“Hungry can’t be silent”

People in the areas of the Angola, Luanda capital, are still afraid to talk openly about what happened in July when protests brought part of the city, and the violations also broke out other provinces.

What started as a call among taxi drivers to get out against the fuel jumps for three days turned, with at least 30 people lost their lives, and thousands of arrested.

The roads were blocked by scorching tires, shops were looted, and clashes flared between the demonstrators and the police.

It was one of the most significant waves since the end of the 2002 civil war.

On the eve, rich in Angola’s oil, which celebrated 50 years of independence from Portugal on November 11, the demonstrations emphasized the constant concern with poverty and inequality.

In the neighborhoods where the demonstrations were the strongest, few are ready to talk openly, experiencing repression or persecution in the light of many arrests during and after protests.

“Things may have come out of control a little, but we needed to make so much noise to wake up in power,” said the BBC 24-year-old Luanda Street, who wanted to stay unknown.

Leaving school before graduating from secondary education, it now sells non-alcoholic beverages along Avenida Pedro de Castro Van-Dúnem Loy, one of the most busy capital’s highways to help support his family.

It is one of the millions fighting to get to the brilliant skyscrapers built by oil money.

For the supplier, joining the first day of the protests was a way to show that “we have a voice” and that people like him deserve the share of the country’s wealth, “rich for some, but unhappy for many of us.”

Unemployment in youth was the main engine of protests in this young country, where the average age is less than 16.

Unemployment is 54%among the age of 15-24, official data shows. Of the 18 million young people, only three million work in the formal sector – that is, they receive regular wages and pay taxes.

In the main cities of Angola, many young people who no longer study at school emphasize the difficulties of the state in satisfying their aspirations.

“I only sell on the street when I can get enough money to buy soft drinks,” said the street seller.

“There are months when I sell nothing at all because the business is so slow. I and so many other young people live so and no one pays attention to us. So we can’t be silent.”

The Angolan Sociologist Gilson Lazarus was not surprised at what happened in July. He believes that those who underpin the protests were “dispossessed”.

“These are young people, most who have nothing left but their lives. That’s why they have not lost on the street,” he said.

Protests appeared spontaneously in some more popular and poor quarters of Luanda, where some residents lack access to the main sanitation, as well as other necessary infrastructure.

Gradually, the demonstrators moved into the main ways of the capital, causing chaos and “raising the curtain on a social problem that has long existed, but the political elite preferred to ignore,” the sociologist said.

“For a while, Angola has been heading for a deep social, economic and, above all, a political crisis. The main reason is the imperfect way to govern the country since the end of the 2002 civil war,” D -Lazar added.

The popular movement for the release of Angola (MPLA) has oversee the country for five decades of independence.

There was a certain hope that Joao Lurenso, who in 2017 held the post of President from Jose Edward Dos Santos, 36 years of power, change everything.

He is now serving the second term after the 2022 elections.

Lurenso promised to remodel what he saw how the broken system inherited from its predecessor: fight against corruption, diversification of the economy and job creation.

Eight years of criticism claim that he has not done it, and has been fighting for the management of life-and, although slightly falling, the annual inflation rate remains high at 18%. According to an African poll in 2024, 63% of Angolas point out that the country’s economic situation has deteriorated compared to the previous year.

In recent years, young people have brought the main burden of problems and have been at the forefront of most anti -government protests, on issues, ranging from corruption and police brutality to local elections, as well as against hunger and poverty.

But nothing corresponded to the scale of July unrest.

Leo combo, a 20-year-old political science student, says the protests were “horrible but somewhat expected”, given the current reality of the country.

“We live in a country where young people ignore the authorities. Protests are the only way to express dissatisfaction with the unstable conditions we face,” she said.

The Angola’s government has made a different opinion.

The government official did not respond to the BBC request to comment on the demonstrations and their consequences, but in the national address on August 1, President Lurenso made it clear his feelings.

He condemned the protests as “actions committed by irresponsible citizens, manipulated by anti -patriotic national and foreign organizations through social media, bringing mourning, destruction of state and private property, reduced access to goods and services, as well as losing work for Angoli.”

Despite repeated promises to diversify its economy, Angola remains dependent on oil and gas, which are certainly the main exports of the country, as well as the key source of state income.

“Natural resources are good, but the problem is how revenue is used,” said the Angolan economist Francis Paul.

“If Angola followed models such as Norway or Saudi Arabia, using oil wealth to strengthen the sectors that do not have oil and develop their labor, it would be a blessing.

After the departure, Dosa Santos Angola moved for five consecutive years when the economy decreased between 2017 and 2021.

The growth returned only in 2022, largely due to sectors that do not have oil. But the recent growth has had a slight impact on the life of most Angals.

In the report this year, the World Bank estimated that more than a third of the population lives less than $ 2.15 per day.

It states that while the economy was expanding, it was not lagging behind the population growth, which means that on average, people became poor.

As Independence, the plans, including music festivals, presidential medals and a football match to include Argentine Lionel Messi in full swing.

But the student Ms. Combo question the old socialist slogan “One people, one people”, invented during the one-party Marxist regime of the late 1970s.

“It’s just not true that we all share the same reality. There is a huge inequality. Youth in marginalized areas are almost condemned to extraordinary poverty, without quality education and decent work, even when they study hard and earn a degree,” she said.

“These young people think with their stomachs because the hunger leaves nothing to lose. These are those who filled the streets.”

Ms. Combo added that “the authorities should look at the root causes, not just the consequences.”

“The robbery was just how young people paid attention from power.”

She thinks there may be more excitement.

“Since then, before the elections in 2027, we will probably see more protests. We like it or not, political awareness is growing in Angola, and elections are regarded as a decisive moment for real changes.”