Ganguela

Ganguela (pronunciation: gang'ela) or Nganguela is an ethnographic name for a number of small peoples living in eastern Angola . These include the "actual" Ganguela, the Lwena (Luena), the Luvale, the Mbunda, the Lwimbi, the Camachi and other groups.

Map of the ethnic groups in Angola, 1970 (settlement area of ​​the ethnic groups listed as "Ganguela" appears in green)

All of these peoples are arable farmers who also keep small livestock and often also collect forest fruits, honey from wild bees and other things. They each have their own language, which, however, are related to one another and are often mutually understandable. Every people has its own social identity ; There is no overarching social identity as “Ganguela”, so that one cannot speak of a nation as a whole.

Europeans who are not familiar with these peoples, but also urban Angolans, often regard them as “tribes” of the Ovimbundu . However, they clearly differ from these in terms of language and sense of belonging. In the 20th century, however, ethnic groups who settle directly to the east of the Ovimbundu were also affected to a certain extent by a cultural “rebundization”.

The peoples later summarized by them as "Ganguela" became known to the Portuguese from the 17th century when they were involved in their trading activities in two ways - starting from the "bridgeheads" of Luanda and Benguela at that time. On the one hand, they became a reservoir for the slave trade that the Portuguese operated through African middlemen. On the other hand, they were in 19./20. Century to suppliers of wax, honey and other goods for the caravan trade, which the Ovimbundu operated with Benguela at the time. Since they were of little interest to the Portuguese at first after the collapse of the caravan trade, they were overtaken relatively late, sometimes not until the 1940s, by the systematic colonial conquest and occupation of what is now Angola's territory. The Mbunda offered armed resistance at times.

During the few decades in which they were under colonial rule, their way of life changed comparatively less than in most other areas of Angola. As a rule, there was no really intensive missionary work or the skimming of labor and taxes with them. The only important economic activity for the Portuguese that took place in parts of their territories was the felling of trees (operated by Portuguese companies) for the logging industry in Angola and Portugal - which, however, only affected the locals to a limited extent.

In the course of the independence struggle from 1961 to 1974, but especially during the civil war from 1975 to 2002, some of the peoples addressed here were more severely affected, although they only participated to a limited extent. Many people therefore fled to the neighboring countries of Zambia and (less) Namibia . About half of the Mbunda settled in Western Zambia. The cohesion of this people is guaranteed by a network of " chiefs " headed by a "king" who lives in East Angola.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The best overview so far is offered by José Redinha: Etnias e culturas de Angola. Instituto de Investigação Científica de Angola, Luanda 1975.
2. ^ Robert Papstein (ed.), The History and Cultural Life of the Mbunda speaking Peoples , Lusaka: Cheke Cultural Writers Association, 1994, ISBN 99 820 3006X
3. ↑ The standard work on this is Joseph Miller: Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730-1839. Wisconsin University Press, Madison 1988.
4. ↑ See Hermann Pössinger: A transformação da sociedade umbundu desde o colapso do comércio das caravanas. In: Revista Internacional de Estudos Africanos. Lisbon, 4/5, pp. 75–158.
5. ^ René Pélissier : Les Guerres grises: Résistance et revoltes en Angola (1845-1941). Self-published, Montamets / Orgeval 1977.
6. ^ Basil Davidson: In the Eye of the Storm: Angola's People. Doubleday, New York 1972
7. ↑ Samuel Chiwale: Cruzei-me com a história. Sextant, Lisboa 2008
8. ^ Inge Brinkman: A War for People: Civilians, Mobility and Legitimacy in South-East Angola during the MPLA's War for Independence. Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Cologne 2005, ISBN 3-89645-362-9 .
9. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  

bibliography

• Hermann Baumann: The peoples of Africa and their traditional cultures . Part 1 General Part and Southern Africa. Steiner, Wiesbaden 1975–1979. (Studies in cultural studies; 34 and 35)