The Bengo (or Zenza) is a river in northern

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

with a source in the Crystal Mountains. Its mouth is at the Atlantic Ocean north of

Luanda Luanda () is the capital and largest city in Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Angola's administrative centre, its chief seaport ...

Bengo Province Bengo is a province of Angola. Its capital is Caxito. It has an area of 31,371 square kilometres, and its population as of the 2014 Census was 356,641. The province was created in 1980 by dividing the original province of Luanda into Bengo and ...

. The river is long with a drainage area of . There is a large reservoir called Kiminha on the Bengo. There are several small lakes on the lower of the river floodplain including Lakes Panguila, Quilunda and Lalama. The Bengo River floodplain is the main source of the agricultural produce for Luanda. Drinking water from the Bengo River was transported to Luanda in barrels by boat before an aqueduct was built in 1889. Trucks deliver much of the city's modern water supply, loaded by pumps in the river. Mangroves grow in the estuary, near their southern limit. Crocodiles, manatees, ducks and fish were among the wildlife in the river. The only

aquaculture Aquaculture (less commonly spelled aquiculture), also known as aquafarming, is the controlled cultivation ("farming") of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, mollusks, algae and other organisms of value such as aquatic plants (e.g. lot ...

industry in Angola is a

tilapia Tilapia ( ) is the common name for nearly a hundred species of cichlid fish from the coelotilapine, coptodonine, heterotilapine, oreochromine, pelmatolapiine, and tilapiine tribes (formerly all were "Tilapiini"), with the economically most ...

farm on the Bengo River at Kifangondo in

Luanda Province Luanda is a province of Angola. It covers an area of 18,835 km2, and had a population of 6,945,386 at the Census of 16 May 2014. The latest official estimate (for 2019) is 8,247,688.Instituto Nacional de Estatístiica, República de Angola. The ...

. The river has been the site of several battles. In 1641 the Portuguese retreated there when the Dutch captured Luanda. In 1873 the

Dembos Dembos is a municipality in Bengo Province in Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year ...

living between the Bengo and

Dande Dande, with its capital at Barra do Dande, is a municipality in Bengo Province in Angola. Subdivisions Dande comprises seven communes as follows. * Caxito * Barra do Dande Barra do Dande is a town, with a population of 75,000 (2014), and a com ...

rivers led an uprising against the Portuguese.''The Creole Elite and the Rise of Angolan Protonationalism: 1870-1920''
Jacopo Corrado, Cambria Press, 2008, p. 35. The Battle of Quifangondo in 1975 was an important point in the

Angolan War of Independence The Angolan War of Independence (; 1961–1974), called in Angola the ("Armed Struggle of National Liberation"), began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton, and it became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal ...

References

{{reflist Rivers of Angola

See also

References