Malanje (also Malange) is the capital city of Malanje Province in Angola with a population of approximately 222,000. Nearby is the spectacular Calandula waterfalls, 85 km from the city. These falls are 105 metres high and their great width makes them the main tourist attraction in the region. It is a breathtaking sight. Pedras Negras de Pungo Andongo are massive black rocks. The greatest dam in the country is in Malanje, in the municipality of Capanda. The climate is mainly humid, with average temperatures between 20 and 24°C and rainfall 900 mm to 130 mm in the rainy season (October to April).

Portuguese settlers founded Malanje in the 19th century. The construction of the railway from Luanda to Malanje, in the fertile highlands, started in 1885. The environs of Malanje included the principal cotton-producing area of Portuguese West Africa and drove its development since the beginning. The town developed in the mid-19th century as an important feira (open-air market) on Portuguese Angola's principal plateau, between Luanda — the territory's capital and largest city, 250 miles (400 km) to the west — and the Cuango valley, inhabited by Northern Mbundu peoples, 125 miles (200 km) to the east. Situated at an elevation of 4,373 feet (1,333 metres), the town had a high-altitude tropical climate, ideal to several agricultural productions. The city developed as an important agricultural, manufacturing, trading and services centre. Its productions included cotton, textiles, coffee, fruit and corn, and among its facilities it had cinema, hospital, railway station and airport. The Cangandala National Park, was established by the Portuguese authorities on 25 June 1970, having previously been classified as an Integral Natural Reserve on 25 May 1963.