Angola's Heroic Queen

Queen Njinga a Mbande was a 17th-century Angolan queen of the Mbundu people in the Ndongo Kingdom, is one of Africa's best documented early-modern rulers and is considered to be a heroine not only in Angola, but across Africa and in the African diaspora.

Historians speak of her as "a legend in her lifetime, who, with her heroics, was able to preserve the sovereignty of the peoples of Angola and because of this she became a symbol in the whole Congo basin."

Njinga first appears in the historical records as the envoy of her brother, the King Ngola Mbande at a peace conference with the Portuguese governor João Correia de Sousa in Luanda in 1622.

The immediate cause of her embassy was her brother's attempt to get the Portuguese to withdraw the fortress of Ambaca that had been built on his land in 1618 by the Governor Mendes de Vasconcelos, to have some of his subjects  who had been taken captive during Governor Mendes de Vasconcelos' campaigns (1617–21) returned and to persuade the governor to stop the marauding of Angolan mercenaries in Portuguese service. Queen Njinga's efforts were successful. The governor, João Correia de Sousa, never gained the advantage at the meeting and agreed to her terms, which resulted in a treaty on equal terms. One important point of disagreement was the question of whether the Ndongo Kingdom surrendered to Portugal and accepted vassalage status.

A famous story says that in her meeting with the Portuguese governor, João Correia de Sousa did not offer a chair to sit on during the negotiations, and, instead, had placed a floor mat for her to sit, which in Mbundu custom was appropriate only for subordinates. The scene was imaginatively reconstructed by the Italian priest Cavazzi and printed as an engraving in his book of 1687. Not willing to accept this degradation she ordered one of her servants to get down on the ground and sat on the servant's back during negotiations. By doing this, she asserted her status was equal to the governor, proving her worth as a brave and confident individual.

Njinga converted to Christianity, possibly in order to strengthen the peace treaty with the Portuguese, and adopted the name Dona Anna de Sousa in honour of the governor's wife when she was baptised, who was also her godmother. She sometimes used this name in her correspondence (or just Anna). The Portuguese never honoured the treaty however, neither withdrawing Ambaca, nor returning the subjects, who they held were slaves captured in war, and they were unable to restrain the mercenaries.

In 1657, weary from the long struggle, Njinga signed another peace treaty with Portugal. After the wars with Portugal ended, she attempted to rebuild her nation, which had been seriously damaged by years of conflict and over-farming. She permitted Capuchin missionaries, first Antonio da Gaeta and the Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo to preach to her people. Both wrote lengthy accounts of her life, kingdom, and strong will.

She devoted her efforts to resettling former slaves and allowing women to bear children. Despite numerous efforts to dethrone her, especially by Kasanje, whose mercenary band settled to her south, Njinga would die a peaceful death at age eighty on 17 December 1663 in Matamba. Matamba went though a civil war in her absence, but Francisco Guterres Ngola Kanini eventually carried on the royal line in the kingdom. Her death accelerated the Portuguese occupation of the interior of South West Africa, fueled by the massive expansion of the Portuguese slave trade. Portugal would not have control of the interior until the 20th century.

Today, she is remembered in Angola for her political and diplomatic acumen, great wit and intelligence, as well as her brilliant military tactics. In time, Portugal and most of Europe would come to respect her. A major street in Luanda is named after her, and a statue of her was placed in Kinaxixi on an impressive square. Angolan women are often married near the statue, especially on Thursdays and Fridays. (TAAG Austral Magazine, Wikipedia)

Remembering January 4 in Angola

Luanda — The Angolan people are celebrating on Friday, January 04, the Colonial Repression Martyrs' Day, with political, cultural and sports activities.

The date is of extreme importance in the context of the struggle for national liberation against colonialism, since it marked the start of an uprising in Baixa do Cassanje against the Portuguese colonial occupation of about 500 years (1482-1975), with devastating human and material consequences.

