Africa-Press – Angola. Confused with the Congolese people, Caputo is a town that was once called Bairro dos Eucaliptos, due to the existence, in the area, of a forest polygon. A small plot of red earth full of eucalyptus, and not only that, it was like this which was the area where illustrious figures were born, grew up and live.
At the beginning of the 1950s, between the Bairro Novo de São Paulo de Luanda (Congolenses) and Terra Nova, a small residential area emerged that was later called Caputo. In colonial times, as the story goes, there was a forest polygon in the area, made up of eucalyptus trees, which were felled to make room for the construction of buildings that over time became the district’s calling card.
Manuel Lopes, a former resident, says that in colonial times Caputo was an authentic forest and only appeared as a neighborhood in the 1970s, after the construction of the buildings.”The neighborhood begins or begins next to the electric cabin on the Catete road, passing through the area of Triangle to the current Rangel Health Center, and ends at the old Soeiro store, owned by a Portuguese. Everything in colonial times belonged to the Caputo neighborhood”.
Considered one of the neighborhood’s emblematic figures, Manuel Lopes categorically states that the Triângulo area has always belonged to the Caputo neighborhood and not to the Congolese people, “as has been wrongly said” in recent times.
“The Triângulo area, geographically, belongs to Caputo, as confirmed by some demographic studies carried out at the time and which are partly uncertain. It is important that the new generation knows about this important historical detail”, indicates our interlocutor.
At 75 years old and still very lucid, Manuel Lopes, a former soccer star, says further that the Caputo neighborhood came after Terra Nova.
One of the reasons for planting eucalyptus trees in the area, according to our interlocutor, was to serve as a curtain against the winds, as well as to stop brackish waters coming from underground. The root of a eucalyptus tree, according to studies, has the ability to fetch or drain water from more than 30 meters deep. Just to give you an idea, a eucalyptus tree consumes 60 liters of water per day.
Manuel Lopes highlighted that the destruction of the eucalyptus trees in the 1970s, across that entire stretch of land where the buildings were built, “was a serious attack on the environment”, stressing that that action could, in the future, “lead to serious consequences”.
Reports from residents of the neighborhood state that the area behind Ngola Cine belonged to the Caputo neighborhood and there “there were also leafy eucalyptus trees that were cut down”.
On the other hand, some writings from the time indicate that the Mercado dos Congolenses, administratively, at the time of its creation in 1965, was called Mercado do Caputo and housed just over 100 vendors. Given the proximity of the market to the residential blocks in which the so-called “Congolenses” were concentrated, with only one street separating them, by extension, Mercado do Caputo popularly came to be known as Mercado dos Congolenses, just like the neighborhood itself, whose official name was actually Bairro Popular de São Paul.
Furthermore, it was from the terrace of the Caputo buildings that many kids watched the movement of the locomotives of the Luanda Railways, and other infrastructures that appeared on the sides of Congo Pequeno, now Cazenga. We reiterate: from the then imposing buildings of Caputo it was possible to view the Musseque Station of the Luanda Railway and the entire architectural landscape of the old industrial hub of Cazenga. From the terrace of the “Efes” buildings in Caputo, one could also clearly see the Cazenga Water Treatment Station, known as Tanque do Cazenga, the area where, in 1974, a white taxi driver was found dead in his own vehicle. green and black color with the taximeter on the roof. This fact triggered a series of social disturbances well documented in the press of the time.
Origin of the neighborhood’s name
An old narrative indicates that between a “continuous line” between the Congolese and Terra Nova, the Caputo neighborhood was born, bordered by the old Dom João II street, later renamed Lino Amezaga.
The name Caputo, according to reports from some residents, comes from the local Kimbundu language and means “settler”, “white” or “colonial authority”. Manuel Lopes states that Caputo was the designation that the natives gave to the Portuguese Government, on the one hand, and, on the other, because Mr. João Capinto, a sepoy, lived in the neighborhood.
“These references from colonial times gave the neighborhood this nickname or name. The sepoy João Capinto was one of the neighborhood’s hallmarks, or rather, he had an influence on the attribution of the name Caputo to the neighborhood by the population.”
