Africa-Press – Angola. Cuito, capital of Bié and province that determines the geodesic and trigonometric landmark of the Center of Angola, continues to walk towards sustainable development.
The city, which celebrated its 97th birthday on 31 August, is reborn in the direction of development, with structuring actions that will continue to be consolidated for the next five years.
A road network that will link the city of Cuito, passing through Catabola, Camacupa, until reaching the East, between the regions of Munhango and Luena, is being created, which will facilitate circulation in this preponderant corridor for trade with Coast, becoming an important alternative to the Benguela Railways (CFB).
For a city that was marked by the “scars” of the war, a fact that for many years conditioned the lives of its inhabitants, Cuito, in 20 years, has been revamped for the better, showing significant improvements in the infrastructural aspect, in which it stands out. the construction of the Centralidade Horizonte do Ndjele, the projects for the general electrification of the municipality, through the integrated distribution system of Laúca, and the extension of the distribution network of drinking water to all the districts of the municipality, including the administrative center of Cunje.
The construction of 69 new schools within the scope of the Integrated Program for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM), made it possible for more than 200,000 new students to enter the education system.
But what significantly marks the growth in the education sector of the Municipality of Cuito is the university segment. The region, which formerly depended exclusively on Academic Zone 5, linked to the José Eduardo dos Santos University, today has an autonomous Higher Public Institute, a Higher Pedagogical School, a university, Kwanza, and two Private Higher Polytechnic Institutes. , which, in all, absorb more than six thousand students.
For the next five years, the Executive will continue to materialize the public projects in execution, reinforcing the priority character in the Health and Education sectors, but it is in the investment that aims to expand the primary, secondary and tertiary road network, which is based on the main bet of the State in relation to the province, providing the interconnection between urban areas and the countryside, taking into account the evacuation of agricultural production to the great consumption centers of the country.
Who was Silva Porto?
António Francisco Ferreira da Silva Porto was a Portuguese historian, explorer, politician, diplomat, merchant and Africanist, who became famous in the interior of Angola, more specifically in the territories that today give “body” to the city of Cuito.
Born into a poor family in Porto, Portugal, Silva Porto looked for opportunities to grow in life early on. Being Brazil at the time an obvious destination, where many Portuguese emigrants were successful, at the age of 12, he left with his father’s permission for Rio de Janeiro.
After working for some time for a merchant, whose remuneration he disagreed with, he dedicated himself to itinerant work, and at the age of 18, in Bahia, he insisted on announcing his new name in the Correio Mercantil newspaper, in order to distinguish another António Ferreira da Silva, adding “Porto” in honor of his hometown.
One day, in the Port of Bahia, he boarded a ship for Luanda “without even knowing where Angola was”, as he would later say.
Coming from Brazil, he arrived at the Bié Plateau long before European explorers crossed Africa, and for decades he was the only European that the populations knew as a trader in the heart of the plateau region of Angola.
Progressively fascinated with the interior of Angola, and with his first salary, he bought articles and clothes. Once confident of the quantity of goods, he quit his job to begin his 50-year career as a trader in the countryside. He was 22 years old.
Silva Porto made many friendships with tribes in the interior and quickly adapted to the conditions in Africa, where he married a prominent woman from the Ovimbundu people of Bié, with whom he had several children. In 1848, Silva Porto was appointed interim done captain of Bié.
By 1850, Portuguese exploration in Africa had expanded, but Silva Porto’s request for a military detachment was never granted: Portugal was only interested in the coast. From Kuito, the eastern limit of Portugal, Silva Porto experimented with exploring the interior. In addition to being a merchant and explorer, he had become a diplomat between Portuguese settlers and the Ovimbundu tribes.
Vitória Atlético Clube far from sporting victories
José Chaves/Cuito
Founded on August 28, 1935, by sports fans who could not see themselves in the booklet presented by the green and brande rival on the other side of the city of Cuito, Vitória Atlético Clube is another remarkable group in the sporting life of Bié.
Contrary to the leonine rival, it has a large financial liability whose consequences are reflected in the sustainability of its real estate heritage, which, according to its chairman of the board, Inácio Jamba, had some quality, could help to cover many expenses that the club has.
“We don’t have the resources to recover our heritage. The club has no support from any state structure, nor the solidarity of the Bienna society itself”, he laments.
