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Angola ETHNIC GROUPS AND LANGUAGES
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Displaced persons walk to a camp in Cuanza Sul Province.
Courtesy Richard J. Hough
Although Portuguese was Angola's official language, the
great
majority of Angolans (more than 95 percent of the total
population)
used languages of the Bantu family--some closely related,
others
remotely so--that were spoken by most Africans living
south of the
equator and by substantial numbers north of it.
Angola's remaining indigenous peoples fell into two
disparate
categories. A small number, all in southern Angola, spoke
so-called
Click languages (after a variety of sounds characteristic
of them)
and differed physically from local African populations.
These Click
speakers shared characteristics, such as small stature and
lighter
skin color, linking them to the hunting and gathering
bands of
southern Africa sometimes referred to by Europeans as
Bushmen. The
second category consisted of mestiços, largely
urban and
living in western Angola. Most spoke Portuguese, although
some were
also acquainted with African languages, and a few may have
used
such a language exclusively.
Data as of February 1989
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![[JPEG]](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/angola/ao02_02b.jpg)
