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Colorful history creates a rich mixture of cultures and customs

uanda was the first city to be founded by the Europeans on the west coast of sub-Saharan Africa. In 1575, Paulo Dias de Novais, a Portuguese adventurer, arrived with a fleet of seven ships, 400 troops and several hundred colonists.
He had been attracted by Luanda’s sheltered bay and strategic location on the Kwanza River, which enabled him to gain control of the silver mines at Cambambe. Luanda also began to prosper as a center of the slave trade.
More happily, the intermingling of the people created one of the most racially-mixed peoples in Africa,
with a complex blend of cultures and customs that characterize Luandans to this day.
The intense rivalry between the European colonial powers of those times left its mark on Luanda. The city was seized by the Dutch between 1641 and 1648 when it was snatched back by Portuguese soldiers led by Salvador Correa de Sa.
By 1800, Luanda had its first paved roads and as new neighborhoods sprang up the city came to be known as the ‘Paris of Africa’.

Permanent solution
It was not until nearly 90 years later, however, that a permanent solution was found for the city’s perennial problem – a shortage of water. An aqueduct was built to carry it from the river Bengo. Until then, people had relied on wells or water brought in barrels from the river.
The city grew rapidly, particularly after the slave trade came to an end and Africans began to migrate from the interior. Slavery gave way to commerce in an ever-increasing variety of goods and commodities.
The last half-century has seen the city on a switchback, lurching from good to bad times and, hopefully, it is now back to better days.
The 1950s and 1960s saw an economic boom, partly induced by government measures aimed at boosting living standards in response to the outbreak of the anti-colonial war in 1961. In the last quarter of the century, however, the city slipped into decline, damaged by urban conflict, the departure of many skilled people and a flood of rural people fleeing the civil war.
Today, as this historic city revives its once-thriving economy, life for the people of Luanda appears to be returning to normal.