The year 2000 celebrated the 440th anniversary of the date when Father Gonçalo da Silveira arrived in Bié.
1560 was the highlight of the portuguese colonial expansionism in search of new political and economical horizons that would strengthen its authority as a state.
In 1771, when D. Inocêncio de Sousa Coutinho was Vice-Governor, he founded a town on the hill of Bié named Amarante on the same place where today the city of Kuito is flourishing.,.
According to history, the Portuguese began to find interest in Bié in 1772, having in that same year appointed Joaquim Rodrigues its first Vice-Captain, Judge of the Province of Bié, who established himself in Ekovongo, formerly Embala, the main city in the region.
With around 1.794.387 inhabitants spread among the 9 towns that constitute the province, it records a maximum of 88 inhabitants per square kilometre in Kuito and a minimum of 5 inhabitants per square kilometre in Nharéa. Andulo is the most populated town following Kuito and Kunhinga (formerly Vouga) the least populated. This province occupies an area of 70.314 square kilometres and offers a plain terrain, with an average altitude of over 1000m (over 1.500 in the SW quadrant), inserted in two kinds of landscape – the Planalto Antigo and the Alto Kwanza.
Its population is divided into four main ethnic groups of Bantu origin, having the Kibalas or Ngaias, from the Kimbundus, settled in Calussinga, the Songas in the north, the Bailundos and Bienos, descendents of the Mbundus, in Andulo and Nhârea and Chingar, Kunhinga, Katabola and Kamacupa.
The Nganguelas, the Luimbis or Luenas from Kwanza settled in the banks of the Kwanza river and the Ambuilas in Tchitembo, whereas the east line of the Province, from north to south, is inhabited by Kiokos. This landscape is divided by several important watercourses that define the hidrographic regions of Kuanza, Kibango, Luanda, Kutato, Cuiva Kuquema, Ngumbo, Cuchi, Cunhiga, Kunje and Kune.
The climate in the region is mild and humid with annual isotherms that vary between 19º and 21º, making the area especially adequate for a florishing farming development. It has two distinct seasons and none of the so-called dry-season that one can witness in most of the Angola regions. The warm or rainy seasons are between October and April with trends of rainfall between 1.000 and 1.400 mm, being less intense in the months of October, January and February. The dry season spreads from May to September and the average temperature in the coldest month varies between 18ºC and 25ºC.
The primitive vegetation landscape is quite varied in the areas subject to culture, and it is formed by the phytogeographic complex “open forest – panda Woods; Savana with bushes, with long extensions of herbaceous comunities of the high plains also known as high “anharas” (angolan portuese)
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