ABSTRACT
A former part of the Portuguese Empire, Angola is now an independent People’s Republic. Angola’s economy before independence remained predominantly agricultural. 85 per cent of the population was engaged in agriculture, the vast majority living in a virtual subsistence economy. Even before independence oil had accounted for some 40 per cent of Angola’s export earnings, and that figure has gone up since, due to the price-rise and the crisis in Angola’s other exporting industries. Angola’s socialism in its first five years of independence has been fairly unequivocally Marxist-Leninist, both in terms of economic policy and political evolution. The report to liberation movement’s First Congress is brief on the subject of foreign trade. Foreign trade and co-operation agreements are perhaps more indicative of attitudes on the international-political plane than ideological statements and even diplomatic relations. A major problem of Angolan diplomacy since independence has been the issue of recognition under the MPLA government.
