It has been suggested that Luanda Sul be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since March 2012.

Coordinates: 8°50′18″S 13°14′04″E / 8.83833°S 13.23444°E / -8.83833; 13.23444

Luanda São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda
—  City  —
View of Luanda bay from Ilha de Luanda, June 2008
Luanda Location of Luanda in Angola
Coordinates: 8°50′18″S 13°14′4″E / 8.83833°S 13.23444°E / -8.83833; 13.23444
Country	Angola
Capital	Luanda
Founded	1575
Elevation	6 m (20 ft)
Population (2011)
• City	5,172,900
• Metro	8,523,282
Time zone	+1

Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of over 5 million. It is also the capital city of Luanda Province, and the world's third most populous Portuguese-speaking city, behind only São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, both in Brazil.

The city is currently undergoing a major reconstruction, with many large developments taking place that will alter the cityscape significantly. Luanda was ranked the most expensive city to live in for expatriates by Mercer, for 2011.^[1]

History[link]

Portuguese rule[link]

A map of Luanda in the early 1700's.

Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda on 25 January 1576 as "São Paulo da Assumpção de Loanda", with a hundred families of settlers and four hundred soldiers. In 1618 the Portuguese built the fortress called Fortaleza São Pedro da Barra, and they subsequently built two more: Fortaleza de São Miguel (1634) and Forte de São Francisco do Penedo (1765-6). Of these, the Fortaleza de São Miguel is the best preserved.^[2]

Luanda was Portugal's bridgehead from 1627, except during the Dutch rule of Luanda, from 1640 to 1648, as Fort Aardenburgh. The city served as the centre of slave trade to Brazil from c.1550 to 1836.^[3] The slave trade was conducted mostly with the Portuguese colony of Brazil; Brazilian ships were the most numerous in the port of Luanda. This slave trade also involved local merchants and warriors who profited from the trade.^[4] During this period, no large scale territorial conquest was intended by the Portuguese; only a few minor settlements were established in the immediate hinterland of Luanda, some on the last stretch of the Kwanza River.

The centre of Luanda in 1883.

In the 17th century, the Imbangala became the main rivals of the Mbundu in supplying slaves to the Luanda market. In the 1750s between 5,000 to 10,000 slaves were annually sold.^[5] By this time, Angola, a Portuguese colony, was in fact like a colony of Brazil, paradoxically another Portuguese colony. A strong degree of Brazilian influence was noted in Luanda until the Independence of Brazil in 1822. In the 19th century, still under Portuguese rule, Luanda experienced a major economic revolution. The slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1844 Angola's ports were opened to foreign shipping. By 1850, Luanda was one of the greatest and most developed Portuguese cities in the vast Portuguese Empire outside Mainland Portugal, full of trading companies, exporting (together with Benguela) palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products. Maize, tobacco, dried meat and cassava flour also began to be produced locally. The Angolan bourgeoisie was born by this time.^{[citation needed]}

In 1889 Governor Brito Capelo opened the gates of an aqueduct which supplied the city with water, a formerly scarce resource, laying the foundation for major growth. Like most of Portuguese Angola, the cosmopolitan^[6] city of Luanda was not affected by the Portuguese Colonial War (1961–1974); economic growth and development in the entire region reached record highs during this period. In 1972 a report called Luanda the "Paris of Africa". Throughout Portugal's Estado Novo period, Luanda grew from a town of 61,208 with 14.6% of those inhabitants being white in 1940, to a wealthy cosmopolitan major city of 475,328 in 1970 with 124,814 Europeans (26.3%) and around 50,000 mixed race inhabitants.^[7][8]

The National Bank of Angola, a monument of Portuguese colonial architecture.

