Africa-Press – Angola. The Terra Nova neighborhood, whose construction began in the early fifties, borders the old Musseques Station of the Luanda Railway, to the south; to the North, with the old Cemitério Novo neighborhood (Popular), via Estrada de Catete (Avenida Deolinda Rodrigues) and to the East, with Caputo. It is a neighborhood that already had its golden age and today residents are clamoring for rehabilitation works that give it the shine of the past and return it to its status as a good place to live.
In a virgin area with the smell of wet earth associated with tall grasses, and a certain slope with clearings mixed in, where birds and other animals had their modus vivendi, the district was born in the 1950s, which later became one of the most emblematic and of Luanda. We are talking about Terra Nova, a neighborhood with several stories to be told and that needs no introduction. Geographically located southeast of the city of Luanda, six kilometers from the urban center, it was for a long time one of the capital’s “precious jewels”. Built following public programs and initiatives by private entities with a view to building social housing for employees public and low- and middle-income workers, Terra Nova reached its fullness in the 1970s. In the following decades, the so-called popular neighborhoods, which included Terra Nova, reached such densification and degradation that they began to resemble the old musseques informal.
In colonial times, musseques, for better understanding, were spaces of social exclusion. The Church of Carmo and the Church of Nazaré were in organized musseques since the 17th century, during the first urban configuration of the city, where indigenous families lived on the margins of the old city center, with the churches playing a pivotal role.
Returning to Terra Nova, the district borders the Musseques Station of the Luanda Railway, to the south; to the North, with the old neighborhood of Cemitério Novo (Popular), via Estrada de Catete (Avenida Deolinda Rodrigues), and to the East with Caputo. The neighborhood was built with architectural features similar to some locations in the old metropolis (Sintra, Odivelas, Óbidos, Costa da Caparica…) and its residents were mainly Portuguese. The space where the neighborhood evolved, in the early 1950s, had many slopes flanked by a ditch, close to the Luanda Railway line, towards the sides of the old Congo Pequeno (Cazenga). Cazenga, in the 1960s, the Portuguese colonialists decided to build a military base for Commandos, whose calling card, at the entrance to the barracks, was an Allouette helicopter held (embedded) in the ground.
As a result of the similarity with urban centers in Portugal, Terra Nova’s residences attracted people from Greater Lisbon, who arrived in Angola in search of better life opportunities. The neighborhood was, so to speak, one of the favorite “jewels” of Portuguese citizens. in Luanda, having in the early days gained prestige and an enviable social status, hats off to it. The streets, leveled and asphalted with rigor and professionalism and with the appropriate traffic signage, both vertical and horizontal, turned the neighborhood into an ex- libris of the musseques of Luanda. These streets, built with architectural rigor, were given the names of localities and individuals from the former metropolis and its possessions. By express order of the Portuguese Government, the western streets of the Terra Nova neighborhood were named after overseas provinces of Portugal , while those on the eastern side were named after provinces (districts) of the old Metropolis. Of the names attributed to streets, the following stand out: Alentejo, Henrique Gago da Graça and Macau, considered very busy as they give access to the old Catete road, today Deolinda Rodrigues Avenue.
In a total that comprises a length of 14 kilometers of road, some of the other streets are Lino Amezaga, Ilha de Cabo Verde, Minho, Ilha da Madeira, and Ribatejo. Rua do Minho was a route that also gave access to the Catete road , passing by the prestigious bank branch of Banco Pinto Sotto Mayor, one of the popular attractions in the area at the time. Terra Nova also has the streets of Beiras de Cima and de Baixo, Bolama, Cidade de Goa, Estremadura, Damão, Dili, Bissau, Quelimane, Douro, Mormugão, Azores, Trás-os-Montes, São João Baptista de Ajuda and the street C10.
In addition to these, in the vicinity of the neighborhood there are others such as Rua Mortuoso, C11, Rua de Lândana, CB, Rua de Ovar, C9, Largo Demóstenes de Almeida, among other topographic and toponymic references.
How the neighborhood was born
Newfoundland was, in the early 1950s, a wasteland of tall grass, with a large portion of red earth and a few clearings. There were two drainage ditches very close to the place where the Church of the Parish of Cristo Rei da Glória was built, on the one hand, and, on the other, the Luanda Railway line. The story goes that, like the location It was virgin (not inhabited and with no farms nearby) and people decided to give it the name Terra Nova. A very calm area, with leafy trees, this is how the area was characterized, which had many wild fruit trees, such as tabaibeiras, maboqueiros, imbondeiros and tambarineiros. By nature, there were some animals in this forest that attracted boys from adjacent areas. The boys went bird hunting and came across sardines. They caught kiberras, grasshoppers, cambrototos, quinjongos, catatos and other small animals.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the surroundings of the famous Fábrica de Tabaco Ultramarino (FTU) enjoyed a green landscape that brought joy to anyone passing by. This is how farms were created by some people who lived in adjacent areas. They practiced subsistence agriculture right next to the railway line, towards the Cazenga river. In the “ongas”, a word that in Kimbundu means “farms”, the people cultivated the land under the scorching sun, putting up with the intense noise of passing trains and vehicles rushing on the asphalt of the Catete road. A certain narrative indicates that from the surroundings from the FTU, either on the left or right side of the Catete road, for those heading towards Viana, most of the tracts of land were farmland, with the exception of some residences that the settlers built until the 25th of April 1974.
