Ovimbundu
Encyclopedia
Umbundu
South Mbundu, or Umbundu, is a language spoken by the Southern Mbundu people - now generally referred to by the way they call themselves, Ovimbundu - in the central highlands of Angola. Umbundu is the most widespread Bantu language in Angola. About one third of Angola is represented by Ovimbundu...
), are an ethnic group who lives on the Bié Plateau
Bié Plateau
The Bié Plateau or Central Plateau of Angola is a plateau that occupies most of central Angola. The elevation of the plateau is from 1,520 m to 1,830 m....
of central Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...
and in the coastal strip west of these highlands. As the largest ethnic group in Angola, they make up almost 40 percent of the country's population. Overwhelmingly the Ovimbundu follow Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
, with roughly equal shares falling to the Catholic Church and to different Protestant denominations, mainly the Igreja Evangélica Congregacional de Angola (IECA), founded by American missionaries. However, some still retain beliefs and practices from African traditional religion
African Traditional Religion
The traditional religions indigenous to Africa have, for most of their existence, been orally rather than scripturally transmitted. They are generally associated with animism. Most have ethno-based creations stories...
s.
History
The origin of the Ovimbundu are populations who drifted in from the North, over the last millennium, and formed local/regional groups which slowly became political units and foci of social identity: M'Balundu, Sele, Wambo, Bieno and others. They developed a sophisticated agriculture, completed by the breeding of small animals (chicken, goats, swine) as well as of a modicum of cows bought from the farmer-herders to the South (Nyaneka-Nkhumbi, Ovambo).Incisive change came about when he Portuguese established a colonial bridgehead in Benguela
Benguela
Benguela is a city in western Angola, south of Luanda, and capital of Benguela Province. It lies on a bay of the same name, in 12° 33’ S., 13° 25’ E...
, in the 16th century. Several of the small "kingdoms" saw their advantage in organising an intense caravan trade between Benguela and peoples of the East, in particular the Chokwe
Chokwe
The Chokwe also pronounced Tchokwe are an ethnic group of Central Africa whose ancestry can perhaps be traced to Mbundu and Mbuti Pygmies. Large groups of Chokwe currently reside in Angola, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their language is usually referred to as Chokwe, a Bantu...
and Ganguela
Ganguela
Ganguela or Nganguela is the name of a small ethnic group living in Angola, but since colonial times the term has been applied to a number of peoples East of the Bié Plateau...
, from whom they obtained wax, rubber, and ivory. Each trading caravan had a professional leader and diviner. Trade agreements that had linked the independent chiefdoms led to the development of regional specializations, including metalwork and cornmeal production. Slavery
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
and the slave trade were also an integral part of Ovimbundu societies. Caravan trading declined with the suppression of the slave trade and, more importantly, the construction of the Benguela Railway in 1904, and came to an end shortly after 1910.
In the following years, the Ovimbundu completely changed their economy to cash crop production of corn, sold to a rapidly increasing network of Portuguese traders. However, because of their demographic growth, and because significant portions of their lands were appropriated by Europeans for coffee, sisal and other plantations, many Ovimbundu started to work as paid labour, mainly on European plantations in their own region or in Northwest Angola, but also in Namibian mines.
The Ovimbundu were, in fact still are, the main social basis of UNITA
UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola in the Angolan War for Independence and then against the MPLA in the ensuing civil war .The war was one...
, an anti-colonial movement which fought against the Portuguese from 1966 to 1974, was an adversary of the rival movement MPLA during the decolonisation conflict of 1974/1975, fought the (now ruling) MPLA after independence, during the Angolan Civil War
Angolan Civil War
The Angolan Civil War was a major civil conflict in the Southern African state of Angola, beginning in 1975 and continuing, with some interludes, until 2002. The war began immediately after Angola became independent from Portugal in November 1975. Prior to this, a decolonisation conflict had taken...
of 1975 to 2002, and is at present an opposition political party.
During the Civil War, the two major cities located in Umbundu territory, Huambo
Huambo
Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa , is the capital of Huambo province in Angola. The city is located about 220 km E from Benguela and 600 km SE from Luanda. The city's last known population count was 225,268...
and Kuito
Kuito
Kuito is a city located in central Angola. It is the administrative capital of Bié Province. Under Portuguese rule until 1975, it was called Silva Porto. Kuito was under siege in 1993/94 and again in 1998/99 by the rebel forces from UNITA...
, were to a large extent destroyed, by the MPLA and UNITA, respectively, as was a considerable number of villages and infrastructures (roads, railways, bridges etc.). Many people died, and many others fled to cities either in their owen area (Benguela
Benguela
Benguela is a city in western Angola, south of Luanda, and capital of Benguela Province. It lies on a bay of the same name, in 12° 33’ S., 13° 25’ E...
, Lobito
Lobito
Lobito is a town and municipality in Benguela Province in Angola.It dates from 1905 and owes its existence to the bay of the same name having been chosen as the sea terminus of the Benguela railway to the far interior, passing through Luau to Katanga in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The...
) or in distant areas (mainly Luanda
Luanda
Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...
and its surroundings, but also Lubango
Lubango
Lubango is the capital city of the Angolan province of Huíla. Its last known population was 100,757. Until 1975, the city's official name was Sá da Bandeira.-Portuguese rule:...
. During long periods, parts of Umbundu territory were under UNITA control.
Since 2002, considerable efforts at reconstruction have been made - by the government, interested in national reconciliation, but to a large extent by the people themselves, by the churches and by a variety of NGOs. A significant proportion of the "internally displaced" Ovimbundu have returned to their places of origin, where traditional forms of social organization have often survived or then been reconstituted. However, larger or smaller Ovimbundu communities have remained in many cities outside their habitat, so that a significant part of this people is now scattered all over Angola.
In political terms, the Angolan parliamentary elections of 2008 reflected an important shift in Ovimbundu loyalty: while most of them had voted UNITA in the previous (1992) election, their majority now voted MPLA - because (after the death of Jonas Savimbi] UNITA had lost much of its credibility, but also because strengthening UNITA was seen as implying the risk of a renewal of armed violence.
Further reading
- Gladwyn Murray Childs, Umbundu Kinship and Character, London: Oxford University Press, 1949
- Adrian Edwards, The Ovimbundu Under Two Sovereignties: A Study of Social Control and Social Change Among a People of Angola, London: Oxford University Press, 1962
- Linda Heywood, Contested Power in Angola, 1940s to the Present, Rochester/NY: University of Rochester Press, 2000 (A scholarly political history of the Ovimbundu)
.