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Mossâmedes is a small city in the state of Goiás, Brazil. For that article see Mossâmedes
Namibe (pre-1985: Moçâmedes) is the capital city of Namibe Province in Angola. Namibe is located in southwestern Angola and was founded in 1840. The city's current population is 132,900 (2004 estimate). Namibe has a cool dry climate and desert vegetation.
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History
Portuguese rule
Moçâmedes was founded in 1840 by the Portuguese. The village grew as a fishing port, and by the 1960s, it had 143 fishing boats. The port normally handled a major part of the Angolan catch and had one of the most important fish landings of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola together with Luanda and Lobito. During 1966-67 a major iron ore terminal was built by the Portuguese at Saco, the bay just 12 km North of Moçâmedes. The client was the Compania Mineira do Lobito, the Lobito Mining Company, which developed an iron ore mine inland at Cassinga. The construction of the mine installations and a 300 km railway were commissioned to Krupp of Germany and the modern harbour terminal to SETH, a Portuguese company owned by Hojgaard & Schultz of Denmark. The small fishing town of Moçâmedes hosted construction workers, foreign engineers and their families for 2 years. The Ore Terminal was completed on time within one year and the first 250,000 ton ore carrier docked and loaded with ore in 1967.
After independence from Portugal
After the April 1974 military coup in Lisbon, as the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola's political situation deteriorated and the independence of the territory seemed inevitable, many Moçâmedes-based fishing boats departed to Portugal with entire crews and their families. Angola become independent from Portugal in 1975, after the Alvor Agreement. During the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), following the departure of the Portuguese, the mine of Cassinga was controlled by UNITA and the coast by the communist government of the MPLA, so no export was possible. The port installations were unused but protected by communist Cuban soldiers and on the promotory behind the terminal, Soviet experts installed SAM-3 missile sites aimed towards South Africa in May 1981. When intelligence about this increase in military activity reached the USA, airplanes from South Africa completed bombing raids, knocking out the dangerous SAM missile sites at Mocamedes/ Namib sometime in 1981. In 1985 the city of Moçâmedes changed its name to Namibe.
Transport
Rail
Namibe is the terminus of the southern railway network of Angolan Railways. This line was originally 600mm gauge but was converted to 1067mm gauge in the 1950s. 1
Sea
It is one of Angola's 3 major ports, including Luanda and Lobito as well.
Air
Namibe is served by the Namibe Airport located about 7 km to the south of the city. The old Yuri Gagarin airport, only about 1.7 km from the city's center, connects the city to the rest of the country.
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.
References
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