Angola
This text was originally written by the coordinator of the respective volume for the print edition as an introduction to the geographic area in question; the possibility of updating it was left to each author’s discretion. It should be interpreted together with the general introductory text from the respective volume.
ANGOLA IS THE LARGEST and most important territory of Portuguese influence and colonization in the context of sub-Saharan Africa. Many of its cities, settlements and towns witnessed their first stage of occupation between the 15th and 18th centuries (Luanda and São Salvador, Benguela and Nova Oeiras, the fortresses of Cuanza). Angolan territory includes a significant number of cities and towns that controlled certain territories of the interior throughout the 19th and 20th centuries (in the south, Namibe and Lubango; in the centre, Lobito and Huambo/ Nova Lisboa; and the towns connected via railway on the main axis of penetration, starting in Luanda, Benguela/ Lobito and Namibe). Angola has an urban and territorial heritage consisting of cities, towns and other settlements from which the territory was organized in the 20th century, based on the railway network, the new road and air networks, on the energy and industrial production infrastructure, and on agricultural colonization.
Especially important is the process of urbanization of Angola over the past two centuries and there are some noteworthy examples of modern architecture in the principal cities.
Urbanism and territory in the 19th and 20thcenturies
The area surrounding of Cuanza, starting from Luanda and along the coastline to the Benguela region was the part of the country that was colonized and urbanized between the 16th and 18th centuries and to which its territory was limited until the 19th century. The general arrangement of the territorial and urban structure, as well as the establishment of new architectural facilities which formed the modern day country, took place mostly in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. The cartographic depictions of the time suggest the successive growth of a huge territorial space that was with difficulty gradually subdued and occupied. The three main passages of penetration into the interior (from the coastal cities of Luanda, Benguela and Namibe) were gradually defined until, only in the first decade of the 20th century, they became one continuous region. The early 20th century, under the orders of high commissioner Norton de Matos, saw the establishment of the modern administrative divisions into five regions in 1912-1915 and into eleven districts in 1921-1925, which covered practically the whole territory.
The course of the 19th century witnessed the first territorial organization of a proto-urban nature, making use of the network of existing markets connected to small settlements, presidios and captaincies which was followed by a second organization based on the so-called trading settlements established by Portuguese traders in the interior in the second half of the 19th century - aspects that influenced the definition of Angola's urban network well into the 20th century. For example, the case of Dondo, where a mixed system of human occupation was established, shows the importance of urban, commercial, ethnic, and geographical miscegenation as settlements were established. In these cases the indigenous villages were gradually converted into commercial hubs with Portuguese and mixed race traders leading the process and thus ensuring penetration into the interior; this was followed by the investment of settlers in industrialized plantations (sugarcane, etc.); only later was the political-administrative organization established, often based on the prior territorial structure of Portuguese-African trading settlements.
The period from 1890 to the end of the Portuguese First Republic, often called the African cycle of empire, can be summed up in Angola, following the decisions of the Berlin Conference (1885) and the Ultimatum crisis (1890), as effective occupation, based on pacification/military occupation, administrative reform and modernization, the new rail and road network into the interior, the development of economic and agricultural exploitation by international companies and the restrictive use of the colonial market to obtain maximum profit from products from Portugal. The white population of Angola rose from 6,000 in 1890 to 13,000 in 1918 and to about 58,000 in 1930. Therefore, around 1930 - the year of the crucial Colonial Act which gave a centralist orientation to colonial administration - there were eight cities with a total of 110,000 inhabitants in Angola: Luanda, Lobito, Benguela, Mo^amedes/Namibe on the coast and Huambo/Nova Lisboa, Malanje, Silva Porto/Kuito and Lubango on the plateau. Among these cities, besides Luanda, only three reached anything over 10,000 inhabitants: Benguela, Lobito and Huambo/Nova Lisboa, with a total population of 16,000 whites in these three cities, representing 56% of the white population in the whole territory. Lubango had over 7,000 inhabitants; whereas Malanje, Kuito and Namibe each had over 4,000.
During the period of the Estado Novo (1930-1975), there was intense production of urbanization plans for territorial organization in the colonial regions, particularly in terms of the arrangement of its cities and towns. Due to its fast-paced development and implementation of plans, Luanda was pioneering in the first quarter of the 20th century, even in global terms in Portuguese Iberian and colonial territory. Later there was a gradual transfer of all “urban cores under railway influence” to those “influenced by the road structure” (Fonte, 2007), and planning attempted to design urban systems suitable for that structural alteration. The railway-based towns made use of earlier, often grid pattern, structures from the 19th century, but now served by modernizing plans (in many cases, according to the system of the so-called “plans for Areas of Immediate Occupation”), such as those of Viana (1965), Salazar (present day N'Dalatando, 1954), and Malanje (1951); on the Benguela railway, those of Catumbela (1951), Huambo/Nova Lisboa (1947-1948), Robert Williams/ Caala, Lumege, Vila Teixeira de Sousa (present day Luau, 1960); and on the southern railway, those of Vila Arriaga (1960), Lubango (1947-1949), Chibia and Matala. The road-based settlements, without former urbanistic restrictions or a need to be connected to railway hubs, also usually followed a grid layout adapted to local circumstances: Huila (1956); in Lunda, the towns of Cuilo, Muriege (1971, by Sabino Correia), Dala; in Bailundo, Teixeira da Silva (present day Bailundo) (1951); in Uige, Sanza Pombo (1975, by Tavares Nunes) - and, with special attention to its design, the plan of Saurimo, capital of Lunda (1973, by Adérito Barros), in the perspective of great pragmatism of Portuguese urbanism in Angola. Other plans were executed in Angola in this “road period”: for Luachimo, Cambulo, Xá-Muteba and Caculama, besides Portugália, the “city of Diamang” (Lunda); for Chibemba and Caconda (Huíla); Cuango and Quilenges (Uíge); Cuangar (Cuando- Cubango), for Gabela; in the area of Malanje, Quela, Calandula; and, in Uíge. The plans for these centres usually show a tendency to adapt their grids, often on a small scale, to the nascent road system with its curving peripheral roads (ex. Caculama, Portugália); in rare cases, the system of design of the road layout shows the concentric curvatures typical of modern zoning plans, with the inclusion of the road model as the basis for the urban system (ex. Calandula/Duque de Bragança, 1972, by Vasco Morais Soares).
