Cabinda

Before the Portuguese, the coast north of the Congo river belonged to three related Kongo-speaking kingdoms: Loango further north, and Kakongo and Ngoyo, whose lands covered most of today's Cabinda. From the 17th century their ports traded ivory, copper and above all enslaved people with Portuguese, Dutch, English and French ships, and Cabinda Bay became one of the busiest slave-trading anchorages on the coast.

As European powers carved up the region in the 1880s, local chiefs signed the Treaty of Simulambuco with Portugal in 1885, placing the area under Portuguese protection; the Berlin Conference the same year gave the land along the Congo mouth to King Leopold's Congo Free State. This left Cabinda separated from Angola, and it was administered as a distinct protectorate before being run as part of Angola from the mid-20th century.

Oil changed everything. Gulf Oil found large offshore fields in the 1960s, and Cabinda became the source of a large share of Angola's oil. FLEC, the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda, was founded in 1963 and argues that the Simulambuco treaty makes Cabinda a separate territory; the Angolan government regards it as an integral province. Low-level fighting has continued since 1975, a memorandum of understanding was signed with one faction in 2006, but an armed struggle persists.

Cabindans are mainly Bakongo, divided into groups such as the Woyo on the coast, the Kakongo and the Yombe of the Mayombe hills. The local speech is Ibinda, historically also called Fiote (a term many Cabindans now reject), a group of Kikongo dialects, and many people also speak French or Lingala through family and trade links with the two Congos, alongside Portuguese.

Identity here is shaped by distance from Luanda and by the old kingdoms. Traditional authorities and clan heads still carry weight, and the region is known for its carved wooden figures and power objects, the minkisi.

The Catholic Church is especially strong, a legacy of early missions such as Landana. A widespread feeling that oil wealth has not reached ordinary Cabindans colours conversation, although opinions on autonomy vary widely and the subject is sensitive.

Cabinda province has about 900,000 people, most of them in and around Cabinda city, the capital and main port. Smaller towns include Landana in Cacongo municipality, Buco-Zau and Belize in the forested north. Paved roads, new housing and public buildings have multiplied since the 2000s, but many districts still lack reliable water and power.

The oil industry dominates the economy, yet it is concentrated offshore and in fenced company compounds, employing relatively few local people. Most families live from fishing, small farming of cassava and bananas, timber, and trade, including cross-border business with Pointe-Noire, where some goods are cheaper, and with the DR Congo.

Daily rhythms follow the markets, church and the weather, with heavy rains turning rural roads to mud for months. Unemployment among young people, the cost of goods shipped from Luanda and the security presence are the everyday concerns.

Cabinda's cooking is closer to that of the two Congos than to Luanda's. Cassava is the base: pounded leaves become kizaka, a green stew cooked with palm oil, peanuts or fish, and the root is turned into funge or chikwanga, a sour fermented cassava bread steamed in leaves. Fresh fish from the Atlantic and the rivers is grilled or stewed with tomato, onion and chilli, and smoked fish is sold in every market.

Palm oil, peanuts and forest products fill the pots in the Mayombe, where snails, wild greens and bushmeat are part of village cooking. Bananas and plantains are eaten boiled or fried.

To drink, palm wine is tapped in the villages, and beer comes from Luanda and across the border. Cabinda is also known across Angola for pau de Cabinda, the bark of a forest tree sold as a traditional tonic and aphrodisiac.

Cabinda city is the natural base: its seafront, the central squares and churches, the busy market and the beaches just outside town give a sense of a port city with a character distinct from the rest of Angola. North along the coast, Landana has its old Catholic mission and a long, quiet Atlantic beach, and the Chiloango river forms much of the frontier with the DR Congo.

The main natural draw is the Maiombe rainforest, part of the Mayombe forest belt shared with the two Congos, which covers the hills of the northern municipalities around Buco-Zau and Belize. Maiombe National Park protects a block of this forest and its tall hardwoods. Visitor facilities are minimal, access depends on local guides and security conditions, and the forest is best seen on organised visits arranged in Cabinda city.