The Baixa de Casanje revolt is considered the first battle of the Angolan War of Independence and the Portuguese Colonial War.  The uprising began on February 3, 1961 in the region of Baixa do Cassanje, district of Malanje, Portuguese Angola. By February 4, the Portuguese authorities had successfully suppressed the revolt.

On January 3, agricultural workers employed by Cotonang, a Portuguese-Belgium cotton plantation company, staged a protest to force the company to improve their working conditions. The protest, which later became known as the Baixa de Cassanje revolt, was led by two previously unknown Angolans, António Mariano and Kulu-Xingu. During the protest, the Angolan workers burned their identification cards and physically attacked Portuguese traders on the company premises. The protest led to a general uprising, to which Portuguese authorities responded with an air raid on twenty villages in the area, killing large numbers of Angolan villagers. 

After independence from Portugal in 1975, the Angolan government designated February 4 a national holiday, "Colonial Repression Martyrs Day," in 1996 in remembrance of the attack. To the Angolan people, this date continues to inspire different generations of Angolan children in their actions in defence of liberty and well-being. (AllAfrica.com)

Historic City Series: Lobito

The city of Lobito is long considered “the guest room of Angola”. Located on the south-central Angolan coast, in the province of Benguela, it is the city that most resembles Luanda, adorned with a wide bay, where stands the Port of Lobito, and a magnificent tongue of land which penetrates the sea - the famous Restinga ex-libris of the city, which hosts the famous Carnival of Lobito.

The Restinga do Lobito is the most attractive area of the city, with over ten kilometers of white sandy beaches and clear waters, a network of hotels, restaurants and bars, which extends from the Colina da Saudade to Ponto Final, with its towering lighthouse guiding the constant movement of ships towards the country's second port in importance and grandeur, after the one in Luanda.

Categorized as “international first class seaport”, with its mineral pier recently expanded and modernized, it is in line with the Benguela Railway (CFB), for flow of goods into the interior of Angola and neighboring countries - particularly the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, which need it mainly for export of its minerals.

The origin of the name Lobito comes from the word Pitu in Umbundu language, preceded by the particle Olu, which results in Olupitu, which means “door, walkway, passage", which the caravans of porters coming down the hills from the interior, travelled before reaching the “trade square” of Catumbela. With the passage of time, the name changed from Olupitu to Lupitu and, then, was finally translated to Portuguese to Lobito. 

Historical records show that the establishment of the city was prompted by the sea access to the major resources of the area:  produce of the local lime ovens, sea salt and the storage and launching point of human cargo (slaves) for international transaction; already illegal practice but widespread in the world by those who found physical shelter in this harbor and tax evasion”.

Proposals for founding the city of Lobito date back to 1650, addressed to the then Portuguese Overseas Council. Given the importance of the location, in 1842 an Regal ordinance from D. Maria II ordered the change of the administration from the “stagnant and unhealthy Benguela, to the most favorable zone, bounded by hills and low breakwater (sandbank) safe and attractive” of Lobito.

In 1902, the potential of Lobito Bay is recognized, in 1906 the port’s project is elaborated and, in the surrounding region, the design of the first part of the city (shopping today) emerges, made official on September 2nd, 1913, by order of the governor Norton de Matos.


In 1923 begins the construction of the port, opening up to exploration in 1928, and in 1931 the British builders take Benguela’s railway from Lobito to the border with the then Belgian Congo, currently the Democratic Republic of Congo. With the construction of the port and the railway line, Lobito would become the first city in Angola after Luanda, to exceed 100 thousand inhabitants to about 1970. Today, it still retains a remarkable human and urban growth, being of the cities of greater economic development in Angola, with its tourism potential, its cement industry and its factories of equipment for the exploration and production of oil. (TAAG Austral Magazine)

Historic City Series: Huambo

With its public parks, open-fronted villas and pavement cafés, Huambo has been said to feel more European than African. Add the Mediterranean climate and the tree-lined streets and you can see why the Portuguese called the city Nova Lisboa (New Lisbon) after their own capital.

