Kuito

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Kuito is a city located in central Angola. It is the administrative capital of Bié Province. Its colonial name, used until 1975, was Silva Porto. Kuito was under siege in 1993/94 and again in 1998/99 by the rebel forces from UNITA. Many buildings in Kuito are still heavily damaged as a result of these sieges.

[edit] History

The city of Kuito is built in the traditional center of the Ovimbundu kingdom headquarters. The ruler of the Ovimbundu was named Viye and he married a Songo woman named Cahanda. Together they built the city and later the Portuguese would name the Bié Province after the ruler.^[1] The Ovimbundu were known for selling captives from neighboring tribes to the European slave traders which made the area an ideal location for the slave business and brought colonists to the area. The Portuguese "founded" the city in 1750.^[2] They later called it Silva Porto after the slave trader António da Silva Porto who built his home Fort Belmonte in the area.^[3] The pleasant climate in the Bié Province was attractive to Portuguese settlers and many made their home in Silva Porto in the early 1900s when the Benguela Railway connected the city to the coast.

Kuito has a long history of violence starting with the slave trade and later in the 1960s the Portuguese used Silva Porto as a training center for training African soldiers to send North in order to fight the rebels. Kuito saw its worst times in 1994 when UNITA laid siege of the city and over 9 months an estimated 30,000 people were killed both from the war and starvation. Nobody was permitted to enter or leave the city for 9 months. UNITA was eventually driven from Kuito and a second attempt was made to capture the city in 1998 using huge artillery and tanks.^[4]

[edit] Transportation

Kuito lies on the Benguela railway that once connected the inland provinces to the coast. The Railroads should be repaired in the next few years. There are also direct flights from Luanda.

[edit] Notes and References

^ T. Ernest Wilson, Angola Beloved p. 32.
^ John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution vol I (1950-1962): The Anatomy of an Explosion. p. 102n.
^ Henry W. Nevison. A Modern Slavery p. 84.
^ Martin James, Historical Dictionary of Angola