President João Lourenço wants to put Angola on the world map on the country’s 50th anniversary of independence. Luanda and the Washington-based Corporate Council on Africa are ironing out the details around next year’s US-Africa Business Summit, The Africa Report has learned.

While neither the council nor Lourenço’s office would confirm the negotiations, sources on opposite sides of the Atlantic confirm that the southern African nation is the designated choice.

The Angolan leader’s interest in hosting the US private sector has been apparent since he attended this year’s business forum in Dallas, one of just five African heads of state at the May event. Botswana hosted the previous US-Africa Business Summit on the continent in July 2023, which included a significant US government delegation led by Scott Nathan, CEO of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

The timing makes a great deal of sense. One of the last African countries to free itself from colonial rule in 1975 – followed by a 27-year civil war – Angola will celebrate a half-century of independence from Portugal next year.

Simultaneously, the oil-rich country of 38 million is in line to preside over the African Union in 2025 after occupying the first vice-presidency spot earlier this year.

“To be head of the AU, [with] 50 years of independence, [and to be] welcoming the Corporate Council on Africa – this is a significant milestone in this country’s journey,” says Witney Schneidman, a former deputy assistant secretary of state with deep connections to Angola.

Transformation of the bilateral relationship

Angola has been steadily growing closer to the US since Lourenço succeeded long-time autocrat José Eduardo dos Santos in 2017. Eager to court Western investment while retaining cordial historic ties to China and Russia, Lourenço has made a point of cracking down on the rampant corruption that flourished under his predecessor.

The overtures worked. President Joe Biden hosted Lourenço at the White House in November 2023. And a bevvy of senior US officials visited Luanda over the past couple of years, including Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Samantha Power.

“This meeting caps off a truly historic year of engagement and partnership with Angola that coincides with the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties with the US,” a senior administration official told reporters during Lourenço’s visit. “It is a profound transformation in our relationship.”

The rapprochement with the former socialist state has seen Angola join US-backed initiatives such as the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation as well as the Artemis Accords that guide civil space exploration and use.

Most significantly, the country is drawing considerable US government funding including a record $900m loan from the Export-Import Bank of the United States for the construction of two solar photovoltaic power plants – the largest such US investment in renewable energy in Africa – and hundreds of millions more for the development of the Western-backed Lobito rail corridor linking Angola’s eponymous Atlantic Coast port to mines in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“Our relationship is stronger, it’s more consequential, it’s farther-reaching than at any point in our 30-year friendship,” Blinken said at a 25 January press conference with Foreign Minister Téte António. “At this transformational moment, President Biden asked me to come to Luanda to help build on and accelerate our progress.”

Eyes wide open regarding ‘draconian’ rule of law

While Angolans largely welcome the deepening ties, some activists are warning the US not to turn a blind eye to persistent issues including human rights abuses and lingering corruption.

“My main concern is that … civil society space is closing, in particular during the second mandate of President Lourenço [since 2022],” says Florindo Chivucute, the founder and executive director of Friends of Angola, a Washington-based non-profit. “I think President Lourenço felt emboldened after the meeting with President Biden.”

The result has been several “draconian” draft laws, Chivucute says, including one regulating non-governmental organisations and another that Human Rights Watch says threatens “freedom of the press, expression and association” in the name of national security.

Now the US government and private sector have a chance to set the record straight about their expectations regarding the rule of law in Angola, he says.

“I’m glad [to see] the US strengthen its relationship with Angola,” Chivucute says. “We do advocate for [the US] to do business with countries like Angola so they can … compete with the Chinese model that doesn’t help us because it is extremely opaque, with no regard for democracy and no regard for human rights.”