Independence from Portugal[link]

By the time of Angolan independence in 1975, Luanda was a modern city. The majority of its population was African, but it was dominated by a strong minority of white Portuguese origin. After the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon on April 25, 1974, with the advent of independence and the start of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), most of the white Portuguese Luandans left as refugees,^[9] principally for Portugal, with many travelling overland to South Africa. There was an immediate crisis, because the local African population lacked the skills and knowledge needed to run the city and maintain its well-developed infrastructure. The large numbers of skilled technicians among the force of Cuban soldiers sent in to support the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government in the Angolan Civil War were able to make a valuable contribution to restoring and maintaining basic services in the city. However, in the following years, slums called musseques - which had existed for decades - began to grow out of proportion and stretched for miles beyond Luanda's former city limits, as a result of the decades-long civil war, and because of the rise of deep social inequalities due to large-scale migration of civil war refugees from other Angolan regions. For decades, Luanda's facilities were not adequately expanded to handle this massive increase in the city's population. After 2002, with the end of the civil war and high economic growth rates fuelled by the wealth provided by the increasing oil and diamond production, major reconstruction started.^[10]

Geography[link]

Human Geography[link]

An aerial view of Luanda

Salvador Correia Secondary School, Luanda

Luanda is divided into two parts, the Baixa de Luanda (lower Luanda, the old city) and the Cidade Alta (upper city or the new part). The Baixa de Luanda is situated next to the port, and has narrow streets and old colonial buildings.^[11] However, massive new constructions have by now covered large areas beyond these traditional limit, and a number of previously independent nuclei - like Viana - were incorporated into the city.

Town subdivisions[link]

Luanda is divided into 9 districts, the so-called "municípios":

• Município de Cazenga
• Município de Ingombota
• Município de Kilamba Kiaxi
• Município de Maianga
• Município de Rangel
• Município de Samba
• Município de Sambizanga
• Município de Cacuaco
• Município de Viana

A completely new satellite city, called Luanda Sul has been built. In Camama, Zango and Kilamba Kiaxi more high-rise developments are to be built. The capital Luanda is growing constantly - and in addition, increasingly beyond the official city limits and even provincial boundaries.

Luanda is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop. It is also the location of most of Angola's educational institutions, including the private Catholic University of Angola and the public University of Agostinho Neto. It is also the home of the colonial Governor's Palace and the Estádio da Cidadela (the "Citadel Stadium"), Angola's main stadium, with a total seating capacity of 60,000.^[12]

Climate[link]

Under the Köppen climate classification, Luanda features a hot semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh). The climate is hot and humid but surprisingly dry, owing to the cool Benguela Current, which prevents moisture from easily condensing into rain. Frequent fog prevents temperatures from falling at night even during the completely dry months from June to October. Luanda has an annual rainfall of 323 millimetres (12.7 in), but the variability is among the highest in the world, with a co-efficient of variation above 40 percent.^[13] Observed records since 1858 range from 55 millimetres (2.2 in) in 1958 to 851 millimetres (33.5 in) in 1916. The short rainy season in March and April depends on a northerly counter current bringing moisture to the city: it has been shown clearly that weakness in the Benguela current can increase rainfall about sixfold compared with years when that current is strong.^[14][15]

Demographics[link]

Luanda's Cathedral - Most of Luanda is Roman Catholic.

The inhabitants of Luanda are primarily members of African ethnic groups, mainly Ambundu, the Ovimbundu and the Bakongo. The official and the most widely used language is Portuguese, although several Bantu- languages are also used, chiefly Kimbundu, Umbundu, and Kikongo. There is a sizable minority population of European origin, especially Portuguese, as well as Brazilians and other Latin Americans. Over the last decades, a significant Chinese community has formed, as has a (much smaller) Vietnamese community.^{[citation needed]} There is a sprinkling of immigrants from other African countries including a small expatriate South African community. Many people of Luanda are of mixed race - European/Portuguese and native African. In recent few years immigration from Portugal has increased due to Portuguese poor economic situation.

