Trip to Angola: Tribes, Iona Desert and Colonial Heritage

30th june - 12nd july 2022 (13 days / 11 nights) / TRIP COMPLETED

The good traveler is often fascinated by places that give off a new aroma and flavor. Angola has that, it is a large, enormous country ... unknown to the rest of the world, but that will change shortly. You have to go now that it is in effervescence of change to taste the legacy of a brutal civil war, absurd and too long, and of the colonial past, still very present among mulattoes, blacks and tan whites. The weight of history is there and marks the present and we do not know to what extent the future, but its nature is recovering and the tribal cattle-raising peoples of the south continue to withstand the changing times in their own way. Angola is a country that is reinventing itself, it is fascinating and mysterious and worth exploring.

The guide of the trip will be Joan Riera, an anthropologist specializing in African animist societies. More information about the guide.

Great cultural diversity

Great cultural diversity concentrated in the southwest of the country. Last Places has classified 16 different tribes in the provinces of Huila, Cunene and Namibe. In the remote region of Kwando Kuvango are the last nomadic San (hunter gatherers) tribal groups of Africa. In the northern border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, you can visit the remains of ancient trading kingdoms and admire the art of the Kongo and Tchokwe peoples.

Virgin ecosystems

Virgin ecosystems yet to be explored: Iona Desert (Namib extension) in the south and primary forest in Cabinda. Thousands of kilometers of virgin beaches on the Atlantic coast and the wetlands of Kwando Kuvango, one of the wildest areas in Africa and the mythical place where the Okavango River is born. Endemisms in Mount Moco and in the Kangandala Reserve, refuge of the sable antelope, the national symbol of Angola.

Portuguese colonial heritage and vernacular architecture

The Portuguese were in Angola from 1575 to 1975 and left a cultural legacy of great anthropological and architectural interest. The churches and forts in the Baroque style, the Art Deco buildings of the coastal cities and the ‘modern tropical’ style that lasted from 1945 to 1975 stand out.