Portuguese Angolans

Last updated
Portuguese Angolan
Luso-Angolano
Igreja de Nossa Senhora dos Remedios (19929834976).jpg
The Cathedral of the Holy Saviour in Luanda, built by Portuguese colonists in 1628
Total population
~200,000 (2014) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Luanda, Benguela
Languages
Portuguese, a small minority having some mastery of Kimbundu, Umbundu, Kikongo, and other Bantu languages
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Catholic)
Related ethnic groups
Portuguese people, Portuguese Brazilian, Brazilians, Portuguese Africans

Portuguese Angolans (Portuguese : luso-angolano) 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.

Contents

History

Portuguese Angolan writer Pepetela Arthur Pestana (Pepetela).jpg
Portuguese Angolan writer Pepetela
Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
18451,832—    
19009,198+2.98%
192020,200+4.01%
194044,083+3.98%
195078,826+5.98%
1960172,529+8.15%
1961162,387−5.88%
1970290,000+6.66%
1974335,000+3.67%
197640,000−65.45%
2014200,000 [2] +4.33%
[3]

In 1482, Portuguese caravels commanded by Diogo Cão arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo. Other expeditions followed, and close relations were soon established between the two states. The Portuguese brought firearms and many other technological advances, as well as a new religion (Christianity); in return, the King of the Congo offered plenty of slaves, ivory, and minerals.

The Portuguese colony of Angola was founded in 1575 with the arrival of Paulo Dias de Novais with a hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers. Luanda was granted the status of city in 1605. Many Portuguese settlers married native Africans, resulting in a mixed-race ( mulato , later generally called mestiço) population. Angola was declared a formal Portuguese province in the 19th century, but only in the early 20th century did the mainland government allow large-scale white emigration and settlement to Angola and its other provinces.

In 1960, Angola had up to 172,000 Portuguese settlers, [3] who significantly contributed to its economy. The majority of whom came from rural agrarian backgrounds in Portugal, who saw engaging in commerce in Angola as one of the few means of upward social mobility available to them. [4]

As the Angolan war of independence began in 1961, triggering off a late colonial development of Angola, there was an influx of Portuguese military personnel, as well as civil servants and other people. [5] As a consequence, the number of Portuguese living in Angola went up to about 350,000. [6] This number would have been higher, had a significant part of the settlers not left for other countries, especially Namibia, Brazil, South Africa and the United States. While most Portuguese then living in Angola sided with Portugal's efforts to suppress the anti-colonial revolt, a minority sympathized with the nationalist movements, and a few even joined them in their fight. The Angolan author Pepetela is among these. When the Salazar regime in Portugal was abolished by a military coup in Portugal, in 1974, and independence was granted to the colonies by the new government, whites overwhelmingly left Angola after independence in 1975. Most of them went to Portugal, where they were called retornados and were not always welcomed, while others moved to neighboring Namibia (then a South African territory), South Africa or Brazil, [7] or United States. It is estimated that around 250,000 left the country in 1975 and by 1976 only 30,000 to 40,000 remained in Angola. [8]

Among the departed Portuguese civilians, many were only able to take with them a single suitcase, while some were able to dispatch their household goods and even cars by ship. The majority left everything behind. [9] They boarded planes at Luanda's Craveiro Lopes Airport at the rate of 500 a day[ clarification needed ], but there were not enough flights to cover demand. [10] On arrival in Portugal, those who had been able to draw their savings in Angola could not exchange more than 5,000 Angolan escudos (about US$200) into Portuguese escudos.[ citation needed ] Back in Angola, the new government gave all remaining Portuguese settlers a few months period to choose between Angolan citizenship or to leave the country. A significant minority of them opted for Angola and some of them actively took part in the Angolan Civil War, generally on the side of the MPLA.

After Angola abandoned in 1991 the socialist regime adopted at independence in 1975, many Portuguese Angolans returned to Angola. Due to Angola's economic boom, which started in the 1990s, an increasing number of Portuguese without previous attachment to Angola have migrated to Angola for economic reasons, most importantly the recent national economic boom. [11] As of 2008, Angola was the preferred destination for Portuguese migrants in Africa. [11] Portuguese nationals numbered an estimated 120,000 in 2011, reaching about 200,000 in 2013. [1]

Notable people

Joao Teixeira Pinto Joao Teixeira Pinto 2.JPG
João Teixeira Pinto
Iko Carreira Henrique - Iko - Teles Carreira.png
Iko Carreira

Notable Angolan people of Portuguese descent include:

Language and religion

Their native language is Portuguese, which today is the official language and lingua franca of Angola. Their communities existing in Luanda, Benguela and Moçâmedes spoke until the early 20th-century Portuguese mixed with numerous elements from African languages, especially Kimbundu and Umbundu. In the course of the 20th century, due to the waves of new settlers arriving from Portugal, their language became practically identical with European Portuguese. Some Portuguese Angolans have a lesser or greater mastery of one of the Bantu languages – notably Kimbundu, Umbundu, and Kikongo – but their number has diminished dramatically after independence, and hardly anybody now uses an African language as second languages. The vast majority of Portuguese Angolans are Christians, mostly Catholics, although many of them do not practice their religion. A very small number of them are Jews, whose ancestors escaped the Inquisition.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angola</span> Country on the west coast of Southern Africa

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in both total area and population and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda, that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Angola</span>


Angola was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. In the 15th century, Portuguese colonists began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. After the Angolan War of Independence, which ended in 1974 with an army mutiny and leftist coup in Lisbon, Angola achieved independence in 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola entered a long period of civil war that lasted until 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MPLA</span> Political party in Angola

