Total population | |
---|---|
1,400 (1930) | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Benguela, Moçâmedes, Calulo, Luanda | |
Languages | |
German, Portuguese | |
Religion | |
Christianity | |
Related ethnic groups | |
German Brazilians, German Namibians, German South Africans, Afrikaners |
German Angolans are the descendants of German settlers in the nation of Angola.
German immigrants to Portuguese Angola started to appear in the mid-19th century. They took part in the founding and initial growth of the coastal city of Moçâmedes in the 1850s.
More German immigrants came to Angola in the 20th century, with about 1,400 immigrating between 1915 and 1930. After Angolan independence and the subsequent civil war that occurred, most German Angolans left the county for Europe (both Germany & Portugal, depending on their choice), though some families remain, mainly in the town of Calulo, as well as the capital, Luanda. [1] Other German Angolans left for Namibia, which was a German territory and where the remaining colonial German population lives and Portuguese and black Angolan refugees also left for, & others along with Portuguese settlers and black Angolans left for Portuguese-speaking country of Brazil, where there is a visible presence of German population & culture and where the largest German population outside Germany lives.
Until 1975, there was a German-language school in Benguela called the Deutsche Schule Benguela. [2]
The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990.
The culture of Angola is influenced by the Portuguese. Portugal occupied the coastal enclave Luanda, and later also Benguela, since the 16th/17th centuries, and expanded into the territory of what is now Angola in the 19th/20th centuries, ruling it until 1975. Both countries share prevailing cultural aspects: the Portuguese language and Roman Catholicism. However, present-day Angolan culture is mostly native Bantu, which was mixed with Portuguese culture. The diverse ethnic communities with their own cultural traits, traditions and native languages or dialects include the Ovimbundu, Ambundu, Bakongo, Chokwe, Avambo and other peoples.
Benguela is a province of Angola, situated in the west of the country. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean, and borders the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Namibe, Huila, and Huambo. The province has an area of 39,826 square kilometres (15,377 sq mi) and its capital is Benguela. According to the 2014 census, there were 2,231,385 inhabitants in the province. The current governor of Benguela is Isaac dos Anjos.
Huíla is a province of Angola. It has an area of 79,023 square kilometres (30,511 sq mi) and a population of 2,497,422. Lubango is the capital of the province. Basket-making is a significant industry in the province; many make baskets out of reeds.
Swakopmund is a city on the coast of western Namibia, 352 km (219 mi) west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo administrative district. As of 2011, the town had 44,725 inhabitants and 196 km2 (76 sq mi) of land. In 2023, the population had increased to 75,921 people.
Benguela is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census.
Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos is a major Angolan writer of fiction. He writes under the name Pepetela.
The Brazil socio-geographic division is a slightly different division than the Brazilian Division by Regions. It separates the country into three different and distinctive regions:
The African independence movements took place in the 20th century, when a wave of struggles for independence in European-ruled African territories were witnessed.
António Francisco Ferreira da Silva Porto was a Portuguese trader and explorer in Angola, in the Portuguese West Africa.
Cape Cross is a headland in the South Atlantic in Skeleton Coast, western Namibia.
Portuguese Angolans are citizens of Angola who are either descended from Portuguese people or Portuguese emigrants permanently living in Angola. The number of Portuguese Angolans precipitously dropped during and immediately after the Angolan War of Independence, but several hundreds of thousands have either returned or emigrated to live in Angola. As of 2022, they make up approximately 0.6% of Angola's population.
The colonial history of Angola is usually considered to run from the appearance of the Portuguese under Diogo Cão in 1482 (Congo) or 1484 until the independence of Angola in November 1975. Settlement did not begin until Novais's establishment of São Paulo de Loanda (Luanda) in 1575, however, and the Portuguese government only formally incorporated Angola as a colony in 1655 or on May 12, 1886.
Slavery in Angola existed since the late 15th century when Portugal established contacts with the peoples living in what is the Northwest of the present country, and founded several trade posts on the coast. A number of those peoples, like the Imbangala and the Mbundu, were active slave traders for centuries. In the late 16th century, Kingdom of Portugal's explorers founded the fortified settlement of Luanda, and later on minor trade posts and forts on the Cuanza River as well as on the Atlantic coast southwards until Benguela. The main component of their trading activities consisted in a heavy involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Slave trafficking was abolished in 1836 by the Portuguese authorities.
The Bailundo revolt was an insurrection launched by the Ovimbundu kingdom of Bailundo and its allies against the Portuguese Empire. The revolt was prompted by the sudden decline of the price of root rubber, pitting the indigenous population against European immigrants and aboriginal loyalists. The revolt lasted between 1902 and 1904, ending in a Portuguese victory.
White Africans of European ancestry refers to citizens or residents in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. They are distinguished from indigenous North African people who are sometimes identified as white but not European. In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent.
Angolan Americans are an ethnic group of Americans of Angolan descent or Angolan immigrants. According to estimates, by the year 2000 there were 1,642 people descended from Angolan immigrants in the United States. However, the number of Angolan Americans is difficult to determine. Many African-Americans are descendants of Angolan enslaved people. In 1644, most of the 6,900 slaves bought on the African coast to clear the forests, lay roads, build houses and public buildings, and grow food came from the established stations in Angola.
In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1972), and the State of Angola of the Portuguese Empire (1972–1975). It became the independent Angola in 1975.
White Angolans are descendants of European colonial populations, most significantly from Portugal. The vast majority of white settlers in Angola have been of Portuguese ancestry, both in colonial days and today. Germans and Afrikaners settled in southern parts of Angola, with Germans concentrated in Moçamedes and Benguela and Afrikaners concentrated in Huíla Province. Most Afrikaners and Germans left for Namibia and South Africa by 1975. Until 1975 there was a German-language school in Benguela called the Deutsche Schule Benguela. Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, and White Brazilians also make up the population.
The recorded history of the Jews in Angola stretches from the Middle Ages to modern times. A very small community of Jews lives in Angola mostly in the capital city of Luanda with a handful scattered elsewhere of mixed origins and backgrounds. There are also a number of transitory Israeli businesspeople living in Angola.