Angola

ANGOLA. - 1. GEOGRAPHY. - It is the largest (with Cabinda and Landana to the N. of the mouth of the Congo, 1.2 million sq. km.), but not the most populous (3.7 million inhabitants, fewer than 3 per sq. km.) of the Portuguese colonies. Behind the narrow coastal strip on the Atlantic, for the most part low and inhospitable and surmounted by a mountainous rim, it spreads out into a vast plateau, which is better suited to the settlement of European colonists, and therefore to agricultural practices and livestock raising. The altitude (about a thousand m. on average) tempers there the excesses of the tropical climate and above all its aridity, which increases toward the S. The population comprises, alongside the Bantu who form its mass, about 45 thousand whites and 30 thousand mulattoes. Catholics number over 500 thousand, the rest are pagans.

Agricultural production is varied; of it, coffee, maize, sugar, cotton and tobacco are above all exported. Livestock raising is mostly devoted to cattle. Diamonds reach even higher values in exports, whose collection center is Malange, in the Cuanza basin.

Communications have also received an impulse because A. represents the outlet of Katanga, which a railway (1344 km.) reaches from Lobito, crossing the entire colony from W. to E.

The most important centers are Loanda (61 thousand inhabitants), where the Government has its seat (a high commissioner assisted by an advisory council), and Lobito (14 thousand inhabitants), on the coast.

Giuseppe Caraci

2. HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY

Under the name of "A. and Congo" was designated, until 7 May 1940, the diocese that comprised part of the present Portuguese colony of A., with residence in S. Paolo di Loanda, whose erection dates back to 1596. Within the territory of the colony there also existed: the apostolic prefecture of Cubango in A. (from 1921), formerly Cimbebasia (from 1879), and the missions "sui iuris" of Cunene (from 1881), of the Lower Congo (1888) and of Lunda (from 1901). A., until toward the beginning of the 15th century, was part of the indigenous kingdom of the Congo, from which it then made itself independent; its capital was Dongo. Evangelization began immediately in that century, toward the end of which 20,000 Christians were counted, and it continued there, sporadic however and intermittent, in the following 16th century, also suffering the repercussions of the not infrequent rebellions against Portugal. In the 17th century A. formed a single mission with that of the Congo, directed by the Italian Capuchins. At the end of that century, besides the Capuchins, the Jesuits were working in A., directing a seminary at Loanda, and the Carmelites, under the authority of the bishop (with seat at Loanda) and of the parish priests, within a radius of five miles and beyond, by virtue of the faculty of Propaganda Fide. A century later the missions went into decline because of the suppression of the religious Orders in Portugal, and then because of the French Revolution, so that, by the middle of the 19th century, the bishop of Loanda had at his disposal only five priests, and the interior was completely abandoned: the Italian Capuchins had withdrawn between 1830 and 1840. The fact that the colony, being Portuguese, was subject to that nation's patronage made difficult the procedures for sending there missionaries of the Holy Spirit (French), who, assisted by Propaganda, aspired to take over those missions, so that in 1873 they resolved to settle at Landana, outside Portuguese dominion. Subsequently the difficulties were smoothed over, in this respect, since the Congregation of the Holy Spirit had opened at Santarem (1867) a house for the recruitment of Portuguese vocations; others arose however, because of the competition of the Protestants who flocked there after Stanley's journey (1878); but, as the apostolate expanded, the four missions of Cunene, of the Lower Congo, of Cubango in A. and of Lunda developed, autonomous, yes, but comprised - except for some small zone - within the radius of the diocese of A., by which the apostolic prefects of the individual missions were recognized as vicars general for their respective territory. In the period 1910-24 they had to suffer the repercussion of the religious struggle following the establishment of the republic in Portugal. Lately the missions were quite flourishing. In the whole colony, in 1940, there were 167 priests (32 Portuguese secular priests, 124 of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, 11 Portuguese Benedictines), 125 brothers and 150 sisters (61 of the Congregation of St. Joseph of Cluny, 8 Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, 20 Dorotheans, 17 of the Most Holy Savior, 3 Benedictines of Tutzing, all European, plus 41 indigenous). The total Catholic population, of European and indigenous origin, was 530,000 souls.

With the missionary Accord of 7 May 1940 between the Holy See and Portugal, the entire ecclesiastical organization was changed: the ancient missionary circumscriptions having lapsed, the colony of A. was divided into three dioceses, Loanda, New Lisbon and Silva Porto, all already erected on 4 Sept. of the same year as the Accord (1940); a fourth, S. Tommaso, was erected subsequently; the Accord also provided, in the colony, for a reorganization of the mission, with the creation of new missionary circumscriptions which, given the present circumstances, has not yet taken place.

Giovanni B. Tragella