Located in the country’s lush central highlands, among hundreds of thousands of hectares of rich agricultural land and connected to the coast by the Benguela railway, Huambo was once a wealthy and successful city and was even planned to replace Luanda as the country’s capital.

 

Huambo receives its name from Wambu, one of the 14 old Ovimbundu kingdoms of the central Angolan plateau. The Ovimbundus, an old tribe originally arrived from Eastern Africa, had founded their central kingdom of Bailundu early as the 15th century. Wambu was one of the smaller kingdoms and was hierarchically under the king of Bailundu and came of interest through the advent of the construction of the Benguela Railway by the Portuguese. Though the kings of Bailundu and Wambu (particularly Ekuikui II and Katiavala I) opposed the penetration of the railway by ambushing workers and settlers, they were eventually subdued by the Portuguese Army and Huambo was officially founded on 8 August 1912 by Portuguese General José Mendes Norton de Matos.

Huambo was found to be a strategic place for many reasons. A benign climate (greatly due to its high altitude, 1,700m) and the presence of abundant water resources in and around made of it an ideal spot to have a hub on the railway.  A rail system was devised by the British entrepreneur Sir Robert Williams as the easiest and cheapest way to link the rich copper mines of Katanga (Shaba) in Belgian Congo to the Angolan port of Lobito on the coast from which the mineral could be exported; the Lobito bay was admittedly the best natural seaport in the whole continent.

By the 1920s Huambo already was one of the main economic engines of Portuguese Angola. It had some important food processing plants, served as the main exporting point for the Province's considerable agricultural wealth and was also known by its numerous educational facilities, especially the Agricultural Research Institute (currently part of the Faculty of Agricultural Science).

Decades of war, however, stunted Huambo’s ambitions of greatness. The city was a major flashpoint between the ruling MPLA and the rebel group UNITA and it saw some of the worst fighting in the country. Its beautiful buildings were devastated, the countryside peppered with landmines, and hundreds of thousands of people were driven from their homes. 

In Huambo’s heyday during the 1960s, it was known as the “granary” of Angola and a major exporter of products such as beans and maize. The legacy of war and landmines still looms large in the province, however, and the majority of farming is subsistence and small scale. Analysts predict that it will take time to relaunch Huambo as a major agriculture exporter, but in the meantime the city is marketing itself as an eco-city.  Home to the country’s Institute of Agricultural Research and Faculty of Agricultural Science, Huambo is the national leader in environmental matters.

It also has the Casa Ecologia, an environmental study and education venue, and the park in the city center with its Estufa Fria (greenhouse), which is to be redeveloped and expanded to become a base for researching and preserving indigenous plants.

In another reinforcement of its ecological importance, the province has been chosen by the government to
pilot a project aimed at reducing land degradation. The scheme, in partnership with the Global Environment Facility and with input from the United Nations, aims to reduce unsustainable agriculture, stop deforestation, prevent overgrazing and promote better environmental practices, particularly among subsistence farmers.  (Wikipedia,  Sonangol Universo Magazine)

Lubango's 'Feast on the Hill'

Each August 15, the people of the city of Lubango stage the annual Festival Nossa Senhora do Monte (translated "Lady of the Hill").  Tied historically to Catholic religious rituals, the highlight of this annual festival is a procession where up to 10,000 pilgrims share a Catholic mass at the symbolic church of the Nossa Senhora do Monte.

The festival and church building has deep historic roots connected to the Funcal region of the island of Madeira in Portugal.  History states that in 1470 a small chapel was build on a ridge in the mountainside rising behind Funcal.  Initially called the Chapel of Our Lady of the Incarnation, it was reassigned as Our Lady of the Mount some 90 years later.

