The Catumbela is a river in central

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

. The river mouth is at the

Catumbela Estuary The Catumbela Estuary is an estuary in Benguela Province of Angola. It has the coastal city of Lobito Lobito is a municipality in Angola. It is located in Benguela Province, on the Atlantic Coast north of the Catumbela Estuary. The Lobito munici ...

on the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

Catumbela Catumbela is a city and municipality of the Benguela province in Angola. The municipality had a population of 175,805 in 2014. History In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Portuguese built ''Forte de São Pedro'' to establish themselv ...

, between

Lobito Lobito is a Municipalities of Angola, municipality in Angola. It is located in Benguela Province, on the Atlantic Coast north of the Catumbela Estuary. The Lobito municipality had a population of 393,079 in 2014. History The city was founded in ...

and Benguela, and from where it rises in the hills of Cassoco. The Catumbela supplies water to the city of Lobito. The mouth of the Catumbela was noted as a green vegetated region surrounded by barren land along the coast and a couple miles inland where it cuts a gorge through bare mountains. Chocolate Islands: Cocoa, Slavery, and Colonial Africa
Catherine Higgs, Ohio University Press, Jul 3, 2012, pp. 83-85 Alternate spellings are Catumbella and Cata-Bella. Its main tributaries are the Cuíva River on the right bank, and Cubal River on the left bank. The Catumbela was a center of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

to the New World until it was banned in 1836. Portugal then built a fort at the river mouth and a small community grew up in the area. Exports of palm oil, rubber, serviçais (

indentured servant Indentured servitude is a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years. The contract, called an "indenture", may be entered "voluntarily" for purported eventual compensation or debt repaymen ...

s), rum, sugar and other goods traded from further inland supported a small town with several hundred Portuguese colonists. The Cassaquel sugar company, founded in 1913, and later called Primeiro de Maio operated on the banks of the river and would become the largest sugar producer in Angola. It closed in 1990 but at its peak employed over 5,000 who lived in dozens of company towns. Two dams on the Catumbela River produce electrical power for the Lobito and Benguela areas. The Lomaum Dam in

Benguela province Benguela ( umb, Luombaka Volupale) is a province of Angola, situated in the west of the country. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean, and borders the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Namibe, Huila, and Huambo. The province has an area of and its capital is ...

was built in 1965, destroyed by

UNITA The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola ( pt, União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the Popular Movement for ...

in 1983 and later rebuilt with Portuguese help. The Benguela Railway built a bridge over the river in 1905. A new bridge over the river on the Lobito to Benguela highway was completed in 2009.Bridge over Catumbela river, Angola opens to traffic
Macauhub, September 11, 2009

References

{{coord, 12, 27, S, 13, 29, E, display=title, region:AO_type:river_source:GNS-enwiki Rivers of Angola

See also

References