Angola Survival Strategies for a Socialist State

Three great shocks, coming one after another and being cumulative in their impact, have held up the process of national reconstruction, and social and economic development in Angola. They are the tremendous void created in the availability of skilled people at all levels and in all fields by the sudden mass departure of the Portuguese settlers in 1975-76, the destabilisation and destruction caused by the undeclared war by South Africa and its Angolan proteges the UNITA rebels, and the halving of Angola's foreign exchange income within one year (1986) due to the collapse of the oil prices on the world market.