Legend states that the later name of the chapel was adopted after a great spiritual experience.  Apparently, the daughter of a local shepherd had gone to drink from a spring that emerged from the hillside near the chapel and while there an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared on the rock face. When a new church in Funchal was restored in the early 1800's after a tragic earthquake, the church was officially proclaimed the church of Nossa Senhora do Monte, the Patron Saint of Madeira.

Because of testimonies of answered prayers from the Madeira parishioners, Nossa Senhora Do Monte was and is looked up to even today with the most affectionate veneration by all Roman Catholic mariners and farmers.  She is considered a protectress in all cases of peril and many miraculous interpositions of hers, under circumstances of appalling danger are recounted seriously and devoutly believed.

It was upon these beliefs in 1901 that a group of settlers from Madeira Portugal sought the sponsorship of the erection of Our Lady of Mount west of the village of Sa da Bandeira, named Lubango today.  Having the church situated on a hillside overlooking Lubango, the settlers wanted to perfectly imitate the traditions of their homeland, being able to look up to the church from their homes and fields and contemplate their crops to bless.

While the catholic parishioners faithfully have continued the traditional mass annually on August 15 to this day, several local, Ovimbundu cultural practices were syncretized into the festival.  In earlier times, the festival included bonfires and drumming ceremonies marking the ritual of 'Ekwenje' when boys were circumcised and 'Efiko', the ritual of puberty when girls get ready for marriage.   As these local, cultural celebrations naturally faded away, the festival's celebrations have become modernized to include beauty pageants and car races.

Angola's Giant (Dinosaur)

The first dinosaur found in Angola has been named the Angolatitan adamastor.  Angolatitan means ‘Angolan giant’ and adamastor refers to the mythical sea giant of the South Atlantic feared by Portuguese sailors. The long-necked sauropod was uncovered in 2005 about 70km north of Luanda by Portuguese paleontologist Octávio Mateus from Portugal’s Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Museum of Lourinhã.

Remains of the large plant-eating dinosaur, which was believed to have been 13 metres long and lived 90 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, were found in marine sediments. “These and other fossils tell us an amazing story about the climate and climate change in this part of the world,” says Louis Jacobs from the Southern Methodist University, who is a member of the Mateus PaleoAngola Project team. “In an oilproducing country like Angola, this project helps us to understand the geology of the region and the implications for its richness.”

The detailed description, in which the Angolatitan adamastor officially received its scientific name, was presented in the publication Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências (Annals of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences).

As well as discovering Angola’s first dinosaur, the PaleoAngola team has uncovered mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, turtles and other cretaceous marine animals. The long-term goal of the project is to create a strong and lasting institutional and scientific collaboration with Angolan academia.  (Sonangol Universo Magazine, June 2011)

Angola Slavery Museum: A Monument to a Painful Past of Trade Activity

Situated some 18 kilometers south of the capital city Luanda,  sits the National Museum of Slavery; a monument using the original building that processed the transferral of thousands of slaves.

The Museum consists of the Chapel and adjacent rooms; it is a tiny two-story building that sits on a beautiful cliff facing the ocean and Mussulo Island. The Museum itself is relatively modest, but in spite of its size and simplicity, the message is big: “it is a testament and a reminder of the history of the Angolan people who lived in the day of slavery and it stands as a monument to those who suffered and were affected by slavery.”

This little museum is of great importance in the history of slavery because over a period of two centuries, through its doors, millions of slaves entered it to be baptized before being sent off on their arduous journey to the colonies in the Americas. The bulk of the slaves exported to the new world departed the shores of Luanda and were sent to Bahia, Brazil, with a good number sent directly to the North America and the Caribbean islands.

According to historians, slavery in Angola existed since the early times. But starting in the 16th century the conquest of Portugal's explorers began the founding of settlements and trade ports which mitigated and expanded the major trading activities with the Imbangala and Mbundu tribes.  These tribes were inherently involved in an internal 'African slave trade' and the arrival of the Portuguese precipitated the beginning of the 'Atlantic Slave Trade'.