The Vitória Atlético Clube do Bié Stadium, in downtown Cuito, was once one of the greatest infrastructural prides of the Bienos, whose quality that it had in the 50s of the last century, allowed it to receive, on August 29, 1950, the visit of the main team of Sport Lisboa e Benfica at the time, with Eusébio Ferreira da Silva, Mário Coluna, Simões and Mário Wilson.
Even so, the board, whose composition is small, because many of the members, due to constant difficulties, decided to abandon the “boat”, seeks support in the local business environment.
“It’s a job that is not easy. No matter how much we want and the promises that exist, it is difficult to find good solutions, because the country’s economic situation does not allow the consummation of the support that we have been promised for years”, says the president of the club.
These days, Vitória, which was once one of the biggest clubs at the time of Silva Porto and also the main ones in the Center of the Country, and which faced the traditional clubs of Huambo, namely – Benfica (now Mambroa) and Ferroviário -, lives only the nostalgia and historical pride coming from those who still remember the value it had and the symbolism it carried in the national sports context.
In the 70s, 80s and 90s of the last century, footballers of international standing passed through Vitória Atlético Clube do Bié, namely Laurindo, who played for FC Porto and Belenense de Portugal, Jorge Dombolo, Francisco Ramon da Cruz, Minguito (first Girabola’s goal, in the 1979 edition), and Balsa, Sayombo, Mito (who also showed his potential at Petro do Huambo), Bekc (who played at ASA), Chindumbo, Cuyanga, Henrique Leite, Nelson Lemos, Caty, Henrique Barbosa, Chano or even Lopes.
HISTORIC CLUBS OF BIÉ
Sporting and Victória Atlético Clube mark former Silva Porto in sport
Fernando Cunha/Cuito
One lives apparently stable, the other only from nostalgia and past deeds. Sporting and Victória Atlético Clube show two facets of how sport is found in the province of Bié.
Both groups, one already secular and the other not so far from the centenary, marked, in the 50s of the last century, sports disputes that affected the downtown of the great Silva Porto (today city of Cuito), counting in their ranks with figures such as João Madureira or Velez António – footballers of reference at the time -, who came to face, in 1963, Benfica de Lisboa, holder of the Latin Cup.
Today, any of the clubs whose brands were references of the City of Cuito, live in different destinations. Sporting, which always presents itself as a representative of sport in the province, and Victória Atlético Clube, which identifies itself with Silva Porto near the neighborhoods of Catraio and Catemo, continue, together, to defend a common objective: the maintenance of Bié in the national sports route.
With 107 years in sports, Sporting Clube do Bié is the oldest sports association in the province and the few secular ones in Angola. Founded on May 3, 1915, it was the 88th branch of Sporting Clube de Portugal, always being a sporting reference in the country before national independence, on November 11, 1975. After this period, it lost its connection to the parent company, even closing its doors, for lack of financial support to continue to carry out its activity.
Years later, it merged with Desportivo da Sonangol – a sports association created due to the context of the time -, thus changing its name to União Sport do Bié. In the 80s of the 20th century, it was even called União Petro do Bié, due to the partnership with the national oil company.
In the 1990s, it was renamed Sporting Clube Petróleos do Bié, and then stopped using the green and white colors of Sporting Clube de Portugal. However, in 2012, it returned to using the colors and the Lion symbol.
Despite being plunged into financial difficulties, which greatly affect its sports organization, the institution is still a source of pride for the few living members residing in the province and for a large part of the “sports” youth of Bié.
Paulo Jorge Capama, the current chairman of the board, told Jornal de Angola that, regardless of the whole range of difficulties that affect the organization and the sporting side of the institution, the directors, partners, friends and the Biéna society itself, work to the club’s recovery.
“It’s been 107 years roaring in the center of Angola, and that time makes us believe, that if we keep the focus on what are the purposes that the board has for the club, it is possible to get out of the difficult situation we find ourselves in”, he says. hopeful.
The president of the emblematic Cuito club – which he claims to be from all the biénos -, says that the club survives mainly on the values from the rent of the assets it has, namely the football field, where Futebol Clube Cuando Cubango plays its matches. for Girabola, as a visitor; of the facilities of its sports pavilion and the cinema room.
However, it recognizes that the resulting amounts are meager to meet the payment of the financial charges that the institution has on a monthly basis with suppliers or service providers.
