In its final year, the Portuguese removed its king and consolidated the territory into the colony of Angola. In the 1980s, these rebels and perhaps still other refugees remained in Angola, many in Lunda Sul Province, although the Angolan government as part of its rapprochement with Zaire was encouraging them to return to their traditional homes. Moreover, the subdivisions discernible for the sixteenth century (and perhaps earlier) also changed in response to a variety of social and linguistic influences in the colonial period. In 1988, however, a significant number of Zairian refugees continued to inhabit LundaChokwe territory. All of these southern Angolan groups relied in part or in whole on cattle raising for subsistence. Most of the FNLA's traditional Bakongo constituency fled into exile in Zaire during the war. They play an important role in cultural rituals, representing life and death, the passage from childhood to adulthood, the celebration of a new harvest and the marking of the hunting season. The Kikongo-speaking Bakongo made up an estimated 15 percent of the Angolan population. The Lunda-Cokwe in the north eastern part of Angola is also known for its superior plastic arts. Expansion continuing into the twentieth century enlarged their territory considerably, although most Ovimbundu remained in that part of the plateau above 1,200 meters in elevation. The Mbundu in general and the western Mbundu in particular, located as they were not far from There were a number of Kimbundu dialects and groups.
The results can be interesting.
Once independent, it became a vassal state of the Portuguese colony between 1891 and 1914. Once they settled in this area, the Ovimbundu developed complex agricultural and animal husbandry practices. It was only after that time that the mixture acquired the hyphenated label and its members began to think of themselves (in some contexts) as one people. These languages and other members of the set were also found in Zambia and Namibia.
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, the Chokwe became increasingly involved in trading and raiding, and they expanded in all directions, but chiefly to the north, in part absorbing the Ruund and other peoples. Similar to the previously mentioned tribes, the Bakongo descended from Bantu tribal immigrants as well. But, what if you have multiple ethnic groups fighting for independence at the same time? During the 1950’s, the Bakongo regained power and joined other tribes to form a political party against the Portuguese colony. Map of Africa with countries and capitals. Ethnic groups in Angola are dominated by the Bantu, who are divided into a number of ethnolinguistic groupings.The main ones are the Ovimbundu, constituting some 37% of the population in 2005, the Kimbundu, totaling 25% of the population, and the Bakongo with 13%. Little is known of developments before the seventeenth century, but there is some evidence of additions to the people who occupied the Benguela Plateau at that time. When they came to the area, they build permanent communities and began trading with local tribes. The three dominant ethnic groups are the Ovimbundu, Mbundu (better called Ambundu, speaking Kimbundu) and the Bakongo. In 1960 a little more than 1 percent of the total population of Angola consisted of The process of mixing started very early and continued until independence.
There are over 100 distinct ethnic groups and languages/dialects in Angola. Subsequently, 400,000 Bakongo fled into Zaire. Together, they helped to push out the Portuguese rulers and win independence in 1975.Just over one-fifth of the population, 21%, identify as of some other African ethnicity, which means they either come from smaller, minority tribes native to the Angolan nation or they are immigrants from other African countries. During Portuguese colonial times, they developed a trade system between the Portuguese-ruled coastal towns and tribes living further inland. click for Fullsize-12.0822958373636 17.7099609375 5 satellite. Just north of Ovimbundu territory lived the Mbundu, the second largest ethnolinguistic category, whose language was Kimbundu. In 1962 the UPA formed the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola – FNLA), which became one of the three major nationalist groups (the other two being the MPLA and UNITA) involved in the long and bloody war of independence. Those who received formal education and fully adopted Portuguese customs became assimilados. The significance for local Lunda-Chokwe of the presence and activities of these Zairians was not known. That's what happened in the West African nation of Angola, situated on the continent's Atlantic coast. Substantial numbers of them live in or near Lunda Norte Province, which contains the principal diamond mines of Angola. … Two, each incorporating Portuguese terms, gradually became dominant, serving as By the late 1960s, the Mbundu living in the cities, such as Luanda and Malanje, had adopted attributes of Portuguese lifestyle . The southwestern groups, despite their remoteness from the major centers of white influence during most of the colonial period, were to varying degrees affected by the colonial presence and, after World War II, by the arrival of numbers of Portuguese in such places as Moçâmedes (present-day Namibe) and Sá da Bandeira (present-day Lubango). Although the Ovambo had depended in part on cultivation for a much longer time, dairy products had been an important source of subsistence, and cattle were the chief measure of wealth and prestige. Like most African groups of any size, the Ovimbundu were formed by the mixture of groups of diverse origin (and varying size). The Zairian government offered amnesty to political exiles on several occasions in the late 1980s and conferred with the Angolan government on the issue of refugees. Other signature pieces of Angolan art include the female mask Mwnaa-Pwo worn by male dancers in their puberty rituals, the polychromatic Kalelwa masks used during circumcision ceremonies, Cikungu and Cihongo masks which conjure up the images of the Lunda-Cokwe mythology (two key figures in this pantheon are princess Lweji and the civilizing prince Tschibinda-Ilunga), and the black ceramic art of Moxico of central/eastern Angola.