For several decades, slave trade with the Portuguese colony of Brazil was an important trade avenue in Portuguese Angola, and also an important supplier of workers for the emerging Brazilian agricultural sector.   Historians note that besides the benefit of two Portuguese colonies, the slave trade also benefited the local black merchants and warriors who profited from the trade. In the 17th century, the  Imbangala tribe became the main rivals of the Mbundu in supplying slaves to the Luanda slave processing market. In the 1750's the Portuguese sold 5,000 to 10,000 slaves annually, devastating the Mbundu

Historic City Series: Sumbe

On the South coast of Angola, a few miles from Luanda, is located the splendorous city of Sumbe, capital of the Kwanza-South province.  Sumbe comes from the word, in the national language kimbundo, “Kussumba”, which in Portuguese means “Buy”.

Historians indicate that the location of the city of Sumbe was significant as the city was always a central trade hub. Regular trade items between the peoples of the interior and the coast occured in the trade of salt and fish, as well as the fabrics brought by the Europeans have long served to feed the supply chain.  Significantly, historians note that Sumbe was a major trade port involved in the transfer and sale of black slaves. 

The importance of the place led the Portuguese colonial authorities to think about the founding of a city, also motivated by the “necessity of defense against incursions of English and French pirates and the link between the realms of Luanda and Benguela, as well as the copper mines”.  It was in this region, more precisely in Kicombo, that the Portuguese-Brazilian Salvador Corrêa de Sá e Benevides first anchored his fleet of caravels from Brazil, in 1648, and prepared the expedition which was to expel the Dutch who occupied Luanda.

According to historical data, the foundation of the city beganon January 7, 1768, when Governor Inocêncio de Sousa Coutinho commanded a brigade of engineers to make the choice of where they should establish a prison under the name of Novo Redondo. Its development took place from 1785 with the construction of the first stone fortress; the first church was built in 1811, while the first health services emerged in 1872 through the doctor Francisco Joaquim Vieira.

According to History, Novo Redondo was the first Angolan place to have home lighting, supplied by the hydroelectric dam of Cambongo’s River, later expanded and improved with the current treatment station for 50 years.

The Impact of Protestant Missions on Angola

In their writings, Angolan historians do not understate the important role that Protestant Missions played in Angola's history. In the 19th century, with an growing interest in Angola, western nations made significant contributions and service to the country in efforts to give indigenous populations knowledge and training. Protestant missionaries built churches, schools, hospitals, and invested in agriculture and husbandry, training teachers, stonemasons, carpenters, tailors and nurses among others.

Beginning with the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola (ECCA), this organization's presence dates back to 11 November 1880, when the first American missionaries arrived in Benguela. The head of the mission was 32-year-old Reverend William W. Bagster. He was accompanied by the 25-year-old Reverend William Henry Sanders, and the architect and teacher Samuel Taylor Miller. He was the very first black missionary to come to Angola. Others followed, and they spread throughout the nation, founding missions and contributing in this way to the education and training of countless Angolans. Missionaries built churches, schools and hospitals and instructed people how to till the land and how to raise farm animals. They trained teachers, stonemasons, carpenters, tailors, and nurses. They gave training to church workers, to catechists who gave religious instruction, to deacons, and to both male and female pastors.

The EECA came about with the creation of the Evangelical Missions of Bailundo, Camundongo, Chissamba, Dondi, Chilesso, Elende, Lutamo / Dondi, de Silva Porto, Bunjei, Litoral/Lobito, and Nova Lisboa/Bomba. Over time, the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola was handed over to Angolans to run. 

The EBCA (Evangelical Baptist Church of Angola) is another important religious institution that was set up in Angola many years ago. It was founded in the North of Angola, and the EBCA today has churches in more than half the provinces of Angola, among them Zaire, Uige, Luanda, Cabinda Benguela, Bengo, Huíla, Lunda-Norte, Kwanza-Norte. 
The first missionaries reached the city of Mbanza Congo (formerly São Salvador), in 1878 from Britain. Then, in 1899, the British missionaries founded the Kibokolo Mission and in 1932 the Bembe Mission. The outbreak of hostilities in the war for Independence led to the Portuguese destroying the last two missions. The Mbanza Congo Mission was transformed into a Portuguese military barracks.

