Research Paper On Angola

Angolan Oil Boom For the past two years Luanda’s economy has grown dramatically. Luanda is the capital in Angola, which is located Africa. The reason Luanda’s economy has boosted so much is due to its oil. The president of Angola, Jose Eduardo dos Santos knew that foreign oil companies would be extremely crucial in order to gain power. In Angola, the government system is primarily vested in the president. The President is the head of the state and the government. Therefore, executive and legislative power is all vested in the President. Now because of such oil boom, Angola produces a significant amount of oil, about 1.8 million barrels a day. Some of the main companies involved with this oil boom are Exxon-Mobil, Chevron, the French company

The state basically acts as a ground for class struggle. The President in Luanda is creating a class by only distributing the revenues from oil amongst him and his family. In Luanda only those that own nice cars and have nice houses are those that the President of Angola has benefited during this economic boom of Angola. That is why there is such a gap in Luanda between the rich and the poor. This however has not been a problem everywhere in Angola. It has been a major problem in Luanda. Angola lacks great infrastructure, and instead of the money being equally distributed among the places it is really needed, it is still only being distributed among the elite. Luanda still lacks great infrastructure, due to the money being allocated in one area. However, one businessman pointed out that Angola has the potential to be a tourist country due to its beautiful beaches and conditions to bring in more money; however that cannot be accomplished due to the lack of infrastructure. Angola also has millions of acres of land and an abundance of diamonds, but yet again Angola lacks the entire infrastructure that is required for any of those industries. However, this goes back to such capitalistic prospective, even if Angola were to drive in more tourists, the money in Angola would again be only distributed amongst the

We can understand why Africans conditions have continued to be this way is due to the world system class theory. Africa has always had internal issues with government as well as economic growth issues. The World System theory also states that the reason that Africa has been so undeveloped is due to the unequal partnerships between the large multinational corporations, which the Elites benefit from. The reason Africa cannot such escape such a bad state is due to how locked in it is and because there is not enough leadership in order for them to escape. Africa has always had “limited institutional capacity, small domestic markets, shortages of skilled labor, and weak or non-existent infrastructure inhibited in ISI initiative and failed to stimulate backward, forward, or lateral linkages, or to attract foreign capital outside the extractive enclaves” (Makki). Dependency theory can also be applied to the situation in Angola. In the 1880’s Portugal had colonial claim to some of the regions in Africa. When Portuguese first began trading with Africa, they had their eyes set on Angola. The Portuguese saw the most valuable commodity there as gold, however it ended up being that slaves were. However, during the 19th century, that all ended due to the slave trade. Then, by the 1920s almost all of Angola is under control. In the early years of colonization in Angola, there had been great