Acceptance of the name spread to the older people who lived in the wattle and daub huts on the sides of Congo Pequeno, close to the railway line. And it continues to this day.
In the late 1950s, with the migration or arrival of settlers from Portugal (metropolis) to the then overseas province of Angola in search of better status, the Caputo neighborhood, specifically in the area close to Terra Nova, found itself transformed, with the construction of houses with a different architectural model. This is how in the 1960s, Caputo no longer had that musseque magic. The modern typology of houses in the neighborhood, at that time, was similar to those built in other districts of the city of Luanda.
The story goes that in the 1960s the contrast between the four-storey housing blocks and their public spaces and the self-built houses with labyrinthine accesses and no public spaces was notable. Between both urban realities arises the famous Caputo Triangle, which It is an official public transport terminal, which later became well known, to this day, as the Congolese Triangle.
João Damba, journalist and “eternal neighbor” of the neighborhood, remembers, with nostalgia, that Caputo is much bigger than the small area commonly called ‘Prédios do Caputo’. This mythical neighborhood gained great visibility with the construction of the five buildings listed in a sequence which goes from F1 to F5 and which have become one of the district’s calling cards.
To better clarify for the reader, the Caputo neighborhood is, specifically, the area of buildings that we access via Lino Amezaga Street (which was once known as Dom João II Street in the times of the other lady).
Manuel Agostinho, a former resident, says that the extension of the Caputo neighborhood went to the Soeiro area, on the main street of the current Rangel Health Center.”We miss those times when we, kids, stole a few pennies from our parents’ pockets. to buy cinema tickets, to watch artist shows at Ngola Cine on Thursdays, Labor Day, and on the first Mondays of the month, the so-called Aguarelas Angolanas”, says Manuel Agostinho, aka Manelas.
Beto Caputo’s version
In 1974, in the fervor of the revolution in the capital, in addition to being appointed commander of the MPLA base in Caputo, Beto saw his name being associated with the neighborhood. The former MPLA guerrilla says, in the book “A Garra ”, published in 2012, his “exploits”, and beyond, as a teenager and young soldier. It was in the extinct Popular Armed Forces for the Liberation of Angola (FAPLA) that he gained the nickname Beto Caputo, at the hands of the current retired general João Luís Neto “Xieto”.
“I can only say that the name came about because there were many Betos in the group: Mbeto Traça, Beto Van-Dúnem, Beto Martins and I don’t know who else. However, to differentiate myself from the others I said that ‘from today onwards we will treat you by Beto Caputo’. It was from that date on that I got that nickname, because almost no one knew my full name”, he reveals in the publication.
The former guerrilla says later in his book that with the arrival of the first MPLA delegation to Luanda, his name began to be frequently mentioned as belonging to the neighborhood.
“It was from that time on that the neighborhood began to be called Caputo, in reference to my name and to this day it remains the Caputo neighborhood”, he emphasizes.
Three-star general, Beto Caputo, pseudonym of Arnaldo Alberto Barbosa, was born in the Sambizanga neighborhood in 1945, in a small store where his father, a Portuguese merchant, lived with a black woman, by the way, his mother. In 1957 he went to school of priests in São Paulo, where he receives primary education. In 1963 he attended high school at D. Crisóstomo and in 1965 he had to report for mandatory military service, where he was considered compelled. And this cost him dearly, as he describes in his book “The Grit”.
The publication also says that in 1967 Beto Caputo was recruited into the company artillery group and became a soldier-driver. One of his first instructors was Salviano de Jesus Sequeira “Kianda”, who at the time was 1st corporal instructor.
He was later sent to Cabinda, where a few months later, in the company of companions, he fled to Congo with the Portuguese uniform and weapon, joining a clandestine MPLA cell.
The former MPLA guerrilla also recalls in his book that it was in Congo where Agostinho Neto asked him, on the eve of independence, to return to help with the opening of the movement’s first committees, including the most famous, located on Rua da Dona Amália , in the current Urban District of Rangel, in Luanda. “I think you saw that this guy, as he is intelligent, should go to Luanda. As he is the son of a white man, we should take advantage of this advantage”, recalls the former guerrilla fighter.
