How a forgotten hotel is helping transform one of Africa’s most expensive cities

Luanda's Globo Hotel was once one of the city's best. Now, fallen on hard times, it's become an unlikely hub for an art revolution in the city. Griffin Shea Luanda —

The Globo hotel in downtown Luanda hasn’t welcomed guests in ages. The sign and its awnings fell down long ago. Windows are broken. Cracks in the walls are big enough to support plant life.

Half a century ago, it was a different scene. The newly opened Globo was one of the city’s hippest places to stay. Its clean lines and smooth stucco walls were a standout at a time when modernism was starting to shake up the city’s centuries-old Portuguese colonial architecture.

Given its current appearance, those glory days are clearly gone. Luanda’s upscale hotel scene, fueled by the oil money that has made the city one of Afric