Angola.

Angola is a country in Southern Africa. It is the seventh largest country in Africa, and is bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean and Luanda is its capital city. The exclave province of Cabinda has borders with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy has on average grown at a double-digit pace since the 1990s, especially since the end of the civil war. In spite of this, standards of living remain low for the majority of the population, and life expectancy and infact mortality rates in Angola are among the worst in the world.

Angola is considered to be economically disparate, with the majority of the nation’s wealth concentrated in a disproportionately small sector of the population. Angola is a member state of the United Nations, OPEC, African Union, and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, the Latin Union and the Southern Africa Development Community.

The name Angola comes from the Portuguese Colonial name Reino de Angola (Kingdom of Angola), appearing as early as Dias de Novias’s1571 charter. After independence in November 1975, Angola faced a devastating Civil war which lasted several decades and produced many refugees.

Angola is the world’s twenty-third largest country. It is comparable in size to Mali or twice the size o France or Texas. It lies mostly between latitude 4° and 18°S and longitudes 12° and 24°E.

Angola’s capital, Luanda, lies on the Atlantic Coast in the northwest of the country. Angola has three seasons, a dry season which lasts from May to October, a transitional season with some rain from November to January and a hot rainy season from February to April. April is the wettest month. Its average temperature on the coast is 60°F (16°C) in the winter and 70°F (21°C) in the summer, while the interior is generally hotter and dryer.

Angola has a population of 24,383,301 inhabitants according to the preliminary result of its 2014 census, the first one conducted or carried out since December 15, 1970. The last official census was taken in 1970, and showed the total population as being 5.6 million.

The first post-independence census is to be held in 2014. It is estimated that Angola was host to 12,100 refugees and 2,900 asylum seekers by the end of 2007. 11,400 of those refugees were originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who arrived in the 1970s. As of 2008 there were an estimated 400,000 Democratic Republic of Congo migrants workers, at least 30,000 Portuguese, and about 259,000 Chinese living in Angola.

Since 2003, more than 400,000 Congolese migrants have been expelled from Angola. Prior to independence in 1975, Angola had a community of approximately 350,000 who are registered with the consulates, and increasing due to the debt crisis in Portugal. The total fertility rate of Angola is 5.54 children born per woman (2012 estimates), the 11^th highest in the world.

It is composed of Ovimburdu (language Umbundu) 37%, Ambundu (language Kimbundu) 25%, Bakongo 13% and 32% other ethnic groups (including the chokwe, the Ovambo, the Mbunda, with the latter having been replaced by Ganguela, a generic term for peoples east of the Central Highlands, which has a slightly derogatory meaning when applied by the western ethnic groups, and the Xindonga) as well as about 2% mesticos (mixed European and Africa), 1.4% Chinese and 1% European. The Ambundu and Ovimbudu nations combined form a majority of the population, at 62%. The population is forecast to grow to over 47 million people to 2060, nearly tripling the estimated 16 to 18 million in 2011.

   The languages in Angola are those originally spoken by the different ethnic groups and Portuguese, introduced during the Portuguese colonial era. The indigenous languages with the largest usage are Umbundu, Kimbundu and Kikongo, in that order. Portuguese is the official language is probably more extended in Africa, and this certainly applies to its use in everyday life.

Moreover and above all, the proportion of native (or near native) speakers of the language of the former colonizer, turned official after independence, is no doubt considerably higher than in any other African country.