June 10, 2013

Sunday June 23 Field Trip: Historic Walking Tour of Downtown Luanda

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View of Luanda from the Forteleza, looking west toward downtown, taken about 65 years ago. 

View of Luanda from the Forteleza, looking west toward downtown, taken about 65 years ago

The city of Luanda is one of the oldest cities in Africa, having been founded in 1575. The Angola Field Group is organizing an ‘Historic Walking Tour of Downtown Luanda‘ on Sunday, June 23, 9:00 AM with Eleutério Freire, an Angolan history buff, retired from Civil Service, who served 9 years as President of the International Committee on Monuments and Sites in Angola. He is basing his tour on historic evidence that Luanda is a town born because of the Atlantic slave trade which continued to the end of the 19th century when international pressure forced it to stop. The next significant growth of the city was based on the coffee industry after World War II and now oil is the driving force behind Luanda’s expansion.

Hotel Globo, taken around 1952, still exists today about a block east of the Epic Sana Hotel.

Hotel Globo, taken around 1952, still exists today about a block east of the Epic Sana Hotel

This is a walking tour approximately 3 hours long. Open to members of the Angola Field Group. Limited space so please only sign up if you seriously intend to go. 1000 kwanzas each to cover guiding fees. To sign up send an email to angolafieldgroup@gmail.com giving your name and phone number.

Further details will be emailed when you are confirmed for the trip. All Angola Field Trips are at your own risk.

The downtown stationery shop Lello is a Luanda landmark today.

The downtown stationery shop Lello is a Luanda landmark today. Photos from the book “Luanda, Cidade Portuguesa Fundada por Paulo Dias de Novais” by Rui Pires.

 

 

June 10, 2013

Tuesday, June 18 – International Conference in Luanda

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This event is not organized by the Angola Field Group but we wanted to share the invitation…

All are invited:

Tuesday, June 18, open to the public, at Epic Sana Hotel in Luanda

Capital flight and pro-poor development in Angola: An international conference organized by the Centro de Estudos e Investigação Científica (CEIC) of the Catholic University of Angola (UCAN) and Norwegian Church Aid (NCA)

Conference programme (and download the same info here)
07.30-08.15: Coffee and Registration
Opening Session (08.15-09.00): Introduction and welcome
Panel 1 (09.00-11.00): Capital Flights in perspective
Session chair: Professor Alves da Rocha
Tom Cardamone (Managing Director of Global Financial Integrity, USA) ‘Numbers and Estimations of Illicit Financial Flows’. Paulo de Morais (Vice-Presidente da TIAC – Transparência e Integridade, Associação Cívica, Portugal) ‘Corruption as obstacle to development – worldwide and the Portuguese case’. Professor Odd-Helge Fjeldstad (Chr. Michelsen Institute Bergen, Noruega) ‘Banks and Capital Flight from Africa’. Henry Sinjwala Malumo (Africa Advocacy Coordinator for ActionAid International, Zâmbia) ‘To be announced’
11.00-11.30: coffee break
11.30-12.30 Q&A
12.30-13.30: Lunch

Panel 2 (13.30-15.30): Building a strategic fight for the future
Session chair: Sérgio Calundungo
Bruno de Conti (Instituto de Economia da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp, Brasil) ‘The recent Brazilian experience with control of capital’. Marília Poças (Directora do Departamento de Controlo Cambial, BNA, Angola), ‘Foreign exchange regulations ’. Isaac Ngoma (President Economic Association of Zambia, Zâmbia) – Implications of capital flight on poverty reduction: lessons from Zambia. Benja Satula (UCAN, Angola) ‘Capital Flight – Examining the Angolan legal regime’
15.30-16.00: coffee break
16.00-16.45 Q&A
Closing remarks and close of conference (16.45-17.00)

 

June 6, 2013

Read Pedro Vaz Pinto’s latest Giant Sable report from Cangandala

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One of Cangandala's exotic creatures.

One of Cangandala’s exotic creatures.

“As for the animals, as always there are new developments to report, and this time a huge surprise was registered. While observing a herd inside the sanctuary in January, we couldn’t believe our eyes when we spotted Joana among the group!

