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Perspective with Stephen Mpofu
The new MPLA government in Angola under Jao Lourenco looks set to introduce bold new measures to rejuvenate the economy during that former Portuguese colony’s 39th year of independence.

That is, of course, barring internecine violence that has cost countless lives and disrupted development in post-election periods in several African countries, the disturbances amplifying the reality that political maturation remained a far cry in the nations in point.

Recent elections in Angola came and passed peacefully and peace-lovers in our region and elsewhere on the African continent no doubt wish for, and hope that, tranquility will continue to prevail when the final results are announced with the ruling party, already buoyed by preliminary results giving it insurmountable tallies, rejoicing and forging ahead and gearing itself to lead the country into a brave new future for all Angolans, and the losers eating humble pie and supporting the government’s new development initiatives rather than be swayed by external enemy forces intent on sowing seeds of division so that, divided, Angolans stand to fall rather than stand united to shape a good destiny for their future generations.

Already, before, during and after the elections Western imperialist detractors have gone to town painting an ugly picture of poverty that they said was being experienced by ordinary Angolans in a country second only to Nigeria in Africa in its oil wealth, while long-serving and outgoing President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos controlled the country’s oil wealth.

The Western imperialist press even went so far as to interview street vendors in the capital, Luanda, and said these informal traders barely made a living in a country so rich in oil, as though these ordinary Angolans owned oil wells themselves to be wealthy in their own rights.

Ironically, informal traders in rich Western capitals built out of resources looted from Africa during the colonial era also earn a living plying their trade on the streets, realising modest incomes.

Even in Venezuela, the world’s oil richest country you (yes, you) find poor people as is no doubt the case in Saudi Arabia, the other mega oil producing country in the world.

In retrospect, therefore, what is strange about Angolans living off items sold on the streets? Of course, the nefarious objective of the foreign critics is to paint a graphic but false picture of a government, and its leader long in power swimming in obscene wealth while the population wallows in abject poverty.

But if truth be told, the MPLA government inherited from the Portuguese colonial power a monolithic, oil-based economy that it sustained during its 38 years in power. Next door, its older, sister-state Zambia also gained independence from Britain in 1964 under the United National Independence Party in a country where copper ruled the roost in the economy and, Zambia’s founding President and leader of UNIP, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, mounted a go-back-to-land campaign to diversify the economy by giving agriculture the pre-eminence that it deserved so that after years of depending on food imports from Zimbabwe for instance this bromide was reversed when in its own dire need in latter years Zimbabwe received food from its northern neighbour.

The food tit-for-tat demonstrates a need to develop agriculture for food security, especially considering that vast tracts of fertile land are Africa’s God-given endowment.

Which is apparently not lost on Angola’s replacement for Dos Santos, for Mr Lourenco has renounced a three-pronged strategy to diversify and bolster the economy alongside the country’s oil wealth and agriculture is one sector that he said he will activate.

Secondly, he wants to promote tourism as his country’s other golden egg-earner in addition to promoting industries to produce goods for domestic use as well as for export to generate more foreign exchange.

These bold measures appear to be prudently informed by a realisation that a capricious-prone nose-dive in the world price is bound to scupper an economy limping on one leg – the oil on which Angola depends right now.

In developing its agriculture, the new Angolan government might wish to take a leaf out of Zimbabwe’s land reform programme with the new Command Agriculture model as the icing on the cake for its people. It might also consider Zimbabwe’s new school’s curriculum which also seeks to promote agriculture for young Zimbabweans to take up as a career in order to both earn an income and guarantee the nation food security.

Reallocating land owned by whites, in particular to Angolans for agricultural production is sure to provoke the wrath of Western countries, with possible economic and financial sanctions being imposed to punish the Angolan government and that country in general for using its land in the way that it sees fit, again as what happened to our own country.

But any land that white settler farmers in Angola seized by force during the colonial era does not automatically mean genuine ownership of that vital asset by foreigners. It simply means occupation and so the foreigners can stew and stew in their anger and ranting but Angolans must shape their own destiny regardless.

When all is said and done, these bold development initiatives obviously call for peace and tranquility and for the support of opposition political parties in order for them to succeed.

Above all, Angola is an immediate member of the Sadc family and this pen humbly believes that the regional economic grouping should do all in its power to ensure that peace continues to prevail to create an environment conducive to the implementation of the development goals on the incoming government agenda, in the former Portuguese colony.

In addition, the African Union as a continental umbrella body might wish to ensure that no external enemy forces destabilise Angola by supporting opposition elements there morally and financially to bring down the incumbent government or to disrupt programmes meant for the economic, social and political development in the southern African state.

In any case, opposition political parties should not allow themselves to be blinded with monitory and other offers by imperialist forces with what appears to be lucrative offers into believing they have all-weather friends on their side and to whom to kow-tow.

Circumspection should be their golden rule so that they are not used as Trojan horses by foreigners who talk to them with sweet tongues, and dangle carrots in the air that disguise the enemies as Good Samaritans, to camouflage evil intentions.