27 years of civil war have affected Angola in many ways. Richard Casson finds out how peace is making recovery possible.
The Luena to Kuito Highway is the main route between the province of Bie in central Angola and the rural eastern province of Moxico. It’s a 400km road that, by European standards, can barely even be called a road. Crater-ridden, stomach-churning, suspension-busting dirt-trail is about as close as I can describe it. It’s a road where tropical rains appear out of nowhere and quickly turn the dusty track into a raging torrent of water, and a toilet stop is a quick squat behind the nearest eucalyptus tree. It’s a journey that should only be attempted in a 4×4 or a Russian Kamaz truck – and one that I endured when we visited Oxfam’s project work in Angola this February.
The 12-hour drive from Luena to Kuito was an incredible experience for me, not only because of the bruises and bumps it left me with, but also because it was a lesson in the impact of war.
The road lies in an area of Angola locally referred to as The Corridor – a passage of land that cuts through some of the most remote and isolated parts of the country. Many of the towns and villages here experienced ferocious fighting during Angola’s 27-year civil war.
Few Europeans have travelled this route, and those that do must either know the tracks off by heart or be accompanied by someone who does. When I made the journey I was lucky enough to be accompanied by two staff from Oxfam’s office in Angola: Titus, Oxfam’s Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Co-ordinator; and Joao, our driver, a man with the finest collection of laid-back Portuguese driving music I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to.
Broken infrastructure
Titus has worked on humanitarian projects across Africa and knows well that recovery from long-term conflict takes decades. As we drove past broken railway lines and burned-out train stations, he waved toward the destroyed infrastructure and described how until war began in the mid-1970s, the trip from Luena to Kuito could be made by train. “When war broke out, everything changed,” Titus explained. “Both sides ripped up the train tracks to prevent the other from gaining control of the area.”
As war raged on, Angola’s rail network was replaced with a web of poverty that still cripples many rural areas to this day – eight years after peace was officially declared. The lack of a decent infrastructure means farming communities, most of whom live far outside the nearest town, remain unable to get their crops to market. The little food that does make it through is expensive because of transport costs. High food prices mean that few people are able to afford a balanced diet. And the lack of good food means that nutrition is poor and people become sick more often.
Sparsely populated villages spring up every 20km or so along the road between Luena and Kuito. Many of the people that live in these earth-red, mud-brick-walled homes are subsistence farmers who make their living from the land. Though the people living here pick fresh mangoes, bananas and pineapples from the trees nearby, vast areas of Angola’s land remain uncultivated because of landmines, so the profits available from farming are limited. Since the war ended, the Angolan government and a number of international organisations have invested lots of resources to clearing the mines, but still no one knows how many are left – estimates range from hundreds of thousands right up to several million.
Angola is gradually recovering
Despite still facing many problems, some parts of Angola are recovering. Peace has led to greater freedom of movement, and it is now possible for Oxfam and other development agencies to carry out work in areas of the country that were impossible to access during the war. Water pumps are gradually being installed in remote villages. Hygiene and sanitation education programmes are helping to limit the outbreak of deadly diseases such as cholera. And in Luanda, the capital city, some people are profiting from Angola’s massive oil, iron and diamond reserves.
Having taken the road from Luena to Kuito, it’s clear to me that there is still much to be done before Angola fully recovers. Factories must still be rebuilt, and decent homes built for much of the population. And the railway lines are yet to be replaced. But an end to war is gradually making this possible. As Joao said as we slowly coasted through a bustling town at one stage during our trip: “peace is everything.”