Historic City Series: Soyo

Located in the northwest corner of Angola, Soyo is a historic city that well reflects the encounter between peoples of different cultures. It was in this region where the first contacts occurred between the first landed-Europeans and ancient peoples from the Kingdom of Congo in the fifteenth century, precisely at the mouth of the great Zaire or Congo’s river, which traverses the city of Soyo.
Formerly known as Santo António do Zaire, Soyo is a city located in the province of Zaire in Angola and has recently become the largest oil-producing region in the country, with an estimate of 1,200,000 barrels per day.

It was in Soyo at the mouth of the Zaire or Congo’s river, where the Portuguese navigator Diogo Cão docked his caravels in 1482, in the fifteenth century, serving King D. João II of Portugal.  He arrived in the territory that today comprises Angola, having found a well-organized administrative region. Thinking he had reached the extreme point of Africa (originally called the “Cape of Storms”, then Cape of Good Hope), Diogo Cão entered the river and reached M'Banza Congo, capital of the ancient Kingdom of Congo, which, like the Soyo watched the arrival of the Portuguese and later the Christian evangelization.

At the time, Soyo was a province of the Kingdom of Congo, which stretched from Gabon to the mouth of the Kwanza River in the present province of Luanda, which was the one that had the greatest influence among the six that constituted that ancient and powerful kingdom. After some initial suspicion, the people of the region received the Europeans, who left there some evidence of their territorial "discoveries".

And the marks of the past are also present at the nearby port in M'Pinda, where a huge cross marks the first Catholic Mass prayed in Angola. At the base of the cross, says: "From the Cross the Light" and "In Memory of the First Baptizes" (where the first inhabitants of Soyo were baptized in 1491, including Mani-Soyo, uncle and representative of King Nzinga Nkuvo from Congo, who was baptized 'Manuel').

At the time, M'Pinda was an important port of Soyo, where the first product trades such as copper and ivory were made, but then was used to trade slaves. It is estimated that more than 60,000 slaves were sent to S. Tomé and Brazil from M'Pinda; trades that would eventually provoke rebellion against the Portuguese colonists.

A gift of nature geographically adjacent to Soyo is the passage of the Zaire River, the second largest in Africa after the Nile; it is also the second in flow and forms the second largest hydrographic basin in the world. At its present flow levels, it is the seventh largest river in the world and the second in extend of water. It is navigable in Angolan territory to the county of Nóqui, about 80 nautical miles from the city of Soyo, along which inhabit small fishing communities.

The province of Zaire, where Soyo is located has six municipalities, about 600 000 inhabitants and borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The climate is tropical humid, suitable for the production of coffee (which is no longer made), cassava, sweet potato, banana, beans, citrus fruits, peanuts and cashews, among others, as part of a subsistence peasant agriculture. (TAAG Austral Magazine)

Historic City Series: M'Banza-Kongo

M'Banza-Kongo, formerly known as Sao Salvador is the capital of Angola's northwestern Zaire Province . The city was founded some time before the arrival of the Portuguese and was the capital of the historic Kongo Kingdom.  Geographically, its sits on top of an impressive flat-topped mountain, sometimes called Mongo a Kaila (mountain of division) because legends recall that the King created the clans of the kingdom and sent them out from there.

M'banza-Kongo was once the seat of power of the Manikongo, the ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo, from where he would appoint governors for the provinces and receive tribute from neighboring subjects. At its peak, the kingdom reached from southern Africa's Atlantic coast to the Nkisi River up in southern Nigeria; an enormous geographical area some 1,000 miles in length . The Jalankuwo, the Manikongo's judgement tree, can still be found in the downtown area of the city on the grounds of the royal palace and present day Royal Museum.

