Ganda is a city and municipality in the province of Benguela, Angola.
It has 4,817 km² and about 208 thousand inhabitants. It borders to the north with the municipalities of Bocoio and Balombo, to the east with the municipalities of Tchinjenje, Ukuma and Longonjo, to the south with the municipalities of Caconda and Caluquembe and to the west with the municipality of Cubal.
Until 1975 it was called Mariano Machado. The name Ganda comes from Nganda (Umbundu language), the name given to two large stones called Nganda Lakawe and which had great significance for the first people who inhabited the region. The Nganda ancestors are natives of Ngola-Luanda, who left their land and settled for some time in the region now occupied by the Bailondos. Some of these people did not like the land because it did not have good pastures and decided to found Embala do Huambo, under the command of the Huambo chief Kalunga. Another group founded Libatas further south, in a place that stood out for having two large stones, which they called Nganda Lakawe.
Between 1906 and 1908, the Portuguese arrived in this region and, at the time, asked the people they met there what their name was, and they replied that they were called Nganda. Thus, the name Nganda was registered and made official with the arrival of the Portuguese in the region of (Chikuma).
The first settlers intended to settle in the place currently known as Ganda, but encountered major barriers in the current commune of Catengue, imposed by Soba Mavango who reigned there. According to a legendary description, Soba Mavango covered the territory with a mystical cloak (Etambo), which deceived anyone who approached the cloak with a tendency to do evil, thus allowing him to control the borders of the Kingdom and prevent European penetration. In the struggle for succession, Matias Tchivole, son of Soba Mavango, set fire to Etambo and asked the Portuguese for support in legitimizing it. The Portuguese had their administrative headquarters in the Songe region, currently the Utatala farm in the Cubal Municipality, where they had settled in the Cubal region (Hanha).
However, the Vakambangula, Kambulu and their clerk Kuimbala wrote an anonymous letter referring to all the tricks and evils that were taking place in the region under the command of the Administrator of the Municipality. This letter was addressed to the Governor-General of Angola, without a copy to the Governor of the District of Benguela. After the latter acknowledged receipt and found that it had not been made known to the Governor of the District, he sent the letter to Benguela. A few days later, Soba Tchilandala and two sekulu were called in, and were arrested in Benguela and the Soba was sent to a prison in Luanda, where he served two years in prison between 1920 and 1922. The Administration of the Municipality of Ganda was established in 1922.
In 1934, the Ganda Administrative Council was established, with the Administrative Posts of Ebanga, Chicuma, Babaera, Cubal, Tchindjendje and Tchilata. These were made up of Ombalas and these, in turn, of Kimbos. This Ganda Council was the birthplace of the roasting and blending of coffee made by the Ganda agricultural cooperative. In the same year, the Prazeres Farm, located in the Babaera Commune, produced wines, juices and fruit concentrates, and TALIM produced canned fruit and vegetables. Also noteworthy is the research activity carried out by the Angolan Veterinary Research Institute (IIVA) in the improvement of cattle and pig breeds at a local level. The Post-Independence PeriodAfter independence, the Administrative Council became known as a Municipality. Cubal and Tchindjendje were detached from Ganda and became Municipalities.
The Administrative posts became Communes and the Municipality of Ganda came to include the current communes of Ebanga, Chicuma, Babaera and Casseque. Regarding the presence of political parties in the municipality, the first to establish itself was the MPLA, on 22 June 1974, followed by UNITA on 16 August and the FNLA in September of the same year. In 1978, the first armed conflict broke out in the Commune of Ebanga, with people fleeing to the plantations of Ganda (locality) under the control of the then Municipal Commissioner. The conflicts began between the political parties, when UNITA fought the FNLA and pushed it towards Zaire. Only UNITA and the Government remained. UNITA then settled in the forests of Chicuma, Ebanga and Chimboa, with the Government remaining in the city.
From a social point of view, the first Ganda Recreational Club was established in 1941 and in 1964 the first schools for adults and children were built in the towns of Indongo and Lukwakwa. Also during the colonial period, a Municipal Hospital and several health clinics were built, mainly on farms. The doctors were foreigners, with Dr. Gomes Pinto being particularly noteworthy for the number of hospital consultations and operations performed in the health clinics that operated at the time. At that time, there were already Angolan nurses. From an economic perspective, Ganda was already experiencing a certain level of economic development, taking into account the industries that had been set up, the existing commercial establishments and the farms that were already producing. The main source of income was the Angolan Cellulose and Paper Company, formerly called “Companhia de Celulose do Ultramar Português, SARL”. But it was precisely in 1973 that the economic sector was strengthened with the industrial activity of processing sausages and fruit preserves by the Buçaco Agricultural and Livestock Society. to other locations. On August 15, 1993, the Government retook the Municipality, but the population continued to be concentrated in the headquarters and each communal Administrator supported his population together with their respective Sobas. Despite the armed conflict that ravaged the municipality, in the post-independence period and after the elections, the education and health systems continued to function, although in a very precarious manner and restricted to the municipal headquarters. Because of the conflict, the populations were left without their possessions, forcing some to take refuge in neighboring municipalities.
At this time, non-governmental humanitarian aid organizations (Red Cross, CRS, Action Against Hunger, ADRA and OXFAM) emerged in the municipality to provide support to the populations. The churches also played a very important role in humanitarian aid. During the war, all the factories were destroyed, cattle were stolen, and the population, concentrated in the municipal headquarters, was unable to cultivate the lands that were far away. And to make matters worse, in 1978-1979 there was a severe drought, which increased the suffering of the population.
Of the four banks that operated in the colonial era, only the National Bank remained after independence. During this period, the People's Stores and the Peasant Associations were created, following the example of the Soviet kolkhoz and sovkhov, within the framework of the collectivization policy. With the advent of Peace, the State Administration was extended to the entire territory of the municipality and the majority of the population returned to their lands of origin. The panorama of the municipality began to change, with the reopening of roads, the rehabilitation and construction of bridges and piers, improvements in the provision of services to the population, the reactivation of economic development with the increase in production, and the opening of banking and commercial institutions. In the Municipality of Ganda, important entities were born and created due to the contribution they made to the well-being of the citizens, such as the writer and historian Raul David and the herbalist
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