Ovimbundu Kingdoms
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Ovimbundu Kingdoms
The Ovimbundu, also known as the Southern Mbundu, are a Bantu ethnic group who live on the Bié Plateau of central Angola and in the coastal strip west of these highlands. As the largest ethnic group in Angola, they make up 38 percent of the country's population. Overwhelmingly the Ovimbundu follow Christianity, mainly the ''Igreja Evangélica Congregacional de Angola (IECA)'', founded by American missionaries, and the Catholic Church. However, some still retain beliefs and practices from African traditional religions. History The origins of the Ovimbundu are Bantu populations who drifted in from the North, over the last millennium, and formed local/regional groups which slowly became political units and foci of social identity: M'Balundu, Sele, Wambo, Bieno and others. They developed a sophisticated agriculture, completed by the breeding of small animals (chicken, goats, swine) as well as of a modicum of cows bought from the farmer-herders to the South ( Nyaneka-Nkhumbi, O ...
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Umbundu
Umbundu, or South Mbundu (autonym ''úmbúndú''), one of many Bantu languages, is the most widely-spoken autochthonous language of Angola. Its speakers are known as ''Ovimbundu'' and are an ethnic group constituting a third of Angola's population. Their homeland is the Central Highlands of Angola and the coastal region west of these highlands, including the cities of Benguela and Lobito. Because of recent internal migration, there are now also large communities in the capital Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ... and its surrounding province, as well as in Lubango. Phonology Consonants Vowels Tone Umbundu has two tones: low and high. The first acute accent (á) in a word represents a high tone. The low tone is represented by a grave accent (à) ...
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Mbunda People
The Mbunda or Vambunda (singular ''Kambunda'', adjective and language ''Mbunda'', ''Mbúùnda'' or ''Chimbúùnda'') are a Bantu people who, during the Bantu migrations, came from the north to south-eastern Angola and finally Barotseland, now part of Zambia. Their core is at present found in the south-east of Angola from the Lunguevungu river in Moxico to the Cuando Cubango Province. The Vambunda comprise a number of subgroups, each of which speaks its own dialect: Mbunda Mathzi (''Katavola''), Yauma, Nkangala, Mbalango, Sango, Shamuka (''Chiyengele'') and Ndundu, all of them alive in southeast Angola.Bantu-Languages.com
citing Maniacky 1997


