Cunene Province

Cunene Province
Basic data
Country	Angola
Capital	Ondjiva
surface	89,342 km²
Residents	1,157,500 (2019)
density	13 inhabitants per km²
ISO 3166-2	AO-CNN
Website	www.cunene.gov.ao ( Portuguese )
politics
Governador Provincial	Virgílio Tyova

Coordinates: 16 ° 55 '  S , 15 ° 38'  E

Cunene is a province of the African state of Angola . It is located in the extreme south of the country and borders on neighboring Namibia for several hundred kilometers . The province is crossed by the eponymous river Kunene , which later forms the border with Namibia.

history

As in all of Angola, in today's province of Cunene the indigenous population consisted of Khoisan or San, whose habitat was then gradually taken over by Bantu peoples. On their slow advance from the north, they probably reached the Kunene area in the 16th and 17th centuries. Due to the geographical and ecological conditions, there was never a dense settlement in the region. After all, the number of Kwanyama south and north of the Kunene had grown so much in the 18th century that they were able to establish a fairly stable political unit ("empire"), the head of which had his seat in the current province of Cunene.

As part of the colonial Scramble for Africa , not only Portugal , but also England and Germany were interested in the Kunene area . The latter was awarded the territory of what is now Namibia at the Berlin Conference in 1880 , which became the German colony of South West Africa . The northern border of this territory was / is the Kunene. Portugal, which until then had shown relatively little presence in the south of what is now Angola, then hurried to conquer the area as far as the Kunene. However, he only succeeded in doing this through repeated military campaigns, against the bitter resistance of the Kwanyama, which in 1904 had initially been able to fend off the Portuguese in the battle of the Pembe ford . At the beginning of World War I , the province was fought over between Germans and Portuguese . It was not until the mid-1920s that today's province of Cunene was under secure colonial control, even if the Portuguese presence had already increased significantly before that.

The local population could, however, continue their way of life essentially unchanged. The fact that the Kunene had now become the border between the possessions of two different colonial powers did not prevent the Kwanyama Angolas from continuing (and to this day) to maintain very close ties with those on the southern bank of the Kunene.

During the first half of the 20th century, the population of what was then the Cunene district was also included in the colonial system. This was mainly done through the trade network with which the Portuguese covered their entire colony. At the same time there was missionary work by the Catholic Church. The Ovambo of Namibia were mainly proselytized by the Lutheran Church, so that there is also a Lutheran minority in the province of Cunene - the only region in Angola - that is significant. The Lutheran Church was not integrated into the Portuguese colonial system and an administrative record that made it possible to raise taxes towards the middle of the 20th century. Migration to the cities and / or to wage labor, which became common practice in central and northern Angola, only occurred here to a comparatively small extent.

The ethnic groups in the Cunene district only took part in the Portuguese colonial war of 1961–1974 to a very small extent . Towards the end of this "late colonial" phase, however, they achieved that the colonial state increased efforts towards development in their area, for example in the field of schools. They also took part only marginally in the armed conflict among the independence movements, initially 1974–1975 until independence, then 1975–2002 in the civil war in Angola .

During the independence struggle for Namibia, however, numerous political refugees, mostly supporters of SWAPO , found protection and supplies in the province, which led to troops from South Africa invading there again and again. Armed clashes between these and Angolan-Cuban troops took place at the time in the Xangongo area and around Calueque . The dam, which was still unfinished at the time, an investment with South African capital and part of the Cunene project , was secured by South African troops, but destroyed in an air raid by Cuban fighter planes and was not rebuilt for a long time. The repairs have now started and full operational capability is planned for 2015.

Since the independence of Angola and Namibia, especially since the end of the civil war in Angola in 2002, the Kwanyama have again strengthened their connections to Namibia, not least by selling cattle for the purchase of finished products, which could not be obtained in Angola or only more expensive / are.

With the political regime in Angola, the shepherd farmers of the province have a considerable problem in some areas, because there extensive land holdings were acquired by the military, politicians or entrepreneurs and surrounded with fences, which cut off routes for the migration of the cattle herds ( transhumance ) and thus the livelihood the local population is seriously threatened. This problem arose during the colonial era, when - especially from the middle of the 20th century - large areas of land were allocated to white settlers for cattle breeding. It was already known at the time that this creates major ecological, economic and social problems. However, these findings did not become the guideline of the province's policy either before or after independence. Instead, the government is pursuing an internationalization of the regional economy in accordance with the prevailing global economic direction. The desired special economic zone, Zona Económica Especial (ZEE), together with the road connection to Namibia, which will be completed shortly, is intended to facilitate cross-border trade and to locate a large number of industrial companies, including companies for processing sugar cane .

administration

The province of Cunene is 89,342 km², the capital is Ondjiva (sometimes also written N'jiva, in colonial times Vila Pereira de Eça) with a strong 10,000 inhabitants (2006 calculation). Another city is Xangongo . The largest border crossing to Namibia is located in Santa Clara .