According to him, the main sponsor of Sporting Clube do Bié, the French oil company Total, stopped making its financial contribution four years ago, a situation that affected the club’s accounts.
“Despite the plan that the board has drawn up for Sporting’s financial recovery, there are talks with the former sponsor, Total, in the perspective that support returns, auguring that better days return to the kingdom of Leão do Centro de Angola. We also appeal to the institutions that watch over sport in the country to also look at our association”.
Sporting, which participated in the first edition of the National Football Championship of the I Division, Girabola, in 1979, at the time played in the regional system of four series, in which the champion was 1º de Agosto – which they defeated in the final, played at the Estádio Nacional da Cidadela, the Nacional de Benguela, by 2-1 -, has competed in competitions at the local level and in regional sports disputes, with clubs from the province of Huambo.
Higher Polytechnic Institute reference in higher education
Xavier Candumba
and Nivaldino de Carvalho | care
The first private higher education institution in the province of Bié, the Instituto Superior Politécnico do Cuito (ISPC), has been one of the main precursors in the launch of frameworks for the various areas of knowledge.
ISPC is an educational institution that offers 14 courses in different specialties of knowledge, namely Law, Economics, Accounting and Management, Administration, School Management, Work Psychology, Educational Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Social Communication, Primary Instruction, Informatics and Telecommunications, Nursing and Clinical Analysis.
The director-general of the institution, Fernando Chitumba, said that the institution started its activities in 2017, with 384 students and 87 teachers. Today, it has more than five thousand students, subdivided into the 14 courses it teaches and 200 teachers, including staff and employees.
For the academic year 2022-2023, which begins in October, ISPC has 1,770 places available, distributed across 14 courses.
According to the institution’s manager, ISPC has all the conditions required by the Ministry of Higher Education for the academic development of the activities of a similar institution, with a large building, composed of 120 classrooms and which includes laboratories, libraries, teachers’ room, secretariat, amphitheater and extensive car park.
FADIANG, the Record Factory that once made the bienos proud
Fernando Cunha/Cuito
FADIANG is an acronym that makes any “Cuitense” citizen who lived and knew one of the greatest exponents of national culture in the 1930s of the 20th century tear up.
The famous Fábrica de Discos de Angola, located in one of the noblest areas of the city of Cuito, which helped raise the percussionists, singers and instrumentalists who marked Angolan music to the pedestal of fame, such as Licéu Vieira Dias, Alberto Teta Lando, David Zé or even groups of the caliber of the Kiezos, Merengues or Ngola Ritmo, is today just and only a shadow of a past that time has taken away.
At the entrance to the structure of the three-story building where the Fábrica de Discos de Angola (FADIANG) was housed, in the city of Cuito, there is almost nothing left of the structure that it once was – along with the publisher Valentim de Carvalho, in Luanda -, one of the biggest factories for the production of vinyl records in Africa.
José Luís Mendonça, Angolan journalist and writer, wrote, in 2021, for the pages of Jornal de Angola, as an opinion, the following: ” (…) In colonial times, there was a factory of musical records in Bié, FADIANG. And I would only be governor of Bié if I managed to build another record factory in Bié”.
In 2011, President José Eduardo dos Santos approved, in the guise of Chief Executive, a budget whose specifications included the rehabilitation of two vinyl record factories. One in Luanda and another in Cuito, in this case FADIANG, which was paralyzed, at the time, was 30 years old, due to the armed conflict.
At the time, the guitarist and artistic director of the musical group Os Kiezos, Hildebrando de Jesus Cunha “Brando”, highlighted the importance of the rehabilitation that could be done to the structures of the Fábrica de Discos de Angola and what it would represent for the context of revitalization. of the phonographic industry in Angola.
However, FADIANG’s recovery process never progressed. In 2021, only a few paintings were tested on the outside of the structure of the three-story building in which FADIANG was located.
In that place, where vinyl records by Angolan and foreign musicians were once produced, today little remains of the factory, apart from some vestiges and rubble as a souvenir.
José Brando Couto, now 71 years old and living in the city of Cuito, remembers that his aunt, Maria Angelina, who worked at FADIANG and at Rádio Reparadora de Silva Porto, with the task of selecting the most interesting groups of the time, said that many musicians made the recordings at Valentim de Carvalho, in Luanda, and then went to “Silva Porto to edit their records”, he recalls.
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