President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, in power since 1979, made a campaign pledge in 2008 to develop a million homes in four years. The country won independence from Portugal in 1975 and then suffered through a bloody, 27 –year civil war that ended in 2002, leaving no middle class, only the very rich and very poor. The units in Kilamba cost between $70,000 and $190,000. “Yes, it’s a nice place for sure…people like us don’t have money like that to be able to live here.”Ħ6% of Angolans live on less than $2 a day. Jack Francisco, a Kilamba street sweeper, agreed. And there is no work for my parents here.” He laughed, however, when Redvers asked him if he and his family would live there.
She interviewed one student who said, “I really like this place…It’s very quiet, much calmer than the other city, there’s no criminality.” Students were being bused to the school since no children actually lived in Kilamba. She eventually came across what she described as a “tiny pocket of life” - a school. Louise Redvers reported for the BBC from Kilamba in 2012, stating that she did not see many people aside from Chinese workers. The attractive and bright buildings suggested a vibrancy not supported by the reality of the city. However, in 2012 international news outlets reported that the city remained a 12,255 acre ghost town, largely uninhabited and eerily devoid of signs of life, commerce, or community.
Kilamba took less than three years and $3.5 billion to construct and is perhaps the biggest African building project in recent years. The city is Kilamba, built by the state –owned China International Trust and Investment Corporation to house over half a million Angolans. KILAMBA, Angola- Eighteen miles outside of Angola’s capital, Luanda, sits a residential development with 750 eight –story apartment buildings, schools, and storefronts.