Why do angolans

Since the rubber grew inland large parts of the population moved inland to harvest and sell it to European traders. The larger population dense villages and cities, which had been the main source of power for the Kongo nobility and royalty, disappeared [lxiv]. Mobility had always been an essential part of Kongolese society, and people could pack down entire houses and move on short notice [lxv].

By most of the Kingdom of Kongo was now made up of small decentralised trading villages [lxvi]. During the Berlin Conference of — the European powers decided that Portugal would take most of what remained of the Kingdom of Kongo, and Belgium would take the rest.

For Portugal to claim their part they had to occupy it as well however [lxvii]. Portugal had limited military success against the Kingdom of Kongo in the past, and they need an alternative route to conquest. This was a great mistake as it allowed the Portuguese to effectively take control of the capital city. This effectively ended the independence of the Kingdom of Kongo, and by the early s the Kingdom was integrated into the Portuguese colony of Angola [lxxi].

At its height the Kingdom of Ndongo was one of the largest states in central Africa, although it was smaller than the neighbouring Kingdom of Kongo [lxxii].

The Ndongo Kingdom was established by the Mbundu people who occupied large areas of present day Angola. The Kingdom was ruled by the Ngola, which acted as a monarch and ruling figurehead. It is from the Ngola title that the contemporary state of Angola would derive its name [lxxiii].

The Kingdom started out as a vassal state to the Kingdom of Kongo, but broke free in the early s. The Ngola who ruled the Kingdom of Ndongo would be appointed after an election process where in which various members of the ruling dynasty was considered to be next king [lxxiv]. From the Kingdom of Kongo and the Kingdom of Ndongo was embroiled in a series of conflicts [lxxv].

The Ngola, who ruled the Kingdom of Ngongo, sent an envoy to establish an embassy in Portugal in [lxxvi]. The envoy would, however, only reach Lisbon in [lxxvii]. It is speculated that Ngola was seeking further help from the Portuguese to protect his Kingdom from invading Imbangala forces from the east [lxxviii]. In the Portuguese sent an official mission to the Kingdom of Ndongo [lxxix]. Yet the Portuguese was helping the Kingdom of Ndongo as early as , as King Afonso I of the Kingdom of Kongo, complained about this assistance in a letter to the King of Portugal sent in [lxxx].

The conflicts which followed would lead to a large amount of people in both kingdoms being captured, enslaved and sold to the Portuguese, by the opposing party and sometimes sold by their own families who had been impoverished by the war.

Similarly to Kongo the slave trade would eventually destabilise the Kingdom of Ndongo and corrode the legitimacy of the Ngolas. After the s, and with the end of their war with Kongo, the Kingdom of Ndongo came into greater interaction with the Portuguese Empire.

In the period between and Portugal sent several missionaries to the Ndongo in attempts to set up a Catholic church in the Kingdom. In the Portuguese set up its first modern colony on what would later become the colony of Angola [lxxxii]. The first outpost was set up on the island of Luanda and it would be a starting point for a long lasting conflict between the Ndongo and the Portuguese.

From to Portugal was in constant war with the Kingdom of Ndongo in an effort to conquer more land and acquire slaves [lxxxiii]. Njinga was the brother of Ngola Mbandi who ruled the Kingdom of Ndongo in the s. In she and her brother travelled to Luanda to negotiate a peace treaty with the Portuguese living there [lxxxiv]. Njinga would stay with Portuguese for several months and was eventually baptised Ana de Sousa by the local missionaries. In her brother died and Njinga was elected queen of the Ndongo by the eligible electors in the royal court [lxxxv].

Queen Njinga's rivals within the royal court joined with the Portuguese and attempted to take power in the Kingdom of Ndongo. In an effort to fight her enemies she looked from one of the many Imbangala warrior bands who was roaming the area at the time.

She became the head of one of the band and between and she personally led many of the following battles against the Portuguese [lxxxvi]. In war was raging between the Dutch and the Portueguese and both the Kingdoms of Kongo and Ndongo allied with the Dutch in an effort to drive out the Portuguese from Angola.

The alliance almost managed to drive the Portuguese completely out of Central Africa. The Dutch conquered Luanda and blocked most of the Portuguese outposts and colonies on the African coast. The Dutch capitulated and Queen Njinga fled to the state of Matamba and continued her resistance against the Portuguese from there. By Njinga had been in constant war and battles for more than 25 years. Most of her life had been dedicated to fighting the Portuguese invaders.

Italian illustrations from From to she negotiated a peace treaty with the Portuguese through a series of letter exchanges [lxxxviii]. Ndongo captives, including Njinga's sister, where returned from the Portuguese. In return Njinga returned to the Catholic Church, gave up her many male consorts, and got married in a Catholic ceremony [lxxxix].