The following districts ( Municípios ) are in the province:

• Cahama
• Cuanhama
• Curoca
• Cuvelai
• Namacunde
• Ombadja

population

The province of Cunene has around 1,157,500 inhabitants (2019 estimate). The 2014 census showed 990,087 inhabitants.

Most of the population belong to the Ovambo people . Due to their numerical weight, the group of the Kwanyama (Portuguese: Cuanhama) is by far the most important. A number of minority groups who do not belong to the Ovambo also live in the province. The Hinda are assigned to the Nyaneka-Nkhumbi category , but have adapted their way of life to the Ovambo. Scattered Chokweg groups differ in that they are limited to arable farming (and of course small animal breeding). Remaining groups of the San belonging to the Khoisan (called “Bushmen” in the colonial days, “bosquímanos” in Portuguese) survive through hunting and gathering. With the exception of the latter, all ethnic groups in the province belong to the Bantu .

economy

The population consists predominantly of shepherd farmers, who essentially live from their herds of cattle and also practice a certain amount of agriculture for their own consumption, as well as some small animal breeding. Since the pasture areas are not very productive due to the nature of the soil and the limited rainfall, the herds have to be driven cyclically along certain extended routes. There are iron and copper ore deposits.

Ondjiva is slowly emerging from a long period of stagnation. The city lives mainly from trade and services. It has been the bishopric of a Catholic diocese since colonial times. Since 2009 there has been a small campus of the Mandume University, whose headquarters are in Lubango .

In the province of Cunene lies the 6600 km² Mupa National Park , which is not least intended as an attraction for tourism, but has barely fulfilled this function so far - due to the consequences of the civil war in Angola .

drought

The province has been plagued by long periods of drought in recent years due to climate change . 880,000 people and 1.1 million head of cattle are affected. The state government approved $ 200 million in funding in April 2019 for the construction of two dams, one on the Cuvelai River in Calucuve with a capacity of 100 million cubic meters of water and one on the Caiundo River in Ndue with a 26 dam Meters in height and a capacity of 145 million cubic meters of water, as well as the construction of canals to carry the water into the areas around Ondjiva and Namacunde .

Web links

Commons : Province of Cunene  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the provincial government (port.)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Carlos Estermann, Etnografia do Sudoeste de Angola , Volume 1, Lisbon: Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, 1960
2. ↑ See René Pélissier, Les guerres grises: Résistance et revoltes en Angola (1854-1941) , Montamets / Orgeval: Selbstverlag, 1978
3. ^ William Gervase Clarence-Smith, Slaves, Peasants and Capitalists in Southern Angola, 1940–1926 , Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979
4. ↑ René Pélissier, La Colonie du Minotaure , Montamets / Orgeval: self-published, 1978
5. ↑ ^{a b} Article of January 18, 2014 by the state news agency ANGOP , accessed on April 12, 2014
6. ^ Eduardo Cruz de Carvalho, "Traditional 'and' Modern 'Patterns of Cattle Raising in Southwestern Angola: A critical evaluation of change from Pastoralism to Ranching" The Journal of Developing Areas , 8, 1974, pp. 199-226
7. ↑ Population statistics citypopulation.de , accessed on July 1, 2019.
8. ↑ José Redinha, Etnias e culturas de Angola , Luanda: Instituto de Investigação Científica de Angola, 1975
9. ↑ Eduardo Cruz de Carvalho & Jorge Vieira da Siva, The Cunene Region: Ecological analysis of an African agropastoral system , in Franz-Wilhelm Heimer (org.), Social Change in Angola , Munich: Weltforum Verlag, 1973, pp. 145–191
10. ↑ Cunene angolaconsulate-ca.org , accessed on July 1 of 2019.
11. ^ O que o Presidente da República ouviu do Governador do Cunene vanguarda.co.ao , May 5, 2019, accessed July 2, 2019.
12. ↑ PR aprova 200 milhoes de USD para construção de barragens no Cunene novojornal.co.ao , April 3, 2019, accessed on July 1, 2019.
13. ↑ Apresentados programas para conter efeitos da seca jornaldeangola.sapo.ao , May 6, 2019, accessed on July 2, 2019.

literature

• Elisete Marques da Silva, Impactos da ocupação colonial nas sociedades rurais do Sul de Angola , Lisbon: Centro de Estudos Africanos / ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, 2003