The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party, is an Angolan social democratic political party. The MPLA fought against the Portuguese Army in the Angolan War of Independence from 1961 to 1974, and defeated the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in the Angolan Civil War. The party has ruled Angola since the country's independence from Portugal in 1975, being the de facto government throughout the civil war and continuing to rule afterwards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Angola</span> Overview of the culture of Angola

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Liberation Front of Angola</span> Political party in Angola

The National Front for the Liberation of Angola is a political party and former militant organisation that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence, under the leadership of Holden Roberto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angolan War of Independence</span> 1961–1974 conflict for independence of colonial Angola from Portugal

The Angolan War of Independence, known as the Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional in Angola, began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton and evolved into a multi-faction struggle for control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola among three nationalist movements and a separatist movement. The war ended when a peaceful coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship and the new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pepetela</span>

Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos is a major Angolan writer of fiction. He writes under the name Pepetela.

José Luandino Vieira is an Angolan writer of short fiction and novels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimbundu</span> Bantu language of northwest Angola

Kimbundu, a Bantu language which has sometimes been called Mbundu or North Mbundu, is the second-most-widely-spoken Bantu language in Angola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Languages of Angola</span> Languages of the country and its peoples

Portuguese is the only official language of Angola, but 46 other languages are spoken in the country, mostly Bantu languages.

Lúcio Rodrigo Leite Barreto de Lara, also known by the pseudonym Tchiweka, was a physicist-mathematician, politician, professor, anti-colonial ideologist and one of the founding members of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). He served as General Secretary of the MPLA during the Angolan War of Independence and Angolan Civil War. Lara, a founding member of the MPLA, led the first MPLA members into Luanda on 8 November 1974. He swore in Agostinho Neto as the first president of the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1992 Angolan general election</span>

General elections were held in Angola on 29 and 30 September 1992 to elect a President and National Assembly, the first time free and multi-party elections had been held in the country. They followed the signing of the Bicesse Accord on 31 May 1991 in an attempt to end the 17-year-long civil war. Voter turnout was 91.3% for the parliamentary election and 91.2% for the presidential election.

Viriato Clemente da Cruz was an Angolan poet and politician, who was born in Kikuvo, Porto Amboim, Portuguese Angola, and died in Beijing, People's Republic of China. He is considered one of the most important Angolan poets of his time. He wrote poems in Portuguese, some of which include phrases in the Angolan Bantu language of Kimbundu. He took part in the political struggle to free Angola from Portuguese rule.

Portuguese Mozambicans are Mozambican-born descendants of Portuguese settlers.

The Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975 in Alvor, Portugal, granted Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November and formally ended the 13-year-long Angolan War of Independence.

Angola in the 1950s transitioned from colonial to provincial status. Angola had the status of a Portuguese colony from 1655 until the Assembly of the Republic passed a law on June 11, 1951, giving all Portuguese colonies provincial status, effective on October 20, 1951. Separatist political organizations advocating Angolan independence formed in the 1950s despite strong resistance from the Portuguese government, leading to the Angolan War of Independence (1961–1975).

Angolanidade is the national identity of Angola. It can also be described as Angolan cultural patriotism. Much of what is today considered angolanidade was created by Angolan intellectuals as a conscious effort to highlight an idealized vision for what it means to be Angolan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constitution of Angola</span> National Constitution of the Republic of Angola

Since its independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has had three constitutions. The first came into force in 1975 as an "interim" measure; the second was approved in a 1992 referendum, and the third one was instituted in 2010.

In the Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984, signed 19 March 1984 in Havana by president José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Fidel Castro, premier of Cuba, the two countries agreed to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola after the withdrawal of South African troops from Angola and Namibia, and after UN-Security Council resolution 435 on Namibian independence was strictly applied.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ganguela</span> Ethnic group in Angola

Ganguela or Nganguela is the name of a small ethnic group living in Angola, but since colonial times the term has been applied to a number of peoples East of the Bié Plateau. In addition to the Nganguela proper, this ethnographic category includes the Lwena (Luena), the Luvale, the Mbunda, the Lwimbi, the Camachi and others.

References

  1. 1 2 "José Eduardo dos Santos diz que trabalhadores portugueses são bem-vindos em Angola". Observatório da Emigração. Retrieved 22 July 2013. …presença de cerca de 200 mil trabalhadores portugueses no país…
  2. ↑ "Observatório da Emigração".
  3. 1 2 Bender, Gerald J. (1978-01-01). Angola Under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality. University of California Press. p.  228. ISBN   9780520032217.
  4. ↑ Bender, Gerald J. (1978-01-01). Angola Under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality. University of California Press. p.  233. ISBN   9780520032217.
  5. ↑ Contrary to the settlers which often had lived in Angola for two or even three generations, the Portuguese arriving during the last phase of colonial occupation did not become identified with Angola.
  6. ↑ Gerald J.Bender & P. Stanley Yoder, "Whites in Angola on the Eve of Independence", Africa Today', 21 (4) 1974, pp. 23 - 37
  7. ↑ Portuguese Immigration (History) Archived 2012-05-16 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ Bender, Gerald J. (1978-01-01). Angola Under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality. University of California Press. p.  236. ISBN   9780520032217.
  9. ↑ Kutemba (19 October 2008). "Angola: Sobre a alegria e tristeza de ser um retornado". Global Voices. International. Retrieved 21 October 2015.
  10. ↑ "MOZAMBIQUE: Dismantling the Portuguese Empire". Time. 1975-07-07. ISSN   0040-781X. Archived from the original on April 30, 2009. Retrieved 2017-07-24.
  11. 1 2 , Radio Televisão Portuguesa, September 13, 2008
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.