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Angola

Situated on the Atlantic, in southwestern African continent, Angola has a population of 12.3 million (2007), and a life expectancy of 39.8 for females and 37.5 for males. Its birth rate is 45.1 per 1,000, and an infant mortality rate of 180.2 per 1,000 live births, making it the highest in the world. The maternal mortality rate, at 17 per 1,000 births, is the fourth highest in the world. The fertility rate at 6.2 births per woman (2008) is the tenth highest in the world.

With the arrival of the European settlers in the 17th century, Queen Nzinga (1582–1663) became a heroine leading the resistance to the Portuguese, who had already devastated sections of Angolan society with the slave trade. The Portuguese, who occupied Angola until 1975, built little infrastructure in the country. Independence came after war, and was followed by a civil war between the left-wing government and right-wing rebels, which led to a further devastation of much of the countryside, and destruction of what little government infrastructure existed. As a result, when the war ended in 2002, the country's health care system was in disarray, with many societal problems.

Access to Health Services

In traditional Angolan society, women had the role not only of taking care of children, cooking, and cleaning, but were also expected to plant and harvest crops and fetch water. Considered the property of their husbands, women remained illiterate and infant mortality rates were high. Access to health services and education was limited for all Africans in the country, and more so for women who, during the fighting that started in 1961, had the task of holding together families.

The revolutionary M.P.L.A. government of Agostinho Neto, which came to power in 1975, promoted itself on the basis of providing better health care for women; the Liga da Mulher Angolana (League of Angolan Women) was later established to help promote this. Since 1963, the Organizaçâo da Mulher Angolana (Organization of Angolan Women) had operated within the left-wing Movimento Popular de Liberatçâo de Angola (MPLA). In politics, there were 20 members of the National Assembly, and a number of women in mainstream politics such as Albina Assis as oil minister; Fátima Jarden as minister of fisheries; and Josefina Pitra Diakite as ambassador to the United States. Analia de Vitoria Pereira contested the country's 2002 presidential election.

JustinCorfieldGeelong Grammar School, Australia
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412979276.n26
See Also:

Bibliography

Angolan Women Building the Future: From National Liberation to Women's Emancipation. London: Organization of Angolan Women & Zed Press, 1985.
Hunt, Simon. Situation Analysis of Children and Women in Angola. Oxford: University of Oxford, International Development Centre, Food Studies Group, 1992.
James, W. Martin. Historical Dictionary of Angola. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Shapiro, Martin Frederick. Medicine in the Service of Colonialism: Medical Care in Portuguese Africa 1885–1974. Los Angeles: Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, 1983.
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