Origins

According to the oral tradition of the Vambunda, the first monarch of the

Battle Of The Cunene
The battle of the Cunene river took place between Portuguese colonial forces and Ovambo warriors from Oukwanyama and Cuamato in modern-day Angola on 25 September 1904. The defeat was one of the heaviest defeats in Portuguese colonial history since Alcácer Quibir (1578) and is comparable to the British defeat at Isandhlwana against the Zulus (1879), the Italian defeats at Dogali (1887) and at Adwa (1896) against the Ethiopians or the Spanish defeats at Melilla (1909) and at Annual (1921) against the Rif. After having subdued the Nkhumbi people, Portuguese troops advanced from Huila southward into territories which were just claimed by Portugal but not yet under control. At Cunene River they were confronted with the resistance of two Ovambo people The Ovambo people (), also called Aawambo, Ambo, Aawambo (Ndonga, Nghandjera, Kwambi, Kwaluudhi, Kolonghadhi, Mbalantu, mbadja), or Ovawambo (Kwanyama), are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa, primar ...
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Lubango
Lubango, formerly known as Sá da Bandeira, is a municipality in Angola, capital of the Huíla Province, with a population of 914,456 in 2022. The city center had a population of 600,751 in 2014 making it the second-most populous city in Angola after the capital city Luanda. History Portuguese rule In 1882 approximately one thousand Portuguese settlers came from the island of Madeira to the area of current-day Lubango. These Portuguese farmers helped develop the region and founded the settlement. The city, originally established in 1885 to serve colonists from the Madeira Islands, lies at an elevation of 1,760 metres in a valley of the Huíla Plateau and was surrounded by a scenic park spreading up the mountain slopes. By 1910 there were over 1,700 ethnic Portuguese living in the settlement, which was referred to as "Lubango". By 1923 the Moçâmedes Railway had connected the settlement to the town of Moçâmedes in the coast. The Portuguese government made it a city and r ...
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Luanda
Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport, and also the capital of the Luanda Province. Luanda and its metropolitan area is the most populous Portuguese-speaking capital city in the world and the most populous Lusophone city outside Brazil. In 2020 the population reached more than 8.3 million inhabitants (a third of Angola's population). Among the oldest colonial cities of Africa, Luanda was founded in January 1576 as ''São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda'' by Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais, being occasionally called "Leonda" or "St Paul de Leonda" by non-Portuguese sources. The city served as the centre of the Slavery in Angola, slave trade to Brazil before the institution was prohibited. At the start of the Angolan Civil W ...
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Lobito
Lobito is a municipality in Angola. It is located in Benguela Province, on the Atlantic Coast north of the Catumbela Estuary. The Lobito municipality had a population of 393,079 in 2014. History The city was founded in 1843 and owes its existence to the bay of the same name having been chosen as the sea terminus of the Benguela railway to the far interior, passing through Luau to Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The city is located on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The population of the municipality is 393,079 (2014) in an area of 3,648 km². The municipality consists of the communes Canjala, Egipto Praia and Lobito. Portuguese rule Lobito, was built on a sandspit and reclaimed land, with one of Africa's finest natural harbours, protected by a 5 km long sandspit. The old municipality (''concelho'') was created in 1843 by the Portuguese administration. The town was also founded in 1843 by order of Maria II of Portugal, and its harbour works wer ...
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Huambo
Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa (English language, English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous List of cities and towns in Angola, city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a population of 713,134 in the municipality of Huambo (Census 2014). The city is the capital of the province of Huambo Province, Huambo and is located about 220 km E from Benguela and 600 km SE from Luanda. Huambo is a main hub on the ''Caminho de Ferro de Benguela (CFB)'' (the Benguela Railway), which runs from the port of Lobito to the Democratic Republic of the Congo's southernmost province, Katanga Province, Katanga. Huambo is served by the Albano Machado Airport (formerly Nova Lisboa Airport). History Early history Huambo receives its name from Wambu, one of the 14 old Ovimbundu kingdoms of the central Angolan plateau. The Ovimbundu, an ethnic group that originally arrived from East Africa, Eastern Africa, had founded their ...
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Jonas Savimbi
Jonas Malheiro Sidónio Sakaita Savimbi (; 3 August 1934 – 22 February 2002) was an Angolan revolutionary, politician, and rebel military leader who founded and led the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( UNITA). UNITA was one of several groups which waged a guerrilla war against Portuguese colonial rule from 1966 to 1974. Once independence was achieved, it then became an anti-communist group which confronted the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) during the Angolan Civil War. Savimbi had extensive contact with anti-communist activists in the United States, including Jack Abramoff and was one of the leading anti-communist voices in the world. Savimbi was killed in a clash with government troops in 2002. Early life Jonas Malheiro Sidónio Sakaita Savimbi was born in Munhango, Bié Province, a small town on the Benguela Railway, and raised in Chilesso, in the same province. Savimbi's father, Lote, was a stationmaster on Angola's ...
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Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War () was a civil war in Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. It was a power struggle between two former anti-colonial guerrilla movements, the communist MPLA, People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the anti-communist UNITA, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The MPLA and UNITA had different roots in Angolan society and mutually incompatible leaderships, despite their shared aim of ending colonial rule. A third movement, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), having fought the MPLA with UNITA during the Angolan War of Independence, played almost no role in the Civil War. Additionally, the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), an association of separatist militant groups, fought for the independence of the province of Cabinda (province), Cabinda from Angola. ...
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MPLA
The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (, abbr. MPLA), from 1977–1990 called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan social democratic political party. The MPLA fought against the Portuguese Army in the Angolan War of Independence from 1961 to 1974, and defeated the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in the Angolan Civil War. The party has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975, being the ''de facto'' government throughout the civil war and continuing to rule afterwards. Formation The articulation for the founding of the MPLA took place, mainly, within two political organizations: the Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUAA), founded in 1953 by Viriato da Cruz and Matias Miguéis, which operated incipiently until 1954 due to a lack of mass mobilization, being overshadowed by other anti-colo ...
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UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in the Angolan War of Independence, Angolan War for Independence (1961–1975) and then against the MPLA in the ensuing Angolan Civil War, civil war (1975–2002). The war was one of the most prominent Cold War proxy wars, with UNITA receiving military aid initially from the China, People's Republic of China from 1966 until October 1975 and later from the United States and History of South Africa#Apartheid era (1948–1994), apartheid South Africa while the MPLA received material and technical support from the Soviet Union and its allies, especially Cuba. Until 1996, UNITA was Blood diamond#Angola, funded through Angolan diamond mines in both Lunda Norte Province, Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul Province, Lunda Sul alo ...
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