Benguela

Benguela. Its magic lies on a long story that goes back to the years 1601s when the first portuguese disembarked at Cow’s Bay, drawn by a supposedly animal abundance.

Driven by the legends about the existence of rich mines of silver and copper Manuel Cerveira Pereira founded São Filipe de Benguela, on the 17th May 1617 which would eventually become an important to Angola’s inland and a big centre for traffic of salves.

In the mid-20th century, the small capital was overcome by the city of Lobito, due to its more favourable portuary conditions. There was an increase on in the trade of merchandise brought on by the colonies. The small amount of dry fish and the salt produced by the village were a great contribution to those comercial trades with products that came from the highlands such as cereals, rubber, sisal, castor oil, yucca, ivory objects, and cattle, among others.

 Benguela began to be considered as the most important port, second to Luanda. It was the arrival and departure point of the big comercial caravans that established the comercial trades It was a new beginning and new cities and villages began to emerge. The Benguela myth of “City mother of cities” changed with the birth of the cities of Catengue, Caimbambo, Cubal, Ganda, Alto Catumbela, Quinjenje, Cuma, Longonjo, Lepi and Caála Huambo, later on, Nova Lisboa thanks to Norton de Matos.

Heading inland, towards the east, there was a non-stop growth reaching Bela Vista, Chinguar e Silva Port (now Kuito). One of the most precious contributions of this breakthrough was a construction of international value, implanted rail by rail along thousands of kilometers, opening roads, and choosing the best and most effective areas for the population to settle.

This undertaking was the Benguela railway. The need for a port and the extraordinary conditions offered in the ancient Catumbela das Ostras originated Lobito, its port and city. It reafirmed the importance of colonization which started in Benguela and spread into over 1300 kilometres of Angola’s territory, from the coastline to the border of Luau. According to the legend, Benguela, the Angolan city of the Red Acacias, the eternal beauty of this massive and sui generis tree that lies in its fantastic color can, in fact, be considered, nowadays, the land of samba and Carnival.

A library, still not well explored will, in time, show what this lovely city has to offer to the world. The climate is tropical and semi-desert in the south, whereas in the north of the province it is tropical humid and moderately rainy in the inner underplateau line. The highest temperature is 35ºC, averaging 24,2º and the lowest 10,4º, the relative humidity 79% and the yearly average rainfall is 286mm.