In the book, the author says that “with remarkable organization it was possible to organize Dona Amália’s Action Committee, and another small one in Caputo, to support the staff”.
The former guerrilla says that it was from that moment on that the neighborhood began to be called Caputo, in allusion to his name, which continues to this day.
Asked about this version, Manuel Lopes, a former resident, a man who planted the leafy mulembeira near the Angolan Brewery, says that the narrative does not correspond to the truth. “Beto Caputo was given this nickname just to differentiate himself from other Betos and not because he was associated with the creation of the neighborhood”, he says peremptorily.
Going into Caputo’s past is like taking a trip to the center of the history of at least 70 families who over the last 46 years have lived or still live there.
Trumunos and ball players
In the emblematic neighborhood of Caputo, ball players emerged in the great trumunos that took place under the burning sun and which had the blocks field as a backdrop. The disputes were quite close between teams from the neighborhood and adjacent areas. Zé Pedro (Zaragateiro), from the António Mafuana family, who played for the Petro Atlético de Luanda club, is one of Caputo’s legendary figures. In addition to this mythical figure, other great ball players emerged such as Passos da Silva, Feijó and Manuel Garcia (Nelinho).
There are many more stars. Also noteworthy are former football glories Fernando de Castro Paiva Neto (Kopa), Paulo Miguel (Eusébio) and Carlos Fernando André (Tizinho).
Hermenegildo Tómas Sebastião (Gi), Jorge Alves Veríssimo da Costa (Gito), Joel de Jesus Tomás Sebastião (Jó), Márcio José Guimarães (Cubano) and José Alves Veríssimo da Costa (Zezinho), are on the list of “ball heroes” that the neighborhood had in the other lady’s time.
In times gone by, Caputo didn’t just have football stars. There were also others, in the form of street basketball, such as Samuel Carlos Almeida Tomás (Chabaia), António Sebastião Mixinge (Toni Noy), Víctor Manuel Miranda Miguel (Nelo das Botas), Emiliano Cardoso Januário Quibato (Mito), Gonçalves António Eduardo (Tony Calemba) and Nelson da Silva Costa Ribeiro (Man Dadas).
In that period, between 1960 and 1970, the massification of sports in the former Bairro dos Eucaliptos, as Caputo was also called, was so intense and competitive that, as a result of this action, the district saw its athletes emerge in large clubs. and feedback from the city of Luanda.
It is important to highlight here that the great football matches in the burning sun, as well as the solidarity and friendly street basketball matches were played head to head, with a lot of “virility”. But in the end, fraternization always prevailed and not the result itself..In addition, this was how the kids in the neighborhood, and beyond, enjoyed their free time. “As in any suburban neighborhood, from Monday to Friday young people studied or worked, and Saturdays and Sundays were days of rest , were transformed into sporting days and other types of entertainment”, says Manuel Agostinho.
Triângulo dos Congolenses versus Caputo
In colonial times, between the Catete road and Avenida Brasil, the eastern divider to the Triângulo was a small “forest” of eucalyptus trees that came to be called Triângulo do Caputo. For those who were on the Catete road and if you were heading towards this triangle there would be, along your route, small residences on the right side, passing through Lar do São Vicente, in the backyard of the explainer Menino Neco’s house, to Cervejaria Angolana, where Tecnomant is now, next to the first metallic pedestrian walkway.
The Caputo Triangle, also known as the Congolese Triangle, has always been a space of political and cultural convergence, in colonial times and during the period of the revolution. This emblematic and historic piece of land was, so to speak, the meeting point for nationalists who they went to the Congos and the CIR (Revolutionary Instruction Centers).
The Caputo Triangle was also a center of attraction for its economic (commercial) activity, starting with the Congolese market itself. Caputo, still in colonial times, already had a pharmacy, a drugstore and even a laboratory belonging to the herbalist Sambo. In terms of entertainment, it also had a concert hall, the Cine Ngola, a place where, in the 1970s, Urbano de Castro performed. he debuted, not as a musician but as a juggler, lifting a barrel of wine with his teeth.
