English In December, the new president relieved Attorney-General João Maria de Sousa of his duties, a job he had held for a decade. João Maria de Sousa is no stranger to the media fraternity, having been the focus of a number of investigative pieces by activist and journalist Rafael Marques that resulted in a number of long-running court battles. The latest of these is still running its course, a case in which Rafael Marques and Mariano Brás are accused of crimen injuria against a public authority and insulting an institution of sovereignty. Journalist Eduardo Gito began a campaign for the immediate absolution of the two co-accused. Also in December, João Lourenço restructured the boards of a number of public enterprises in other sectors. Lourenço has taken other steps towards reform, including granting a temporary amnesty to rich Angolans willing to repatriate their fortunes from abroad. He threatened to take legal action against those who won’t comply. Nobody knows exactly how much money the elite is hiding outside the country, but Angolan economists have estimated the amount of money outside the country at $28 billion, which amounts to more than the country’s international reserves. All in all, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that Angola can look forward to positive change, especially in terms of media freedom and freedom of expression. As a case in point, in November, Luaty Beirão, the activist who in 2015 was arrested and sentenced to jail together with 14 others in Luanda after organising a reading of an adaptation of American academic Gene Sharp’s 1993 book From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation launched a book recounting his ordeal in prison. In an interview, Beirão said that one could “see more freedom”. The 18 So This is Democracy? 2017 book launch was held at a hotel in Luanda and went off without any hitch.