The Terra Nova neighborhood was born in a strategic location, adjacent to the Catete road. The Portuguese Military Police were installed in a building located on Rua do Alentejo, close to the current Simão Toco Church, in the vicinity of the Grupo Desportivo da Terra Nova field, today Flaminguinhos.
Data provided by the Census of September 1, 1964 indicate that Terra Nova and the Caputo neighborhood had, as a whole, 7,411 (Seven Thousand Four Hundred and Eleven) inhabitants. Terra Nova had nothing to do with other neighborhoods that were built at the same time. In a way, he even surpassed them. The snoring and deafening horn of the train was very noticeable. Coming from Bungo, the train had a mandatory stop at Musseque station (now Tunga Ngó). The railway line, as it currently is, snaked through slopes and mountains until it reached the town of Ndalatando, passing through the historic Dondo District. The children of Newfoundland, when they left school, would play along the parallel railway lines. Engrossed in the game, the boys only ran away when they heard the train’s horn in the background. It was dangerous, but kids at the time, certainly like kids today, ignored the danger.
Ernesto Tavira says, with a certain nostalgia, that “those were good times” and that the joy was contagious on the boys’ faces when they heard the roar of the diesel engines of the Luanda Railways trunk train.
Amélia Vieira Dias “Jóia”, former resident, tells about what the neighborhood was like in the 1970s. “We had, on Rua do Ribatejo, close to the old headquarters of the Clube da Terra Nova, in the front part, the bus stop number 16, on the first floor, which ran from Terra Nova to Mutamba, in the city centre”. In his 70s, “Jóia” also says that the neighborhood was calm, as there was a Military Police unit “that the natives they were very afraid.” In the immediate post-Independence period, these old infrastructures served as DISA’s high security chain. Nowadays it is the Luanda Provincial Command of the National Police. There was a vacant area close to these facilities where the carcasses of inoperative vehicles from the former Ministry of State Security were deposited, as well as solid waste from adjacent residential areas.
Our interlocutor says that in colonial times the neighborhood already had some basic services, such as a bank branch, grocery stores, pharmacies, among others. Unlike neighborhoods like Sambizanga, Prenda, Catambor, and other musseques, in Terra Nova there were no stores belonging to large traders known at the time as fubeiros.
João Seca “Sisi”, a former resident, already from the post-Independence phase, states that after the events of April 25, 1974, in Portugal, and with the imminent proclamation of National Independence, many residents of Portuguese origin returned, to majority by Ponte Aérea, to their country, and the houses they had just abandoned were occupied by natives from the Indígena, Sambizanga, Cazenga, Marçal, Catambor, Samba neighborhoods, among others.
Parish of Christ the King of Glory
Considered as one of the architectural references of the Catholic Church in Luanda, and one of the district’s business cards, the Cristo Rei Parish is one of the great relics that Terra Nova saw born in the 1960s. Built close to one of the drainage ditches that the neighborhood had, in an area where grassland was home, the Church quickly became one of the most important places of Catholicism in the neighborhood.
Some writings from the time indicate that it was in this religious structure where the Catholic faithful residing in the neighborhood, and beyond, went en masse to attend Sunday worship, among other Church activities. Dom Moisés Alves de Pinho, archbishop of Luanda at the time, inaugurated the Church of Christ the King, in a grand religious ceremony that took place on January 5, 1968. Designed by a renowned Portuguese engineer, the beautiful work of art that enhances the The neighborhood, in terms of infrastructure, is located close to the Flaminguinhos field and is neighboring the “eternal” Home for the Third Age of Beiral.
One of the unavoidable figures of the Catholic Church highlighted in the Parish of Christ the King of Glory, Sister Cecília was born in one of the regions of Northern Italy more than 90 years ago. Very strict in her decisions and disciplinary actions, she did not accept irregularities, such as, for example, children from Sunday school, and others, climbing trees to take fruit. Whoever was caught would receive spankings. Already retired and on the verge of leaving for the heavenly domains, sister Cecília has, in recent days, confessed to her brothers in the Church, in the form of a message, that as soon as the ultimate misfortune befalls her, she would like that she be buried in Angola, the land that saw her grow and become what she is today.
