2023-08-29 16:58:00
Urban centers in Africa usually mean chaos, noise, loud music. Horns on blocked streets, hip-hop in the crowded slums. Mountains of rubbish complete the picture, leaky water pipes and bad air.
In Kilamba, Africa seems to have slipped away. At least at first glance. Compliant skyscrapers, some as high as seven stories, are spread over an area of 30 square kilometers. Wide streets cut through them at an accurate right angle. Trees everywhere, parks that are watered early in the morning, and babies in strollers that are taken for walks. The mood is peaceful, the air clear, you can even hear the chirping of the birds.
Legend: Roselaide Rodriguez likes it in her apartment in Kilamba. SRF
Roselaide Rodriguez puts her keys on the table in front of a huge mirror and makes herself comfortable on a stylish couch in her apartment. The 38-year-old lived in the capital Luanda, 30 kilometers away, until six years ago. “It was loud, hectic there and often there was neither water nor electricity. Here, however, we do not have this problem. It’s also wonderfully quiet, the air is fresh and you feel free,” says Roselaide Rodriguez.
Social housing for over 100,000 people
One might think that the woman belongs to the wealthy people in Angola – but that is not the case. She pays CHF 130 a month rent for the five-room apartment. With that she might at most rent a one-room apartment in Luanda.
Kilamba was designed as a city with social housing when it opened in 2011, but at that time an apartment cost around 300,000 francs. Hardly anyone might afford that, and the satellite town stood empty for years and was considered a so-called white elephant – a typical example of a housing project built by China that cost a lot but didn’t work.
Legend: More than 100,000 people now live in Kilamba. SRF
But then the government lowered prices by up to 40 percent and made it possible for the apartments to be paid off over 30 years – and that’s why Kilamba, once designed for around 200,000 people, is now home to more than 100,000 .
Kilamba – an urban revolution
Lidiu Daio from the Angolan architecture firm Power2build describes Kilamba as an urban and social revolution. “The 20,000 homes in Kilamba were built in just five years, that alone is incredible. Thanks to the possibility of paying off an apartment over 30 years, many young people can now realize their dream of owning their own home. And there will be more and more boys like that,” he explains in his office.
Legend: The architecture firm Power2build built the first houses with a 3D printer in Africa. SRF/Christine Karrer
Power2build itself is pursuing an urban revolution in Africa. It built the first house in Africa with a 3D printer and sees the future in this technology. While it’s still expensive, Lidiu Daio admits while showing off the bright orange prototype, if a lot of houses were built like this, it would become financially attractive. Now that the Chinese are no longer the sole rulers when it comes to building infrastructure projects, he hopes that Angolan companies will increasingly get a chance.
We urgently need new cities. Because our population is one of the fastest growing in Africa.
“We urgently need new cities. Because our population is one of the fastest growing in Africa. But I see the future more in lower houses, a maximum of three floors, with urban gardens to also guarantee food security,” says the young architect, outlining his vision. And, he adds: built with solid structures, with high-quality materials. Because Kilamba, as visionary as the city is, has major structural defects.
Kilamba – the decay
The skyscrapers of Kilamba only look perfect from afar. Anyone who stands on a balcony on the seventh floor feels uncomfortable. Because a deep crack runs along the anchorage. And almost all the houses have water damage – they don’t look like 10-year-old buildings, but as if they’ve had to withstand 50 years of rainstorms.
Legend: The damage to the facades of the buildings is omnipresent. SRF
In Roselaide Rodrigues’ block of flats, the modern electronic lift looks like a 1960s model, and the wallpaper in the hallway of her ground-floor apartment is constantly peeling. Nobody cares regarding that here, she says. You have to repair this damage yourself.
“I would never want to live on the top floor, that would be too risky for me. Certain balconies may no longer be entered and part of a street has already collapsed,” she explains with a certain resignation to fate.
1 / 2
Legend: No sense of security: On the balcony, a deep crack runs along the anchorage. SRF
2 / 2
Legend: There is also major damage around the lift. SRF
Many still like to live in Kilamba
The twins, who buy ice cream in Kilamba from an ice cream seller who offers his goods on a bicycle and loudspeakers, also know regarding the damage. Nevertheless, they like it in Kilamba.
“It’s great here. Much safer than in the slum where we lived before,” says one and his brother adds: “There is everything here, schools, shops, a police station, a hospital and then there are also cool parties at the weekend.” That’s correct. There is almost everything it takes for Kilamba to be not just a dormitory settlement but a town. That’s why so many like to live here.
1 / 2
Caption: Drone image of a market near Kilamba. SRF
2 / 2
Legend: street vendors in Kilamba. SRF
There is also loud music and unpaved roads in case anyone misses that in the quiet green oasis. On the outskirts of Kilamba, the government made an area available on favorable terms for anyone who wants to open a restaurant, a clothes stand or a beauty salon. This is where Roselaide Rodrigues drives from her apartment via Uber to prepare tasty fish dishes in her simple restaurant.
Legend: Roselaide Rodrigues’ Restaurant is a popular meeting place. SRF
And this is where young people from near and far gather. They hold court smoking shisha in the bars, just as they do in the slums or the capital they left.
But it’s still not the future. Roselaide Rodrigues: «Well, following ten years the houses are falling apart. Will they survive another ten years? Let’s see. A lot can happen in ten years.”
From the China-Angola deal to diversification
Open box Close box
Caption: Carlos Suares is Professor of International Relations at the University of Luanda and an expert on Angolan-China relations. SRF
In 2002, Angola, a former Portuguese colony, was desperately looking for international financiers to rebuild the devastated country following years of brutal civil war.
Carlos Suares is Professor of International Relations at the University of Luanda and an expert on Angolan-China relations. In 2002, the government at the time convened a donors’ conference, but no Western nation wanted to lend money to Angola at the time. “The government was considered corrupt, opaque, not democratic. Nobody wanted to risk the money ending up in their hands – and as it later turned out, that was exactly the case. But China didn’t care.”
China invested around 40 billion Swiss francs in Angola between 2000 and 2020, making the country the largest recipient of Chinese loans in Africa. The deal was for Angola to use oil revenues to pay off the debt. Thanks to the fourth largest oil reserves in Africa, this was not a problem for Angola for a long time until oil prices fell and other reasons such as the Covid 19 pandemic plunged the country into recession.
“Angola clearly lost out in the deal with China,” says Carlos Suares. But that’s not just China’s fault. On the one hand, the government at the time allowed all infrastructure projects to be built exclusively by China – from the workers to the machines – and on the other hand, the government enriched itself by using inferior building materials at inflated prices. “Today we have the highest debt in Africa and an infrastructure that is already collapsing,” summarizes Suares.
But not all hope is lost. Angola is in the process of renegotiating the debt with China and is no longer putting all its cards on China, but is in talks with the EU and the USA.
1693339906
#Chinas #influence #Angola #Kilamba #China #built #Africas #largest #testtube #city #News