The neighborhood has always been famous. Charismatic figures lived there, such as the popular and late musician Waldemar Bastos and the handball player and sports leader Pedro Godinho.
The Proletarian musician also lived in this renowned district. Born in 1957, in the municipality of Waku Kungo, Proletário began his career in 1970, still in his homeland, but became known around 1972 and 1973 in the Caputo neighborhood, where he performed sporadically at the Centro Recreativo e Cultural Maria das Escrequenhas, current Kilamba.
The list of musicians and public figures who have passed through Caputo is extensive and includes Robertinho, a great Malanjino whose music is contagious and drives crowds into a frenzy.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the famous Lino Amezaga street, which runs from the Catete road to the Triângulo area, was the place where kids took advantage of their free time to ride scooters, under the watchful eye of the police.
The Kaxicane nightclub was a reference point for young people who left Caputo and went there to enjoy leisure time.
Dimaca Shopping Center
The Dimaca Shopping Center, owned by a Portuguese merchant, in colonial times was the place where most of the inhabitants of the Caputo neighborhood went frequently to purchase basic necessities. The center had restaurants, shops and other commercial establishments. António Ngunguila, one of the old regulars, says that the Shopping Center is worth taking your hat off to because there is a bit of everything there.
“We were happy but we didn’t know it. The stores, restaurants and other sales areas were always up to the task of satisfying customers. The products, most of which were national, satisfied our orders”, recalls a nostalgic António Ngunguila. However , it wasn’t It was only in Dimaca that the “Caputuenses” lived. In addition to this Shopping Center there was Mr. Reis’s store, previously inhabited by Uncle Duia’s family, who was a driver for the Health Services. In Mr. Reis’s store it was also possible to purchase basic necessities, and not only that, but on a small scale.
Memories aren’t everything. In another aspect, in the 1960s the neighborhood had Barrabás and Rui Pires, young people with great challenges when it came to fighting. Both were uncles of the late TPA journalist Edgar Cunha, who also lived in the district.
The musician António Paulino, the journalist Ernesto Bartolomeu (from a Tocoista family), Kota Pedrito (father of the musician Puto Português), as well as the old Joaquim Kandanje from Pulungunza also lived in the neighborhood, where there was a Recreation and Cultural Center called Kaxikane , which was located between the Dimaca Shopping Center and the border area of Terra Nova. It was this cultural establishment where Caputo’s youth often went to enjoy good music and dancing on the weekends.
References are not everything. There was also the Panificadora Angolana in the neighborhood, which was next to the Cervejaria Angolana (currently the Kaxicane pharmacy), where the youth of the time could not do without a glass.
Menino Neco also left his mark on the neighborhood. Through the hands of this professor, children passed away who are now great figures who do their best in various public and private institutions. Retired journalist João Damba was one of these students.
Kamacoa and Macaco Cão
Similar to what happened in other musseques in Luanda, in the 1950s/60s and 70s, the Caputo neighborhood also had PIDE agents, who, on their rounds, surprised and “shook” the neighborhood, imposing terror.When it came to raids and searches, fear and distrust were evident on the faces of the young people, who feared for their lives as soon as they saw, from afar, the approach of a dark green jeep similar to that of the two fearsome PIDE agents, the famous Kamacoa and Monkey Dog.
There were constant raids in every corner of the neighborhood, to detain young people accused of being “terrorists” by informants. Kamacoa was a giant mulatto, with the characteristics of “Hercules”. Coming from Goa, where he had his origins, Kamacoa was an authentic PIDE snitch who sowed terror in Caputo. According to reports from former residents, he “grabbed” suspects and took them to the police station without any charges.
The other buffoon, which the population nicknamed Macaco Cão, traveled between the musseque Rangel and Caputo aboard his Jeep, giving no respite to the natives who liked to immerse themselves in bohemia.
The police acted in everything that involved peaceful coexistence, such as parties, family gatherings, meetings with friends and other moments of fraternization. The occurrences reached the ears of Macaco Cão through informants, who the population agreed to call snitches. Soon after, Macaco Cão appeared unexpectedly at the venue to perform.
