Lubango

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Lubango is the capital city of the Angolan province of Huíla.

1 Economy
2 History
3 Transport
4 Interesting facts

[edit] Economy

Lubango's economy is based on agriculture, especially meat products, cereals, sisal, tobacco, fruits and vegetables produced in the surrounding fertile region. Food processing, leather tanning, and consumer goods industries dominate the industrial sector.

[edit] History

Lubango was known as Sá da Bandeira during the Portuguese colonial period.

The very fertile area attracted 55 Boer families of Transvaal (the Dorslandtrekkers) at the beginning of the 1880s. They developed the land and obtained the Portuguese nationality. Because the Portuguese authorities refused to give them the property of the land, 45 of these families moved to German South-West Africa, were they settled in the area of Grootfontein. In 1882 around 1000 settlers came from the impoverished Portuguese island of Madeira. These Portuguese farmers thrived and their subsistence farming consisting of mostly sweet potatoes was very successful. By 1910 there were over 1700 Madeirans living in the settlement that was referred to as Lubango. By 1923 the Moçâmedes Railway had connected the settlement to the coast and the Portuguese made it an official city and renamed it Sá da Bandeira. Because the local semi-nomadic Nhaneka-Humbe people refused to live in the city, Sá da Bandeira was the only city in Angola with a white majority before Independence. After Angola's Independence the city was once again renamed Lubango.

During the Angolan Civil War, Lubango served as a major base of Cuban and government troops. In 2001, A chartered Sociedade de Aviacao Ligeira Beechcraft 1900 crashes into a mountain while attempting to land at Lubango. All but one of the 17 onboard perished.

[edit] Transport

Lubango is the site of a major airport (Lubango Airport IATA code:SDD) and headquarters a regiment of fighter bombers regiment of the Angolan Air Force. The town is served by the southern line of the Benguela railway.

[edit] Interesting facts

Some Basters (children of African and Cape Colony Dutch descent) emigrated from Namibia to Angola and settled in Lubango, where they are known as the Ouivamo, although many of them were forced to return to Namibia between 1928 and 1930 by white South Africans.
Marco Abreu, of the Angola national football team was born in Lubango in 1974.