Luanda

Sister cities

• Porto
• São Paulo
• Houston
• Macau
• Rio de Janeiro
• São Tomé
• Maputo
• Lisbon

History

Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda on 25 January 1576 as "São Paulo da Assumpção de Loanda". He had brought one hundred families of settlers and four hundred soldiers. Most of the Portuguese community lived within the fort. Several sources from as early as the 17th century called the city "St. Paul de Leonda". In 1618, the Portuguese built the fortress called Fortaleza São Pedro da Barra, and they subsequently built two more: Fortaleza de São Miguel (1634) and Forte de São Francisco do Penedo (1765–66). Of these, the Fortaleza de São Miguel is the best preserved. Luanda was Portugal's bridgehead from 1627, except during the Dutch rule of Luanda, from 1640 to 1648, as Fort Aardenburgh. The city served as the centre of slave trade to Brazil from to 1836. The slave trade was conducted mostly with the Portuguese colony of Brazil; Brazilian ships were the most numerous in the port of Luanda. This slave trade also involved local merchants and warriors who profited from the trade. During this period, no large scale territorial conquest was intended by the Portuguese; only a few minor settlements were established in the immediate hinterland of Luanda, some on the last stretch of the Kwanza River. In the 17th century, the Imbangala became the main rivals of the Mbundu in supplying slaves to the Luanda market. In the 1751, between 5,000 and 10,000 slaves were annually sold. By this time, Angola, a Portuguese colony, was in fact like a colony of Brazil, paradoxically another Portuguese colony. A strong degree of Brazilian influence was noted in Luanda until the independence of Brazil in 1822. In the 19th century, still under Portuguese rule, Luanda experienced a major economic revolution. The slave trade was abolished in 1836, and in 1844, Angola's ports…

Geography

Luanda is divided into two parts, the Baixa de Luanda (lower Luanda, the old city) and the Cidade Alta (upper city or the new part). The Baixa de Luanda is situated next to the port, and has narrow streets and old colonial buildings. However, new constructions have by now covered large areas beyond these traditional limits, and a number of previously independent nuclei — like Viana — were incorporated into the city. Until 2011, the former Luanda Province comprised five municipalities. In 2011 the province was enlarged by the addition of two additional municipalities transferred from Bengo Province, namely Icolo e Bengo, and Quiçama. Excluding these additions, the five municipalities composed Greater Luanda. Two new municipalities have been created within Greater Luanda since 2017: Talatona and Kilamba-Kiaxi. Since 2024, the Luanda Province has 17 municipalities and Luanda municipality has been dissolved. Icolo e Bengo became a separate province from Luanda. {| class="sortable wikitable" |- ! Name || Area in km2 || PopulationCensus2014 ||PopulationCensus2024 |- | Belas ||align="right"|614.3|| align="right" |309,229|| align="right" |381,861 |- |Cacuaco | align="right" |87.18 | align="right" |860,760 | align="right" |1,025,859 |- |Camama | align="right" |74.64 | align="right" |... | align="right" |667,094 |- |Cazenga | align="right" |33.13 | align="right" |582,786 | align="right" |823,025 |- |Hoji Ya Henda | align="right" |25.34 | align="right" |309,615 | align="right" |642,050 |- |Ingombota | align="right" |14.57 | align="right" |103,260 | align="right" |144,911 |- |Kilamba | align="right" |419.2 | align="right" |... | align="right" |493,593 |- |Quilamba Quiaxi | align="right" |51.52 | align="right" |841,411 | align="right" |1,120,781 |- |Maianga |…

Most-observed species

• Pied Crow

  Corvus albus Statius Muller, 1776 · Aves
  95
• Red-backed Mousebird

  Colius castanotus J.Verreaux & É.Verreaux, 1855 · Aves
  94
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  89
• Cattle Egret

  Bubulcus ibis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  86
• African Palm-Swift

  Cypsiurus parvus (M.H.K.Lichtenstein, 1823) · Aves
  74
• Little Egret/Western Reef-Heron

  Egretta garzetta (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  74
• Common Bulbul

  Pycnonotus barbatus (Desfontaines, 1789) · Aves
  72
• Laughing Dove

  Spilopelia senegalensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  65