It is also known for the ruins of its 16th century cathedral (built in 1549), which many Angolans claim is the oldest church in sub-Saharan Africa. The church, known locally as nkulumbimbi, is now said to have been built by angels overnight. It was elevated to the status of cathedral in 1596. Pope John Paul II visited the site during his tour of Angola in 1992.

When the Portuguese arrived in the Kongo region, Mbanza-Kongo was already a large town, perhaps the largest in subequatorial Africa, as certified by Portuguese officials in 1491.   During the reign of King Afonso I of Kongo, stone buildings were added, including a palace and several churches. The town grew substantially as the kingdom of Kongo expanded and an ecclesiastical statement of the 1630s related that 4,000-5,000 baptisms were performed in the city and its immediate hinterland, the surrounding valleys, which is consistent with an overall population of 100,000 people. (Wikipedia:  Mbanza-Kongo)

A video showing the history and scenery of Mbanza-Kongo can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChfecMbl6ug

Cotton Growing Revival: An Interesting Story

Prior to independence in 1975, Angola was one of the largest cotton producers both in Africa and globally. The decimation of the Angolan landscape during the 27 year-long civil war all but destroyed the cotton-growing industry as with most other agricultural industries.

The resurgence in the cotton-growing industry was kickstarted in 2005 by a massive loan agreement of $31.4 million with South Korea's Export-Import Bank to re-launch cotton production in Kwanza Sul province.  The modernization project is only now coming to fruition in 2010 with the completion of construction of irrigation infrastructure for a 5,000 hectare area in the coastal province.  Programs for technical assistance to cotton producers have only recently been ramped up. Though the project will begin in Kwanza Sul Province, it is expected to extend to other traditional cotton producing areas in Malange, Bengo and Benguela provinces and will ultimately employ about 10,000 families.

The initiation and growth of the cotton-growing history in Angola has interesting American roots; from the seeds to missionary involvement - read on! As early as 1820, the Angolan colonial government, ruled by Portugal, tried to promote cotton cultivation by promising to buy all cotton produced in the colony. The raw cotton materials was to be exported to Portugal to supply its burgeoning textile industry.  Under the initiative of the royal government, cotton seeds were acquired from America to distribute to Portuguese farmers in Angola.   

Luanda Video; A Look at Angola's Promising Capital

A missionary friend has directed me to a new, vivid and exciting video about the city of Luanda, the capital of Angola.  Funded and produced by the Angolan Government, this video has a good overview of the country's past history and promotes the progress of the city.  Though the video highlights Luanda's promising future, there are still vast healthcare, infrastructure, social and spiritual needs in the remote south and southeastern parts of the country.  View the video here on this website.  Enjoy!

Angolan Stamps: Telling the Story of the Nation

More than just gummed paper used to confirm postal payment, Angola's postage stamps tell a story about the nation's politics, nation, and culture.  During the 140 years since the first Angolan stamp appeared, the message that the subsequent Angolan governments have wanted to send through the stamps has changed through the transition from monarchy through to empire, to a focus on the heroes, diversity and beauty of an independent and resurging Angolan nation.

The first Angolan stamps were issued in July 1870 displaying a crown, when Angola was a colony of Portugal, which was still a monarchy.   After the fall of the monarchy in 1910, most Angolan stamps showed the head of reigining king, starting with Luis, then Carlos and then Manoel II.

The subsequent political tranistion to independence in 1975, produced stamps that showed the leaders of the revolution and depictions of the struggle for freedom during the civil war.

Rising from a need to satisfy stamp collectors, an increasing number of Angolan stamp issues from the 1990s onward were aimed at supplying specialist collectors.  Some of these stamps showed the unusual birds, moths, butterflies and animals of the nation as well as the celebration of the national arts and crafts that are unique to the land.  (Adapted from the Sonangol 2009 Universo magazine)