… As the rainy season progressed, the animals did split into several smaller sub-herds, at one given time apparently into 4 groups, one group with old females and the old bull Duarte…”

Visit our Giant Sable page to read biologist Pedro Vaz Pinto’s First Trimester 2013 Report with photos from Angola’s Cangandala Park, in English and Portuguese.

Ol' Duarte back in business! O velho Duarte de volta à acção!

Ol’ Duarte back in business!

 

 

June 5, 2013

Kitabanga Project to save Angola’s sea turtles in the media

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University professor Michel Morais and graduate student Sofia Pereira presented to a full house last week Thursday. Participants at the Angola Field Group presentation learned that the university’s Kitabanga Project has protected about 9,000 nests since the project started 11 years ago. Check the following link for more details in a newspaper article published the day after the presentation: www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-31/angola-s-sea-turtles-snap-back-in-number-after-conservation-aid.html.

 

June 1, 2013

Free concert, June 15 at Nossa Senhora dos Remedios

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Carmina Burana, a free concert June 15 at 8:30 PM at the Catholic church Nossa Senhora dos Remedios, which is located 2 buildings west from the Sonangol head office building on Rua Rainha Ginga. Scroll down to view the church.

Concert
A Igreja de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios – Church of Our Lady of Remedies

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May 27, 2013

We Remember Lynne Duke

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Lynne Duke, journalist and author, July 29, 1956 to April 19, 2013 (photo taken at the Angola Field Group).

Lynne Duke, journalist and author, July 29, 1956 to April 19, 2013 (photo taken at the Angola Field Group).

It is with sadness that we acknowledge the death of American journalist and author Lynne Duke who passed away at her home April 19, 2013. In October 2010 we were graced with her presence at an Angola Field Group presentation which she gave on the slaving life of Dona Anna Joaquina, Angola’s most famous slave trader, about whom she was writing a book.  Lynne had only one small map as a visual during her presentation, but she kept the audience of over 200 people enthralled for 45 minutes to the point where, uncharacteristically, not one person got up from their seat to buy a beer. Lynne was obviously very engaged with her subject and the audience learned a lot about contraband slavery in Angola.  While she was here, she spent days  in the dusty national archives researching this notorious figure and travelled deep into the ‘denbos’ trying to uncover  more historical evidence.. It is our hope that all the work Lynne put into researching and writing her book will not be in vain. We in Angola have been waiting for her book since she told us the story and hopefully the publisher can get it to press. We want Lynne Dukes’ spirit to live on through the pages she spent precious days and weeks and months of her too-short life writing. Our sympathies go out to her husband and family.

 

May 24, 2013

Kitabanga, the turtle conservation project of Agostinho Neto University

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Inspecting a nest, Angola Field Group annual overnight Turtle Trip. Photo courtesy Susannah.

Inspecting a nest, Angola Field Group annual overnight Turtle Trip. Photo courtesy Susana Borges.

Since 2004 the Angola Field Group has joined members of the Agostinho Neto University team of biology students who patrol the beaches of Angola during turtle nesting season from September to March.

turtle scan0001
On December 2012 we camped at the project’s new site where Rio Longa empties into the ocean. While walking the beach at night hoping to find a turtle laying her eggs, we found instead 5 dead turtles in various locations along the beach.

Dead Olive Ridley female turtle. Photo courtesy Susana Borges.

Dead Olive Ridley female turtle. Photo courtesy Susana Borges.

One of the biggest threats female turtles encounter along the Angolan coast as they come ashore to lay their eggs, is the risk of getting caught in a fishing net and strangling. The number of nets launched too close to shore keeps increasing. Projecto Kitabanga works with fishing communities raising awareness and teaching them about the vulnerable condition of turtles in the world today. The university team also works with children and schools in the fishing villages. The project created the book “Tartarugando”, a colorful teaching tool.

turtle book
More than five hundred thousand baby turtles have been born on beaches under the protection of the Kitabanga Project.

Freshly hatched baby leatherbacks find their way to the water. Photo courtesy M. Mohlerova.

Freshly hatched baby leatherbacks find their way to the water. Photo courtesy M. Mohlerova.

 

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