Shell Shocked

Bie has been devastated by war, but its strategic location at the heart of Angola is providing hope for the future

One of the most enduring images of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, comes from her trip to the Angolan province of Bie in 1997. Dressed simply, wearing a protective helmet, she walked through an area recently cleared of landmines.

More than any other person, Diana put landmines on the agenda after television pictures of her trip to Angola were screened across the world. She put Bie on the map and alerted the international community to the plight of war-torn Angola, especially to that of its children.

Photographs of the Princess with landmine victims and her outspoken comments about these deadly weapons helped to accelerate the campaign to ban landmines. Just two years after her trip to Angola, the manufacture, stockpiling and use of all anti-personnel mines were banned by the Ottawa Treaty.

Pictures coming from Diana's visit revealed the horrific ordeals of the amputees and starving children but also, in Kuito, the capital of Bie, a city destroyed by war. Known as the "Sarajevo of Africa", Kuito has been reduced to rubble after being besieged by UNITA rebels for 20 years. Most buildings are shattered, and those that are still standing are pockmarked by bullet and shell holes.
Furthermore, Kuito is still surrounded by rings of landmines, so people are trapped in the town, unable to travel to surrounding rural areas to plant their fields. Consequently, the province is heavily dependent on food aid and other humanitarian assistance.

This dependence is something that alarms Bie's former governor, Paulino dos Santos. He feels that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the area should be doing more to encourage a spirit of self-reliance. "NGOs are inhibiting the prospects of development in Bie," he says. "Instead of providing people with equipment to start small-scale enterprises, they are giving them food handouts. This creates a beggar mentality."

Before the war, Kuito was a beautiful, well organized city, with tree-lined avenues and elegant colonial buildings. Situated in central Angola, Kuito used to be called Silva Porto, taking its name from Francisco Ferreira da Silva, who was Bie's colonial commander in chief and came from the northern Portuguese city of Porto.

Francisco Ferreira da Silva founded the town in 1845, using it as a base for lucrative slave trading activities. Although he initially established warm relations with the local community, Ferreira da Silva fell out with the powerful local Chief Dun-duma, and the people of Bie rose up against him. In 1890, Ferreira da Silva's control of the area came to a dramatic end. Humiliated and frustrated by resistance from Chief Dunduma and his followers, da Silva wrapped himself in a Portuguese flag, lay down on top of a barrel of gunpowder and set it alight. After da Silva's gory death, the Portuguese stormed into the province, and after bitter fighting, took control of the area.

Bie, which is itself heart-shaped, is indeed the heartland of Angola. It has borders with seven other provinces. This is something Governor Paulino dos Santos is keen to exploit. "Being a 'nuclear' province, Bie could really prosper," he says. "With rehabilitation and investment, we could become an industrial hub, processing goods from all our seven neighbors."

Although Bie used to have some industry, this was badly disrupted by the war. During colonial times, Bie had maize and rice mills, and a coffee processing plant. These factories are no longer working as they have been completely destroyed by successive waves of fighting.

“With rehabilitation and investment, we could become an industrial hub,
processing goods from all our seven neighbors.”
Paulino dos Santos. Bie’s former governor

Rehabilitation is clearly a major priority in Bie. Outside investment is crucial, although the governor insists that any rehabilitation work should be in the form of joint ventures between foreign and Angolan partners. After the rebuilding of roads and bridges, one future area of development could be hydro-electric power. Bie has the biggest river basin in Angola, with the mighty River Kwanza originating in the province.

As well as having so much potential due to its strategic geographical position, Bie has rich resources of its own. As Paulino dos Santos points out, "The most beautiful diamonds in Angola come from Bie. That's why, in colonial times, the Portuguese made Bie a protected area. They knew its secret. The colonialists made maps of Bie's mineral wealth, but they never exploited it."

Unlike the Lunda provinces, there is no large scale mining of diamonds. The province also possesses reserves of kaolin, iron and manganese, all as yet unexploited. Mineral wealth aside, the province has pine and eucalyptus forests, which could be commercialized. But until the landmines are conclusively cleared, Bie's treasures will have to wait to be unearthed.