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Angola Mbundu
Just north of Ovimbundu territory lived the Mbundu, the
second
largest ethnolinguistic category, whose language was
Kimbundu. In
1988 they made up an estimated 25 percent of the Angolan
population. In the sixteenth century, most of the groups
that came
to be known as Mbundu (a name apparently first applied by
the
neighboring Bakongo) lived well to the east of the coast
in the
plateau region (at a somewhat lower altitude than the
Ovimbundu);
a few groups in the far northeast lived at altitudes below
700
meters. In general, the outlines of the area occupied by
the Mbundu
had remained the same. The major exception was their
expansion of
this area to parts of the coast formerly occupied by
Bakongo and
others.
Although most of the boundaries of Mbundu territory
remained
fairly firm, the social and linguistic boundaries of the
category
had shifted, some of the peripheral groups having been
variably
influenced by neighboring groups and the groups close to
the coast
having been more strongly influenced by the Portuguese
than were
the more remote ones. Moreover, the subdivisions
discernible for
the sixteenth century (and perhaps earlier) also changed
in
response to a variety of social and linguistic influences
in the
colonial period. The Mbundu in general and the western
Mbundu in
particular, located as they were not far from Luanda, were
susceptible to those influences for a longer time and in a
more
intense way than were other Angolan groups.
There were a number of Kimbundu dialects and groups.
Two, each
incorporating Portuguese terms, gradually became dominant,
serving
as lingua francas for many Mbundu. The western dialect was
centered
in Luanda, to which many Mbundu had migrated over the
years. The
people speaking it, largely urban, had come to call
themselves
Ambundu or Akwaluanda, thus distinguishing themselves from
rural
Mbundu. The eastern dialect, known as Ambakista, had its
origins in
the eighteenth century in a mixed Portuguese-Mbundu
trading center
at Ambaca near the western edge of the plateau region, but
it
spread in the nineteenth century through much of eastern
Mbundu
territory. Another Kimbundu-speaking group, the Dembos,
were
generally included in the Mbundu category. Living north of
Luanda,
they had also been strongly influenced by Kikongo
speakers.
By the late 1960s, the Mbundu living in the cities,
such as
Luanda and Malanje, had adopted attributes of Portuguese
lifestyle . Many had intermarried with Portuguese, which led to
the
creation of an entirely new class of mestiços.
Those who
received formal education and fully adopted Portuguese
customs
became assimilados (see Glossary).
The Mbundu were the MPLA's strongest supporters when
the
movement first formed in 1956. The MPLA's president,
Agostinho
Neto, was the son of a Mbundu Methodist pastor and a
graduate of a
Portuguese medical school. In the 1980s, the Mbundu were
predominant in Luanda, Bengo, Cuanza Norte, Malanje, and
northern
Cuanza Sul provinces.
Data as of February 1989
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