It was during the life of Njinga that the Colony of Angola became a major hub for the trans-Atlantic slave trade. It was in essence this expansion of the slave trade and against Portuguese slave raiders which she fought. Although after the war Queen Njinga also engaged in the slave trade and sold captured people to the Portuguese [xc]. Queen Njinga died of natural causes in In the Portuguese would again go to war against the Kingdom of Ndongo. On November 29, , the Portuguese forces captured the fortress of Pungu-a-Ndongo effectively ending the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Ndongo and beginning its integration into the Colony of Angola [xci].

In the late s and early s the Lunda people, also known as the Imbangala, came to Angola as refugees fleeing from the expanding Luba of Katanga [xcii]. Stories from Angola tells that the refugees was led by a man named Kinguri-kya-Bangela. The refugees organised the Lunda state, or what is also known as the Imbangala Kingdom, and then began to expand their influence [xciii].

Several expedition forces left the Lunda capital and went out to set up new villages and settlements in the north-eastern part of present-day-Angola. In this sense the Lunda state was in actuality a series of smaller states and kingdoms with different leadership who occasionally worked together.

These separate states and kingdoms were connected by a tribute and exchange sphere, and could be described as a commonwealth [xciv]. The most famous of the Lunda states was the Kingdom of Kasanje which was founded either in [xcv] or in [xcvi]. The Lunda chief, Kasanje-Ka-Kulashingo, and the group he led was first absorbed into a Jaga band and then they conquered land belonging to the Pende.

After this the Kasanje engaged in several battles with the Ndongo Kingdom. As stated above the Ndongo Kingdom was the largest of the Mbundu polities. After allying with several dissatisfied Mbundu chiefs, Kasanje defeated the Mbundu, and established the Kasanje Kingdom [xcvii]. He then met the Portuguese colonists who had settle on the island called Luanda [xcviii].

Kasanje treated with the Portuguese and in exchange for various gifts he invited them to settle on the mainland of Angola. He rejected the Portuguese offer of becoming a subject to the Kingdom of Portugal however [xcix]. The Kasanje Kingdom reached its hight in the s. It was then a prosperous kingdom and a centre of trade [c].

The Kasanje Kingdom would remain strong until the s when it was slowly corroded by the increasing slave trade and a general decentralisation of power [ci]. Another powerful Lunda polity emerged in central Angola during the early s. After the Gando state, in the central highlands of Angola, was occupied by the Portuguese in , the original rulers of the state allied with Lunda forces [cii]. Together the new coalition swore to drive the Portuguese into the sea, and in they attacked the Portuguese fort in Caconda [ciii].

They never managed to take back the fortress, but the coalition halted all Portuguese advances in the area [civ]. The coalition then set up several states which remained independent in peaceful times, but who exchanged military support, weapons and tribute in times of war [cv].

The Lunda states began their decline in by the early s. The slave trade was decimating local populations and caused internal conflict. The states had also relied on much of their power as a dominant trading power in the area, and various Lunda states had often mediated trade between European and African states [cvi]. This dominant position of trade was by the s taken over by other more recently formed political formations in the area.

The abolition of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the rise of trade in rubber and ivory would also reduce the power of more centralised and densely populated states.

In addition to this the Lunda states experienced an influx of migrants from the north, called the Chokwe [cvii]. Using gunpowder based weapons, and by utilising internal conflicts in the Lunda states, the Chokwe subjugated most of the Lunda states in Angola. By the Chokwe dominated all the areas in Angola which had previously been controlled by various Lunda states. By the s the Ovimbundu people had settled in the central highlands of Angola and formed about 22 different kingdoms who had various degrees of autonomy and cooperation with each other [cviii].

This was then, and remains now, one of the most densely populated areas Angola. The subjects of the Ovimbundu kingdoms shared a common language as they were all Umbundu speakers.

Cingolo, an Ovimbundu kingdom. Illustration made in The Ovimbundu Kingdoms had, by , commercial ties with many of the other peoples living in Angola, as well as the Portuguese colony in the western part of the country [cix]. It was with the help of the Portuguese that many of the Ovimbundu kings had managed to seize power sometimes in the s. This created a special bond between the Ovimbundu and the Portuguese. The Portuguese were reluctant to invade the Ovimbundu as they more of a commercial and political interest in keeping them independent [cx].

Several of the Ovimbundu kings were engaged in slave raids and provided much of the slaves who were sold to the Portuguese. This cooperation with the Portuguese aided the Ovimbundu in keeping political autonomy for much longer than most of their neighbouring peoples [cxi].

It should be mentioned as well that the Portuguese were also hesitant of conquering to far inland in Central Africa. So while northern neighbours such as the Ndongo were being incorporated into the Colony of Angola, the Ovimbundu retained a large degree of political autonomy. The end of the trans-Atlantic slave trade in the s and 40s would be disastrous for the Ovimbundu political elite [cxiii]. The elites had made themselves a necessity when the slave trade became such a dominant part of the economy.

