Luanda Poised to Take Its Place on the World Stage

The capital of Angola, Luanda remains a city of contrasts. Skyscrapers are growing upward and replacing the grasslands on which the city was founded. Wealth is concentrated near the center of the city, while the outskirts are home to the middle class and poor. However, there is a new class of young, upwardly mobile businesspeople emerging hoping to forge that fractured image into something greater and propel Luanda to its rightful place on the world stage.

One of these trendsetters is Januario Jose, founder of TEDxLuanda. A designer, artist and dreamer, Jose brought the TED concept to Angola from London in response to the city’s need for a new, brighter future. Another example is Mirco de Jesus Martins. After completing his university studies abroad in the UK and the US, Mirco brought his newfound skills and his desire to help his country grow back to Luanda, where he has tirelessly worked to build business and foster education, training and success for the nation’s youth.

The city was ripe for Mirco’s message of new growth and possibilities. In place of the “old guard”, a new generation of businesspeople is coming to power, and they are very different from their predecessors. Striving to conduct business according to modern standards, the new generation is propelling not just Luanda, but the entire nation of Angola to prominence. Growth in the oil industry is just one example of this, though there is now much more to the story.

Growth is also occurring in many other areas. Education is a huge focus for entrepreneurs and business owners, as well as philanthropists like Mirco Martins. Martins himself has been instrumental in promoting education for the nation’s children while preserving Angola’s unique heritage, through organizations like the emerging Fundacao Kucula.

Change is coming to Luanda – it has already begun through efforts spearheaded by the likes of Mirco Martins, Januario Jose and countless other forward-thinking, dedicated individuals who want to give back to the community and ensure a brighter tomorrow for all of Angola, not just certain individuals or organizations.
It’s an exciting time to be an Angolan, certainly. The new trajectory for Angola is part of the wider African resurgence – a time of rebuilding and growth that will eventually transform most of the continent into something barely recognizable compared to what it has been. From the hills of Kigali and Addis Ababa, to the shores of Luanda or Abidjan, African lions are about to substitute Asian tigers.