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NPR News

Postcard From Luanda, Angola's Capital

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RENEE MONTAGNE: The African nation of Angola is a land of extremes. It has oil wealth, and it was devastated by war. NPR's Ofeibea Quist-Arcton visited the capital, Luanda, and sends us these impressions.

OFEIBEA QUIST: Traffic here is hellish, with fancy four-wheel drive vehicles stuck for long hours in long, long traffic jams in a city that is beginning to look like a wannabe Manhattan. Built for half a million or so residents, Luanda is now home to five million. Nestling among the elegant pastel-colored Portuguese colonial buildings are skeletons of skyscrapers in a city which resembles one mighty construction site. So motorbikes come in very handy, weaving their way through often narrow roads choked with parked and slow-moving cars.

QUIST: Ofeibea Quist-Arcton, NPR News, Luanda, Angola. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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