Angola's Malanje Province: a tourism bonanza waiting for investment

Angola's Malanje Province: a tourism bonanza waiting for investment
By Chris Burns
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From a spectacular waterfall which rivals Victoria Falls to parkland with the majestic Giant Sable Antelope, Angola’s Malanje Province has plenty to offer tourists and investors alike.

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From a spectacular waterfall that rivals Victoria Falls to parkland with amazing wildlife, Angola’s Malanje Province has plenty to offer tourists and investors alike.

Thundering down more than 100 metres, the Kalandula Falls is one example of the natural beauty in Malanje Province, which could be a tourism goldmine with the right investment.

Tilson Machado came to Kalandula Falls as a child, and it was terrifying for him.

Now a computer engineering professor in Malanje, he´s back to show off Kalandula to his friends, colleagues and family from the capital Luanda.

“I´m feeling the power of nature,” Machado says. “And nature is amazing.”

Also amazing is the tourism potential, says Francisco Faísca, owner of Pousada Das Quedas, the lone hotel at the site. He says the more competition, the better.

“It would be worthwhile for other investors to invest in the area, so that there be a real a tourist destination, so that we had instead of one hotel, two, three, four, five hotels.”

Malanje Province also has Cangandala National Park and the Luando Nature Reserve, aimed at saving the Giant Sable Antelope from extinction.

It's another national symbol that adorns Angola´s airliners and is proudly worn by its football teams.

Pedro Vaz Pinto has spent 16 years tracking what the Angolans call the Palanca Negra, of which only a few hundred are left.

“I can see Cangandala has a huge potential for mass tourism, because I think it is of critical importance to make the Giant Sable available for schoolchildren, available for decision-makers and for tourists in general.

“It´s got large rivers, it's got hippopotamuses, it´s got a lion population, and also Giant Sable. It also has a huge potential for a different type of tourism, a tourist that is prepared spend a week, tracking the animals.”

Michel Amon is a French resident from Luanda who brought his family over from Europe to see Malanje Province.

He describes Kalandula Falls as “quite simply magnificent”.

“They are like a lot of sites in Angola – there are very beautiful places here,” he said.

The Kwanza River Rapids outside Malanje city is another place with vast tourism potential, as is the new hydroelectric Lauca Dam and reservoir on the Kwanza River.

As deep as 150 metres, it’s more than 30 kilometres long and perfect for a range of water-based activities.

“Our tourist potential is very strong in relation to the fauna and flora, and it’s totally unspoilt,” says Mono Katusevana, Construction Supervisor at Lauca Dam. “They can water ski, they can climb, climb our mountains, they can do sport fishing.”

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