Story Production Editing
Uige-Negage
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On Tuesday morning we left Luanda on our way to the province of Uige, at the north east part of Angola.
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We wanted to visit Uige, the capital city of the province, and the smaller city called Negage, 40 minutes from the capital.
As we were driving I began to notice the changing scenery, from beach town to jungle; the climate, the views, the people and the extremely curvy beautiful road that somehow prepares you for a totally different experience.
After we passed Caxito I spotted some kids playing on the side of the road, so we decided to stop and compliment them. These kids are on their school holiday and they come from a village called Ceramic, named after an old ceramic factory that operated there during the Portuguese colonial period. Apparently, there is a company that is currently renovating the factory, in aim to renew the ceramic manufacturing in the village.
We arrived to Uige after 6 hours of driving and went straight to the city's major hotel, one I have already been to and felt comfortable in. My dinner "treat" was, as always, rice and salad because the rest of the dishes were meet based, and I somehow still manage to hold on to being vegetarian.
If you would like some nice pastries, there is a nice bakery you can go to at the Penguin Hotel, it is not a gourmet bakery but you can find freshly squeezed orange juice, café and cakes.
Weather wise, you will find morning and evening air to be fresh, borderline chilly and extremely hot during the day.
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The next morning we drove to Kilomosso, a very simple village dotted with mud houses. They got a new water pump that has been built there, pumping water from the river directly to the village, instead of the women and girls having to walk for 3 hours minimum carrying on their heads the big plastic tanks, baskets, bottles etc.
People were very nice and were already dancing to local music, having their own morning party.
We continued on to Denga, the road was very bad
Denga village is located very far within the remote fields. They have a school and clinic structures.
We also found an amazing old coffee factory.
Denga is the Soba (king) and the first man who came to live there. Denga lived in Songo but left to a place where he can be closer to the river and establish a new coffee plantation
Angola was once a major coffee source and no one could talk about coffee without mentioning the province of Uige. Today you can still find their coffee in the city markets, packed in a simple bag.
Uige has three main spoken languages: Kikongo of the Bacongo people, kimbundo due to the border with N’dalatando, and Lengala the language of Congo.
During the period of the Angolan civil war, many Angolans run away to Congo and later came back with the Congolese languages and Congolese families, so you can easily find French speaking people there.
On our third day in the province of Uige, we drove 40 minutes to Negage.
Negage was known for a long time as Carmona, named after the first Portuguese who came there. When the Portuguese came to N’gage they could not pronounce the name the same as the locals, they pronounced it Negage instead. After the liberation from the Portuguese rule the Angolan people took back the original name of the place, but kept the Portuguese twist. In the native tongue Kikongo, the word Negage means the wreath of the Dendem, the fruit of the palm trees growing next to the river N’gage, yes, it is the name of the river as well.
In Negage I could still feel the remains of the civil war. The people kept more to themselves and the city hardly changed, you can still see the scars the war had left behind.
Food-wise it was challenging; after searching for quite a while we found this one bakery where we finally managed to buy normal fresh bread, and not to mention other types of food… thank god we were hosted by friends.
The Soba of Kabala is Senior Mendes Jacinto, and he told us that Kabala was founded in 1964 by the Portuguese who were its first inhabitants.
He knows the words were scribed there even before his grandfather's time, since the local people of Negage had their ritual gatherings there for many years.
Unfortunately, we could not visit the place because a funeral had just taken place in the village and, apparently, the tradition is that the stones are to be visited only during times of happiness – so, instead, the Soba showed us a postcard he had.
Here are a couple of words in Kikongo, which you will hear a lot when you pass through the remote areas of the province of Uige:
N’ge - meaning: you
Tiambote – meaning: thank you
For me, the most amazing experience is visiting remote areas, where the people you meet are much more open and friendly than the city people. I just smile at them, always with the curtsy of saying good morning, how are you, and more greetings, a lot of greetings.
As for photographing the locals, whenever I want to take picture I always start with asking for permission because sometimes people are afraid, due to superstitions, and that is something that has to be respected.
Don’t forget to bring along some cookies and a lot of crayons and papers, for the kids…
Before we left Negage we stopped at Kabala, a village 15 minutes from the main city of Negage. The people of this place have a story to tell: they have found a very ancient carving of letters on one of the stones; words which they believe were put there by god.
Next place
Malanje!!!
