Moçâmedes is a city in southwestern

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

, capital of Namibe Province. The city's current population is 255,000 (2014 census). Founded in 1840 by the Portuguese colonial administration, the city was named Namibe between 1985 and 2016. Moçâmedes has a cool dry climate and desert vegetation, because it is near the

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; pt, Namibe) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. The name is of Khoekhoegowab origin and means "vast place". According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Nami ...

History

The area was first explored by the Portuguese in 1785 and claimed for Portugal by Luís Cândido Cordeiro Pinheiro Furtado, who had been sent there in the frigate ''Loanda'' by the then governor-general of Angola, Baron Moçâmedes (Portuguese: ''Barão de Mossâmedes''), who also sent an overland expedition headed by Gregório José Mendes to rendezvous with Furtado. They renamed the bay Moçâmedes in honour of the baron. In 1839 the then governor-general of Angola, Admiral Noronha, sent a fresh expedition to subdue the local chiefs and make them vassals of Portugal. Moçâmedes was officially founded in 1840 by the Portuguese colonial administration on a bay that the Portuguese originally called ''Angra do Negro'' by order of Portuguese prime minister, the Count of Bonfim, who was also head of the Colonial Department. In 1840 a factory was established and in July of the same year a fort was built at Ponta Negra. The area was colonized mainly by Portuguese settlers from

Madeira ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

; in the 1850s the Portuguese government also gave sea passage and financial assistance to a large number of German colonists. The village grew as a fishing port and by the 1960s it had 143 fishing boats and several fish processing factories. The port soon ranked alongside other important fishing ports such as

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 seapo ...

Benguela Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census. History P ...

and

Lobito Lobito is a 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 1843 and owes its existe ...

. About 200 km from the city of Namibe the Portuguese authorities founded the Iona National Park, Angola's oldest and largest national park, proclaimed as a reserve in 1937 and upgraded to a national park covering 15,150 km² in 1964.

Climate

Moçâmedes has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, nota ...

''BWh''). Despite being well north of the

Tropic of Capricorn The Tropic of Capricorn (or the Southern Tropic) is the circle of latitude that contains the subsolar point at the December (or southern) solstice. It is thus the southernmost latitude where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It also reac ...

on the Atlantic Coast, the climate is subtropical due to the cooling effect of the northward-flowing Benguela Current causing July and August to be below 18° C.

Economy

Governo Provincial do Namibe (19543179475) (cropped)

During 1966-67 a major

iron ore Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the ...

terminal was built at Saco, the bay 12 km North of Moçâmedes, to serve the iron ore mine inland at

Cassinga Cassinga or Kassinga is a town and commune in the municipality of Jamba, province of Huíla, Angola. It is situated on an old and important two-track road from Jamba to Huambo. Established as an ore mine and during the Civil War allegedly ...

. Construction of the mine installations and a 300 km railway were commissioned to

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krupp ...

of Germany and the modern harbour terminal to SETH, a Portuguese company owned by Højgaard & Schultz of Denmark. Within one year the first 250,000 ton ore carrier docked and loaded with ore in 1967.

Culture

Religion

The city's Sé Catedral de São Pedro is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

episcopal see of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Namibe The Roman Catholic Diocese of Namibe ( la, Dioecesis Namibanus) is a Latin diocese in the Angolan Namibe Province. It is a suffragan in the Ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Lubango. Special churches The cathedral epis ...

, which was established in 2009 on territory split from its Metropolitan's

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lubango The Archdiocese of Lubango ( la, Archidioecesis Lubangensis) is the Metropolitan See for the Ecclesiastical province of Lubango in Angola. The cathedral of the archdiocese is the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Lubango. History * 1955.07.27: Establis ...

, to which it is a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandri ...

Sports

In 2013, Moçâmedes, then called Namibe, and the national capital

jointly hosted the 2013 FIRS Men's Roller Hockey World Cup, the first time that a World Cup of roller hockey was held in Africa.

Transport

Rail

Moçâmedes is the terminus of the Moçâmedes Railway. This line was originally 600mm gauge but was converted to 1067mm gauge in the 1950s.

Sea

It has one of Angola's three major

ports A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...

, alongside

and

Air

Moçâmedes is served by the Namibe Airport located about 7 km to the south of the city. The old

Yuri Gagarin Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin; Gagarin's first name is sometimes transliterated as ''Yuriy'', ''Youri'', or ''Yury''. (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was a Soviet pilot and cosmonaut who became the first human to journey into outer space. T ...

airport, only about 1.7 km from the city's center, connects the city to the rest of the country.

References

Bibliography

* Clarence-Smith, W. G. Slaves, Peasants and Capitalists in Southern Angola 1840-1926. New York: Cambridge UP, 1979. * Clarence-Smith, W. G. "Slavery in Coastal Southern Angola, 1875-1913." Journal of Southern African Studies 2.2 (1976), 214-23.

External links

The Catholic diocese, with episcopal incumbent biographies
at GigaCatholic {{Authority control Populated coastal places in Angola Ports and harbours in Africa Municipalities of Angola Namibe Province Provincial capitals in Angola Populated places established in 1840 1840 establishments in the Portuguese Empire