The population of Luanda has exploded in recent years, due in large part to war-time migration to the city, which is safe compared to the rest of the country.^[17] However, Luanda has recently seen an increase in violent crime, particularly in the shanty towns that surround the colonial urban core.^[18]

Economy[link]

Around one-third of Angolans live in Luanda, 53% of whom live in poverty. Living conditions in Luanda are poor for most of the people, with essential services such as safe drinking water and electricity still in short supply, and severe shortcomings in traffic conditions.^[19] On the other hand, luxury constructions for the benefit of the wealthy minority are booming. Luanda is one of the world's most expensive cities for overseas foreigners.^[20] Manufacturing includes processed foods, beverages, textiles, cement and other building materials, plastic products, metalware, cigarettes, and shoes/clothes. Petroleum (found in nearby off-shore deposits) is refined in the city, although this facility was repeatedly damaged during the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002). Luanda has an excellent natural harbour; the chief exports are coffee, cotton, sugar, diamonds, iron, and salt. The city also has a thriving building industry, an effect of the nationwide economic boom experienced since 2002, when political stability returned with the end of the civil war. Economic growth is largely supported by oil extraction activities, although massive diversification is taking place. Large investment (domestic and international), along with strong economic growth, has dramatically increased construction of all economic sectors in the city of Luanda.^[21]

Transportation[link]

The Malange Railway Station.

Luanda is the starting point of the Luanda railway that goes due east to Malanje. The civil war left the railway non-functional, but the railway has been rehabilitated up to Dondo and Malanje.^[22]

The main airport of Luanda is Quatro de Fevereiro Airport, which is the largest in the country. Currently, a new international airport, Angola International Airport is under construction southeast of the city, a few miles beyond Viana, which was expected to be opened in 2011.^[23] However, as the Angolan government did not continue to make the payments due to the Chinese enterprise in charge of the construction, the firm has suspended its work in 2010.

The port of Luanda serves as the largest port of Angola, and connects Angola to the rest of the world. Major expansion of this port is also taking place, with the completion of a new complex just last year, the port is expanding rapidly.^[24]

Luanda's roads are in a poor state of repair, but are currently undergoing a massive reconstruction process by the government in order to relieve traffic congestion in the city. Major road repairs can be found taking place in nearly every neighborhood, including a major 6-lane highway connected Luanda to Viana, which is nearing partial completion in October.^[25]

Public transit is provided by the suburban services of the Luanda Railway, by the public company TCUL, and by a large fleet of privately owned collective taxis as white-blue painted minibuses called Candongueiro. There is also a private bus company TURA working routes in Luanda.

Renewal and enlargement[link]

Luanda's reborn wealth has helped in the conservation of its historic sites, like the Fort of São Miguel of Loanda.

Angola is forecast to be one of the world's fastest growing economies,^[21] and it has been undergoing massive renewal and enlargement. The central government allocates funds to all regions of the country, but the capital region receives the bulk of these funds. Since the end of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), stability has been widespread in the country, and major reconstruction has been going on since 2002 in those parts of the country which have been damaged by the civil war. Luanda has been of major concern because its population had multiplied and had far outgrown the capacities of the city, especially because much of its infrastructure (water, electricity, roads etc.) had become obsolete and degraded.

Construction in Luanda was booming during late colonial rule and is once again booming.

Reconstruction in Luanda has been felt in nearly all aspects of society. Major road rehabilitation, including road widening, application of asphalt, and re-routing efforts are all currently being done throughout Luanda. The Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht have been constructing two six-lane highways. One highway will provide speedy access to Cacuaco, Viana, Samba, and the Kilamba Kiaxi district of Luanda to the new airport of Luanda.^[26] The other highway will connect the city center of Luanda to Viana, and was expected to be completed by the end of 2008.^[26] Both ventures are, however, still under way in 2011.

Major social housing is also being constructed to house those who reside in slums, which dominate the landscape of Luanda. A large Chinese firm has been given a contract to construct the majority of replacement housing in Luanda.^[27] The Angolan minister of health recently stated poverty in Angola will be overcome by an increase in jobs and the housing of every citizen.^[28]

Twin towns — Sister cities[link]

Luanda is twinned with:

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Luanda

• Portal da Cidade de Luanda
• www.cidadeluanda.com - Luanda, city map, History, Photos

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