The Angola flag.
The 159th country to visit my blog is from ANGOLA.He or she was online at 12.17am (Malaysian time) this morning - from Luanda, Angola.
Time to update our Geography and general knowledge...
Map of Angola.
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in southern Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Demoratic Republic of Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city.The Portuguese were present in some—mostly coastal—points of the territory of what is now Angola, from the 16th to the 19th century, interacting in diverse ways with the peoples that lived there. In the 19th century they slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. Angola as a Portuguese colony encompassing the present territory was not established before the end of the 19th century, and "effective occupation", as required by the Berlin Conference (1884) was achieved only by the 1920s. Independence was achieved in 1975, after a protracted liberation war. After independence, Angola was the scene of an intense civil war from 1975 to 2002. The country has vast mineral and petroleum reserves, and its economy has grown on average at a two-digit pace since the 1990s, and especially since the end of the civil war. However, its level of human development is rather low, and its life expectancy and infant mortality rates are both among the worst-ranked in the world.
GEOGRAPHY:
Angola, more than three times the size of California, extends for more than 1,000 mi (1,609 km) along the South Atlantic in southwest Africa. The Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Congo are to the north and east, Zambia is to the east, and Namibia is to the south. A plateau averaging 6,000 ft (1,829 m) above sea level rises abruptly from the coastal lowlands. Nearly all the land is desert or savanna, with hardwood forests in the northeast.
HISTORY:
The original inhabitants of Angola are thought to have been Khoisan speakers. After 1000, large numbers of Bantu speakers migrated to the region and became the dominant group. Angola derives its name from the Bantu kingdom of Ndongo, whose name for its king is ngola.
Explored by the Portuguese navigator Diego Cão in 1482, Angola became a link in trade with India and Southeast Asia. Later it was a major source of slaves for Portugal's New World colony of Brazil. Development of the interior began after the Berlin Conference in 1885 fixed the colony's borders, and British and Portuguese investment fostered mining, railways, and agriculture.
FACTS AND FIGURES:
President: José Eduardo dos Santos (1979)
Prime Minister: Position Abolished (2012)
Total area: 481,350 sq mi (1,246,699 sq km)
Population (2010 est.): 13,068,161 (growth rate: 2.0%); birth rate: 43.3/1000; infant mortality rate: 178.1/1000; life expectancy: 38.48; density per sq mi: 25
Other large cities: Huambo, 171,000; Lubango, 136,000
Monetary unit: New Kwanza
Malaysian Ringgit Exchange Rate
0 comments:
Post a Comment