According to reports from former residents, on a normal day in 1970, Kamacoa wanted to surprise a group of young people who were having a fun party at the only fountain that Caputo had, but he was unable to catch anyone, leaving him wet from head to toe. That is, it was unsuccessful.
Still the history
Initially the Caputo neighborhood was called Bairro dos Eucaliptos. It was in this eucalyptus area where, in 1963, the Indian and gypsy communities sold, in a kind of fair under the trees, used clothes (bales) and trinkets. The eucalyptus plantation by the Luanda City Council had the objective, as stated above, dry the brackish waters. Close to the forest polygon there was a branch of the Ambaca (Luanda) railway line which, coming from Cidade Alta Station, in Maianga, headed towards the milling factories located in the Kikolo neighborhood, and beyond.
In colonial times, populations that lived in a certain area of Rangel were transferred to the Caputo neighborhood due to huge floods of brackish water in their homes. The implementation of the forest polygon was crucial in securing the area, as only one eucalyptus tree was capable of ” suck” large amounts of water.
Reports from some residents indicate that several citizens who currently reside in B’s and C’s come from Rangel, where their houses were destroyed to make way for eucalyptus plantations.
It was after the 1960s that Caputo was, so to speak, “invaded” by large constructions. The neighborhood borders to the South with Terra Nova, to the North with Avenida Brasil (Triângulo area) and to the East with the supermarket market. Congolese.
During colonial times, Caputo had several landmarks. One of them was Cervejaria Angolana. It was in this place where a lot of people gathered to enjoy black Cuca beer, Nocal and other brands, generally in the form of a thin one, that is, beer by the glass served on tap.
The other young people on the other side of the road from Catete, today Deolinda Rodrigues, preferred to have (drink) a quart of wine or “AAA do Lobito” brandy. When they saw the police patrol car arriving from a distance, nicknamed “viúvinha” , they ran away.
The Galênica Pharmacy is also one of the neighborhood’s landmarks. It was this pharmaceutical establishment where residents went when they wanted to purchase medicines.
Simão Toco lived and died in the neighborhood
In the early 1970s, the prophet Simão Gonçalves Toco, leader of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the World, began to reside in this small piece of land called Caputo. This change happened when the charismatic Tocoísta leader decided to leave the neighborhood that he had helped to found together with his Christian community, São Paulo de Luanda (Congolenses), and, for complex reasons, decided to go and live nearby, in Caputo. It is said that the prophet of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the World in this new neighborhood lived in a residence not with his children, but with a cast handpicked by the church, with emphasis on his sisters Rosalina, Cumbelembe, Tio Lopes (his doctor staff) and some elders.
It is in the Caputo neighborhood, near the old Dimaca Shopping Center, where today the largest tribe of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the World is confined, in the province of Luanda.
The report found that the legendary and historic residence of Simão Gonçalves Toco, in Caputo, was transformed after his death into one of the representations of the Congregation in Luanda, along with the Central Church, built on Rua Comandante Pedro de Castro Van- Dúnem “Loy”, in Golfe 2.
Before moving to Caputo, in the area of Professor Menino Neco, the founding leader of Tocoísmo lived for a long time on Rua de Bucu Zau, in the central area of the former Bairro São Paulo de Luanda, now Congolenses, considered the Cradle of Tocoísmo..
The modest house where Simão Toco lived, on the ground floor of one of the blocks, still remains intact, and it is there that an elderly man currently lives who takes religious care of the heritage structure of the Tocoist Church.
The street of Buco Zau is, by the way, very busy and geographically it is located in the heart of the Congolenses neighborhood, between blocks 1, 14, 7 and 8. Considered an area of peace and quite religiosity, the Sagrada Rua de Buco Zau, as it was treated in colonial times, it was the main place of worship for the Tocoists from 1957 to 1991, until the dismemberment of the Church and the construction of several temples spread throughout the national territory.
Official data indicate that the leader of the Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ in the World, Simão Gonçalves Toco, was born in 1918 in the town of Sadi-Zulumongo, Ntaia, Maquela do Zombo, Uíge.
JORNALDEANGOLA
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