Lubango
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Lubango is the capital city of the Angolan province of Huíla. It's last known population was 100,757.
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[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 (known as Sá da Bandeira during the Portuguese colonial period) was first settled when fertile land attracted fifty-five Boer families (the Dorslandtrekkers) from Transvaal in the early 1880s. These settlers developed the land and obtained Portuguese citizenship.
When the Portuguese authorities refused to give them ownership of the land, forty-five of these families moved to German South-West Africa, where they settled in the area of Grootfontein.
In 1882 approximately one thousand 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. The Portuguese government 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, SWAPO and government troops.
In 2001, A chartered Sociedade de Aviacao Ligeira Beechcraft 1900 crashed into a mountain while attempting to land at Lubango. All but one of the seventeen people on board perished.
[edit] Transport
Lubango is the site of a major airport (Lubango Airport IATA code:SDD) and headquarters for a fighter bomber regiment of the Angolan Air Force.
The town is served by the southern line of the Benguela railway. It is the junction for the branch railway to Chiange.
[edit] Interesting facts
- Several 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. 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.
[edit] References
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