Importance of modern architecture, notable buildings and monuments
In the meantime, a tradition of civic, public and residential architecture was gradually developed in Angola during the 19th and particularly the 20th century. From an architectural point of view many of the most interesting buildings constructed in cities, towns and settlements from the 1950s onwards adopted the international modernist style or the officially promoted neo-traditional model. These show the widespread of modern spatial and technological themes often based on Le Corbusier beyond Europe. At the same time they show the architects' efficiency, inventive skills in the adaptation of the proposed plans to the specific context of the aggressively tropical climate (but with deep internal shifts, from the humid north to the dry south, and that of the plains and mountains in the centre). For their large number, it is also worth mentioning the wide range of evocative monuments and public statuary developed between the 1930s and 1970s, corresponding to the commemorative, official and public option which, as a whole, contrasts with the urbanistic and architectural modernity of this period. In fact, their authors almost always adopted figurative and realist models typical of the 19th century and of late Romanticism. However, a number of works are worth highlighting for their contribution to the character of the public areas where they were set. Mostly, they were aimed at celebrating colonial undertakings led by discoverers, explorers and politicians who played a special role in the colonization process. In a few cases, monuments displayed broader or more abstract concepts, such as the Padrões de Soberania (markers of sovereignty), or those relating to the participation of the colonies in the First World War.
Methodological and patrimonial aspects
The selection and systematization inserts for this chapter naturally follow the general criteria for the whole work. Therefore, each entry is followed by the allusion to urban spaces and settlements and their principal architectural works. However, in the sub-regional areas usually identified by the name of the area (rather than the name of the settlement), the entry assembles the corresponding small urban cores and/or buildings included in it (for example, Huila); exceptionally, some entries might encompass a built nucleus if its importance as a whole makes for a more coherent presentation (such as those created by the Benguela Railway).
As for interest in the Angolan architectural heritage as it is perceived, acknowledged, preserved and perhaps restored today, it is important to remember the extent of Angolan territory with its significant number of officially classified buildings while also bearing in mind that a long-lasting and devastating civil war has significantly altered their integrity, state of preservation and use. It is also important to note that most of the heritage classified in Angola, if not all, pertains to a period from the 16th to the 19th centuries, with some rare cases of architecture from the first half of the 20th century. Notwithstanding, the interest in the Angolan architectural heritage is not limited to the officially listed buildings but encompasses many works of Modern Architecture built in the last three decades of colonial rule. The fact that these buildings have a significant historical, social and cultural interest is unfortunately overlooked and misunderstood by the authorities. Dozens, if not thousands, of remarkable and valuable works await classification. In effect, the public action of preservation or classification in Angola is aware of the values of the architecture of the Classical, Romantic and even of the Industrial Revolution period but not of the examples of Modern Architecture. It is important to note that certain works of recovery, rehabilitation and restoration undertaken recently have not been of the highest quality, either in their planning or execution, due to a lack of cultural training. An example, without wishing to generalize, is the pastiche reconstruction of the 18th century palace of Dona Ana Joaquina (Luanda). As for the lack of sensitivity in more recent works, there was the restoration-reconstruction of the Palácio de Ferro (Iron Palace) of1900, at the same time as the Quinaxixe Market was destroyed. All of this took place in the historical centre of Luanda and all involve major works of value and historical importance. The reconstruction/recovery of the two first examples shows an awareness of the need for their material preservation, but in the first case it should have been done with greater aesthetic and technical care. As for the disappearance of the market, it shows a complete lack of comprehension of its value, as it was, probably, the best work built in Angola in that period; even worse, it is a sign that other noteworthy contemporary buildings of the period are not being considered on their true value. On the same subject, value is attributed to Portuguese nostalgic, traditional or neo-classical architecture of the 1940s-1950s (for example, the careful recovery of the civic centre of Kuíto, typical of the architecture of the Estado Novo), or of palaces from the colonial period such Ana Joaquina Palace (an ideologically innocuous work, considering its major antiquity), or even colonial works from the late 19th century such as the Palácio de Ferro (Iron Palace), with its charge of romantic exoticism which somehow “purifies” it. This interest in the supposedly traditional or old, particularly regarding the first example, contrasts radically with the complete disregard of the real value of remarkable modern works which marked all significant cities and most towns of any size. This oversight might be related to the same search for an identity that seems to account for an interest in traditionally based works, because the modernist works of the 1950s-1970s have an international aesthetic basis, a more contemporary style, an abstract or geometrically formal nature and define an image that is associated to some kind of generic “colonial oppressor of the 20th century”; perhaps for that reason they are not, or cannot yet be considered, part of the heritage of the new nation or as a point of reference for the fresh, possibly unprepared and emerging urban culture of the country.