Angola's Independence Day

November 11 is Angola’s Independence Day.

It's a memorable year because this year they celebrated their 40th year of independence from Portugal (1975) who ruled Angola for nearly 500 years.  This is the year of 40’s for me.  Besides celebrating Angola, I celebrated my 40th birthday this year, along with the recent 240th birthday of the U.S. Marines.  The government has put up Angolan flags everywhere along with signs announcing their 40th birthday. 

This milestone of a birthday has also prompted a lot of improvements as of late with roads and 

sidewalks being repaired.  It's been wonderful—torn up sidewalks that I've walked on for a year now, are finally fixed.  When I say “fixed,” I mean that holes have been filled in with little square rocks.  There is nothing holding the 3x3 square rocks in place, like cement or anything (see pics above).  Instead, they rely on the pressure of the pedestrians walking on them to get them to level out and stay in place.  Great idea except that this improvement solution is short-lived.  The rocks loosen and separate from each other and eventually come out altogether.  Oh well, we’ll enjoy it for now!

 To celebrate, there were a lot of festivities going on around the city including a fireworks show down on the Ilha.  After receiving a page long warning of all of the potential dangers in participating in these activities, I decided we wouldn't even entertain the idea of going outside, but that it would be best just to hunker down at home.  So we did.  We got online and saw this tribute from Google.  It was really nice to know that Google hadn't forgotten us.  :)

I asked my students how they celebrated the next day.  I think practically all of them remained at home as well, having a quiet evening watching the celebrating on T.V.  It seems that there are mixed feelings for my students.  They are happy to be celebrating 40 years of independence, yet they express their frustration with the Angolan government.  The leadership in the government is behaving like the Portuguese government did before their independence and only the elite in Angola seem to be benefiting.  And now the younger generation is starting to speak out for "Liberdade Ja," or "Freedom Now." In September, a group of 15 youth were arrested for discussing non-violence resistance to repressive dictators at a bookstore and are now being charged with rebellion and attempting to assassinate the President.  Apparently Angola is still lacking the freedom to assemble, protest, and even read.  It will be interesting to see if or how the country progresses in this area while we are here.