the major issues Angola must face postwar are rebuilding its buildings, inventing special educational units for the children, demining such a prosperous land, rekindling their agricultural production for food, bringing back refugees of the war and those who were dislocated and treat them with professional medical help that is so desperately needed.
Since the end of the civil war, the government has disarmed much of its citizens. Also, the Angolan Red Cross had developed numerous tracing programs to help those who were displaced by the war reunite with their families. The Christian Children’s Fund has initiated to help Angolan youth overcome the mental burden of living in a war torn country (Oyebade 2006). As far as medical professionals are concerned, many citizens do not trust these government hired institutions and seek other means of help such as self-treatments and witchcraft. Much work has begun to help the citizens of Angola, but there is still much work to be done.

References
Chabal, P., & Vidal N. (Eds.). (2007) Angola: The Weight of History. (pp.88-119) New York: NY: Columbia University Press
Fish, Bruce & Fish, Becky. (2001) Angola, 1800 to the Present: Slavery, Exploitation and Revolt (pp. 44-63) New York: NY: Chelsea House Publishers
Malaquias, A., ( 2007) Rebels and Robber: Violence in Post-Colonial Angola (pp. 97-109) Uppsala, Sweden: The Nordic Africa Institute
Oyebade, A. (2006) Culture and Customs of Angola (Culture and Customs of Africa Series) (pp. 69-89 & 112-133) Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Publishing Group, Incorporated
Tvedten, I., & Bowman, L. (Ed.) (1997) Angola: Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction (pp. 21-52) Boulder, CO: Westview Press
Wertimer, S. U. , 2004-03-19 "The Post-Cold War Diplomacy in Angola: The Emergence of New Foci of Power" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association, Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Online Retrieved on 11-17-2009 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p72235_index.html