To capture slaves one needed large and organised raiding parties. These larger armed forced could mostly be organised and maintained by more centralised state institutions. This meant that the kings and the nobility held a tight control of the most important commercial and economic activity in the Kingdoms.

With the end of the slave trade their control and power waned. This was also the case in other Kingdoms in the area such as the Kingdom of Kongo. The Ovimbundu now also owned hundreds of thousands of slaves which were of non-Ovimbundu origins.

They would normally had been sold to the Portuguese, but now they had to be integrated into Ovimbundu society. This sudden influx of such a large amount of freed slaves caused a mass disruption of the existing social structures.

This erosion of the central authority of the kings and Portugal no longer needing the Ovimbundu for the slave trade, made them very vulnerable to colonial occupation [cxiv]. Between and the Portuguese conquered all of the Ovimbundu kingdoms and incorporated them into the Colony of Angola. It began with the missionaries in the Kingdom of Kongo in the s and the establishment of colony of Luanda in In the beginning the Portuguese were mostly interested in slave trade.

They conquered the coastal areas which could serve as slave trading hubs. Luanda was the biggest of these, but another large colonial hub was the city of Benguela which was established in [cxv].

The Portuguese would then either do slaving raids into the country from these coastal fortresses or rely on local inland rulers to sell them slaves who had been captured during local conflicts. At most Portuguese colonial settlements in inland Angola was limited to trade posts and missionary stations.

A European trade post in Angola. The slave trade was a source of enrichment for some of the local nobility, but it would eventually lead to the destabilisation and demise of some of the largest Kingdoms in pre-colonial Angola [cxvi].

For those kingdoms, like the Ovimbundu, who prospered from the slave trade the abolition of the trade in would create internal turmoil and make them vulnerable to conquest. Nevertheless, there are discrepancies between the sexes as women still have a much lower literacy rate, lower wages and less influence in politics than men. Working relationships in Angola Personal relationships are vital in Angola as Angolans prefer to do business with people they know and trust.

Before going into business, take time to get to know your Angolan counterparts. It is viewed as very offensive to most Angolans if the proper respect for an elder is not shown, especially in more rural areas. Food is often served in a communal bowl, especially during traditional meals. The eldest in the group is the first one to take food from the bowl. Part 2 — Doing Business in Angola: Business practices in Angola Titles are important and should be used to show respect to those with authority and credentials.

Greetings are very important in Angola so always spend time during the greeting process. Initial introductions in Angolan business are formal. Handshakes are generally exchanged before and after business meetings, but the grip is generally softer than those used in the western world.

Business attire tends to be casual in Angola. Men usually wear lightweight suits and women often wear long skirts. Dress well as it shows respect to your Angolan counterparts. Initial meetings are about establishing personal rapport and developing mutual trust, two vital elements in Angolan business culture. At this stage, judgments are made before any further business negotiations are conducted.

Relationship building and networking are paramount to secure long term business success in Angola. Currently the project has:. Identified and registered more than , beneficiaries representing Purchased personal protective equipment, bio-security and diagnostic materials, and the operationalization of the logistical response which included contact-tracing and field-based training.

The project also envisages to develop a system for systematic student assessment. To date, the project has:. Established pedagogical influencing zones ZIP in the project implementation areas. A ZIP model creates a school network in which schools share and collaborate with each other in their day-to-day work to deliver high quality education. Each ZIP comprises six to seven primary schools which are within a radio not exceeding 10 kilometers and are led by a coordinator who has been trained by the project to act as trainer of trainers.

The project has covered four out of the six modules planned for the training program. In these modules, a total of nearly 15, teachers have been trained on methodology of teaching Portuguese language, mathematics, pedagogical supervision, assessment in the classroom and pedagogical differentiation. Supported the creation and strengthening of six new water supply utilities that are providing household services to more than , new customers. A new regulator and a new water resources management institution have similarly been created with project support and are carrying out their mandates.

The project:. During the third phase of the project, 1, pieces of community infrastructure were constructed and rehabilitated in all 18 provinces of the country, enabling about 2.

Mechanisms and practices for participatory governance systems have been established, in which local governments are increasingly more accountable to their constituencies. The Market Oriented Smallholder Agriculture Development Project MOSAP supports beneficiaries by providing training and new technologies, improving their organizational and marketing skills, and improving their access to extension services and agricultural inputs.

It has also:. The Portuguese first landed in what is today northern Angola in , encountering the Kingdom of the Congo stretching from modern-day Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal area by a series of treaties and wars throughout the 16th century, and their interest in Angola quickly turned to the slave trade.

Many scholars agree that by the 19th century, Angola was the largest source of slaves for the Americas. Portugal eventually secured administrative control over the interior in the beginning of the 20th century.

As post-World War II decolonization progressed elsewhere in Africa, Portugal continued to treat its African colonies as overseas provinces.