Angola

By the sea, the land is low and flat.

Then it climbs up steep slopes to high plains. The highest mountain is Mount Moco. The south coast is very dry. The north gets lots of rain.

From a narrow coastal plain, Angola's land climbs steeply up a series of cliffs and slopes called escarpments to rugged highlands. The Bié Plateau, east of Benguela, is above 1,500 meters, and Angola's highest point, Mount Moco near Huambo, reaches 2,620 meters. The eastern two-thirds is an almost flat plateau, covered in deep Kalahari sand.

The Cuanza, about 1,000 kilometers long, is the largest river entirely inside Angola. The Congo River forms part of the border in the north, and the Cunene in the south tumbles over the Ruacana Falls. Rain falls from September to May in the north but only from December to March in the south, and the southern coast is very dry.

The coastal plain narrows from about 200 km south of Luanda to about 25 km near Benguela. The Bié Plateau, above 1,500 m, covers about one-tenth of the country, and Mount Moco near Huambo is the highest point at 2,620 m; the eastern two-thirds is a featureless plateau of infertile windblown Kalahari sands falling to 500-1,000 m at the eastern border. The Lunda Divide separates north- and south-flowing rivers: the Cuango drains to the Congo, which forms the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo for its final 145 km; the Cuanza (about 1,000 km) is the largest river entirely within Angola; the Cunene breaks through the escarpment at Ruacana Falls; and southeastern rivers feed the Zambezi and the Okavango.

The climate is tropical with a marked dry season, shaped by the intertropical convergence zone, the cold Benguela Current and elevation. Rainfall falls from about 1,800 mm in Cabinda's Maiombe forest and 1,450 mm at Huambo to 330 mm at Luanda and about 50 mm on the southernmost coast; average annual temperatures range from 26 °C at Soyo to 19 °C at Huambo. True desert is confined to the Namib in the far southwest.

Elephants, giraffes and zebras live in Angola.

Lions and leopards live there too. The giant sable antelope lives in the south. A strange desert plant has two very long leaves.

Much of Angola is savanna, grassland with scattered trees. Its animals include leopards, lions and hyenas, along with elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, wildebeests, other antelopes and monkeys. Angola has many kinds of birds and reptiles, including crocodiles.

The giant sable antelope, found in the south, is especially at risk, and so are the gorillas and chimpanzees of the Maiombe forest, the black rhinoceros and the Angolan giraffe. In the Namib Desert grows the tumboa, or welwitschia, a plant with a deep root and just two broad leaves about 3 meters long that lie on the ground.

Britannica describes Angola's fauna as typical of African savanna: leopards, lions and hyenas; elephants, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras, buffaloes, wildebeests and other antelopes; monkeys, many birds and reptiles including crocodiles. About a dozen national parks and reserves exist, notably Iona National Park and Quiçama National Park, just south of Luanda, but checks on hunting largely broke down during the civil war. The giant sable antelope (Hippotragus niger variani) of the south is particularly vulnerable, and endangered populations include the gorillas and chimpanzees of the Maiombe forest, the black rhinoceros and the Angolan giraffe.

Dense rainforest once covered parts of Cabinda, the Malanje highlands and the Bié Plateau, but agriculture and logging have diminished it, and savanna now covers most of the country, from savanna-forest mosaic in the north to thorn scrub in the south; frequent fires mean its trees are usually fire-resistant. The Namib holds the tumboa (Welwitschia mirabilis), with a deep taproot and two flat leaves about 3 m long, and the cold Benguela Current makes marine life especially rich along the southern coast.

Many different peoples live in Angola.

Most people speak Portuguese. Many also speak languages like Umbundu, Kimbundu and Kikongo. Many dishes use palm oil and seafood. Music and dancing matter a lot, and the drum is the main instrument.

Angola's largest groups are the Ovimbundu, who speak Umbundu, and the Mbundu, who speak Kimbundu; each makes up about a quarter of the population. The Kongo, who speak Kikongo, live in the far north, and the Lunda, Chokwe, Ovambo, Herero and others live in other regions. Portuguese is spoken across the country and is used in schools and government.

Most people in Angola are Christian. Palm oil is an important part of many dishes, and many dishes feature seafood. At the harvest festival of Nganja, usually in April, children roast corn. The Chokwe people are known for their wooden sculptures, and drums such as the ngoma are traditional instruments.

Apart from a few Europeans and small groups of Northern Khoisan speakers such as the !Kung in the southeast, Angolans speak Bantu languages of the Niger-Congo family. The Ovimbundu (Umbundu) and Mbundu (Kimbundu) each make up about one-fourth of the population and the Kongo (Kikongo) about one-eighth; the Lunda, Chokwe and Ngangela live in the thinly populated east, and the Ovambo and Herero in the southwest. Portuguese was spoken by some in the Kongo kingdom as early as 1491; it became the lingua franca, and since independence the government has also recognized six African languages for teaching. About two-fifths of people are Roman Catholic and about two-fifths Protestant.

More than four-fifths of people were rural at the end of the colonial period, about three-fifths by the early 21st century. Britannica notes that the blend of Portuguese and African culture makes urban Luanda in some ways like Latin America. Palm oil and seafood feature in many dishes, Nganja is an April harvest festival, Chokwe wood sculpture and Cabinda ivory carving are celebrated arts, and the poet Agostinho Neto, Angola's first president, described the country as 'red with coffee, white with cotton, green with maize'.