Angola--part: Zaire, Uige, Luanda, Bengo, Cuanza-Norte,¹ Cuanza-Sul² and Malanje Provinces; Ascension (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland)

How is the land laid out?

This area of northwestern Angola comprises 310 thousand square kilometers. Along the Atlantic coast is a plain. Beyond it is a plateau whose center is above 1,000 meters. Along the very northwest is the mouth of the Congo³ River. Its tributary, the Cuango,⁴ flows along the area's northeast. The Cuanza⁵ system is the most important one draining the west side of the plateau, including southern Malanje. There are several other coast-flowing rivers.

Tourists, at least the more adventurous ones, visit Qiuçama⁶ National Park in Bengo Province, Cangandala National Park in Malanje Province and the Black Stones of Pungo Andongo in Malanje Province.⁷

This area also includes a volcanic British island in the mid-Atlantic: Ascension, west of the mid-Atlantic Ridge.

Map

Who lives there?

Almost seven million live here. About two in three speak Mbundu⁸ as a home language. About three in 20, mostly in Cuanza-Sul, speak Umbundu.⁹ More than one in 20 speak Kongo,¹⁰ mostly in Zaire Province. Many learn Portuguese, especially in cities.

As a national generality, Christianity is the religion of a slight majority of Angolans. It is stronger near the coast, especially in the north. Catholicism is strongest among the Kongo, still strong among the (North) Mbundu, and weaker among the Umbundu. Besides Protestantism, a 20th century messianic variant of Christianity, Kimbanguism, locally called Mtokoism, is important to some, especially among Umbundu.

Local traditional religion typically includes a deus otiosus, equated by Christians to their one god. The older beliefs recognize ancestral and place-centered spirits as important in explaining events, good and ill. And may people in difficulty consult specialists in understanding the supernatural, most commonly called kimbanda. Typically traditional people believe that there are witches or sorcerors, although the distinction varies.

Locally, the Kongo recognize Nzambi Mpungu as high god, and nganga as specialists in the supernatural. A role of the former Umbundu monarchs included communicating with the spirit realm.¹¹

Luanda is the only large city.

Historically M'banza-Kongo¹² was the most important at the time the Portuguese arrived but today it has just 31 thousand people.¹³ UNESCO honors the old ruins, both indiginous and early Portuguese, as a World Heritage Site.¹⁴ It is located in the eastern part of Zaire Province in the northeast part of this area.

Who was there before?

Bantu languages moved into the area in the last two millenium, although they may have been near the mouth of the Congo earlier. Analysis of Umbundu indicates it developed on top of an earlier Bantu language or languages that were related to those now spoken further south. The later Bantu languages are presumed to be from the last millenium.

The Portuguese arrived starting in the 15th century C.E., and introduced Roman Catholic Christianity. During the 20th century, other Europeans and Americans introduced Protestantism, and later Communist aetheism. Simon Mtoko¹⁶ in 1949 established the Our Lord Jesus Christ Church in the World, modelled after the Kimbanguist Church of what was then Belgian Congo.¹⁷

Around the Area

north and northeast
east
south
west

Footnotes

1. Norte means North.
2. Sul means South.
3. Also called the Zaire (Portuguese) and Zaïre (French) River, although this more properly applies to its middle course. It is Africa's second longest river, the world's eighth.
4. Spelled Kwango in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
5. Spelled Kwanza in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
6. Or Kissama.
7. https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-to-visit-in-angola/, accessed June 7, 2018.
8. Also called Luanda Mbundu or North Mbundu or Kimbundu or Quimbundu or Ndongo.
9. Umbundu could also be called Mbundu, so it is sometimes called South Mbundu or Benguella Mbundu. Its speakers are the OviMbundu, formerly also called the Mambari.
10. The São Salvador dialect.
11. Source for this paragraph: Lawrence W. Henderson, Angola (Cornell Univ., 1979).
12. Also called M'banza or formerly Ambessi or São Salvador.
13. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_and_towns_in_Angola, accessed June 8, 2018.
14. https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1511, accessed June 7, 2018.
15. Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), "Cities of Africa." The name in this source for 1400 was Ambessi, and for 1500 was São Salvador. In 1400 the population was greater than Zimbabwe, which had 35 thousand residents. The city was the largest in what is now northwestern Angola in both 1400 and 1500. Elsewhere in this book Chandler states that the city was declining fast in 1596 and was deserted in 1690.
16. Or Simão Toco.
17. Congo belge in French; Belgisch-Congo in Dutch.