page_title: Lubango
section_title: Portuguese rule
hierarchical_section_title: Lubango / History / Portuguese rule
caption_attribution_description: English: Canyon in the Huila Plateau Deutsch: Schlucht im Huila-Plateau
context_page_description: Lubango, formerly known as Sá da Bandeira, is a municipality in Angola, capital of the Huíla Province, with a population of 776,249. The city center has a population of 600,751 making it the second largest city in Angola after the capital city Luanda.
context_section_description: In 1882 approximately one thousand of Portuguese settlers came from the island of Madeira to the area of current-day Lubango, Angola. These Portuguese farmers successfully developed the entire region and founded the settlement. The city, originally established in 1885 to serve colonists from the Madeira Islands, lies at an elevation of 1,760 metres in a valley of the Huíla Plateau and was surrounded by a scenic park spreading up the mountain slopes.
  By 1910 there were over 1,700 ethnic Portuguese living in the settlement, which was referred to as "Lubango". By 1923 the Moçâmedes Railway had connected the settlement to the town of Moçâmedes in the coast. The Portuguese government made it a city and renamed it "Sá da Bandeira", after Bernardo de Sá, 1st Marquess of Sá da Bandeira. Once the major centre of Portuguese settlement, it was built in a Portuguese style of architecture, with a cathedral, commerce hall, industrial hall, and a secondary school, and, like every Portuguese city or town in the mainland and the overseas territories, it would have the Portuguese town hall, the hospital and the typical CTT post office, besides banking (most prominently the Banco Nacional Ultramarino - BNU), insurance and other services as well. The city developed as a notable agricultural and transportation centre, with its own airport and railway station, as well as major maintenance and repair facilities for them.
  Several Basters (children of African and Cape Colony Dutch descent) emigrated from Namibia to Angola and settled in Lubango, where they are known as the Ouivamo. Many of them were forced to return to Namibia between 1928 and 1930 by white South Africans.
  In 1951, the Portuguese colony of Angola was officially rebranded the Overseas Province of Angola.
caption: Canyon in Lubango.
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