Teacher Natividade
Among the emblematic figures of the Terra Nova neighborhood, teacher Maria da Natividade, from Escola Grande, stands out. Valuable cadres passed and were trained in her hands, who today “lend” their contribution to various public and private institutions in the country. Disciplinary, cautious and rigid, Maria da Natividade, now over eighty years old, was, in her time, colonial, a teacher who excelled in a rigorous education. When there was a distraction or bad behavior on the part of a student, she would immediately summon her education officer. As an example, and just to mention this episode, the one that later Edmar Victoriano “Baduna” would later become a basketball star and had his guardian, in this case his mother, who was notified several times by teacher Natividade. Baduna’s head of education vented to her cousin Jóia one day, saying “so with so many students the school has, is it just my son who is undisciplined and makes trouble?”
Manuel Albano, journalist from this old press house, who was also a student of teacher Natividade in the 1970s at Escola Grande da Terra Nova, then also known as Escola 229, says that the rigidity and discipline imposed by the teacher was worth it “so that today were what we are today.”
Professor Maria da Natividade, according to the journalist, spared no effort when the subject was linked to pedagogy. “She taught wisely and transmitted to her students, without vanity, the knowledge she carried.”
The teacher, according to Manuel Albano, was very patient. After classes, she organized the students into groups and took them to the Church of Christ the King where they learned, in catechesis, the doctrine of the Church. This gesture from the educator was to the liking of those in charge of education, who had her as a great reference.
Terra Nova, in terms of education, was well served. In addition to the Escola Grande, it had the Beiral school, the Rua das Beiras school and the legendary Mini Neco school.
Emblematic figures that time does not forget
Terra Nova was once considered a Cape Verdean neighborhood. António Tavares de Pina, who arrived in the neighborhood in the late 1960s from the island of São Vicente, in Cape Verde, says that he lived for a few months near the Cristo Rei Parish Church, close to the drainage ditch. , that his stay in Terra Nova was ephemeral because he later chose to go and live in the commune of Mabuia, where there were plantations and dense virgin land to cultivate the land. António de Pina says that the Terra Nova neighborhood, in the early 1960s, ” it was more of a configuration for public servants than we came from the island of São Vicente, in Cape Verde, with the intention of working in the field. It was worth embracing the Mabuia project, because we won there.”
Mabuia, the largest town in the commune of Cabiri, municipality of Icolo and Bengo, according to António de Pina, is an area suitable for the cultivation of cotton and other crops, which is why it was more suitable for the practice of subsistence agriculture.
That’s not all of Newfoundland’s emblematic figures. In the years 1974/1975, Azevedo Xavier Francisco “Xavita”, the writer Boaventura Cardoso, as well as Mr. Lucas, from the famous Kandimba Recreation Center, lived in this district.
The kotas Chico (referee), Gonçalves (father of star Manucho Gonçalves), Figueiredo (father of, also, footballer, now coach, Ivo) who worked at the Cardoso warehouses, Tio Fifas, who worked at Sonangol, are among the range of emblematic figures who lived in Newfoundland post-Independence.
The parents of the former vice-president of the Republic Bornito de Sousa lived in this old musseque in Luanda, as well as the mother of the equally former vice-president of the Republic Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos “Nandó”.
Domingos Paulo João, a longtime resident, says that the neighborhood was calm, modern and had everything to live in, even after the colonists left. Tio Santos, as he is affectionately treated by those closest to him, over his more than 70 years of age says that, despite there being no major commercial establishments “at that time”, the former residents frequented the grocery stores that were in the neighborhood.
Former conductor of the famous Colonial bus, on the first floor, with the number 16 and which traveled the Terra Nova-Mutamba route, says that the terminus or departure point of the said bus was in front of the facilities of the Terra Nova Sports Club,
Still regarding emblematic figures, Uncle Santos says that an influential Portuguese citizen called Adriano lived in Terra Nova, who had a restaurant that was very popular with natives. Uncle Santos remembers very well the time he did his military service in 1968, in the former village of Carmona, specifically in the Lukunga region, and in Luanda. “I had a good time. Here in Terra Nova, in the old Military Police facilities, there was a bakery reserved for the military and the bread made there was so delicious that sometimes we forgot that we had to go to the unit for graduation!”, emphasizes the kota Saints.
Terra Nova, which today many residents call Terra Velha, has received rehabilitation works in recent months. This is a specific intervention on the main streets.
Bookseller João de Carvalho
The neighborhood gained, even in the time of another lady, a great second-hand bookstore, perhaps the most famous in Angola. This is João de Carvalho, who started his business selling used books in Terra Nova when he was still employed by the National Lottery Company, where he did the work of registering Totobola and Totoloto matrices. His boss, facing serious financial problems, allowed him to sell his own items inside the store, given the difficulties the company was facing. Thus began the journey of bookseller João de Carvalho. With more than three decades in the profession, João de Carvalho had his work officially recognized by the then Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Environment, which in the person of the then minister Jomo Fortunato awarded him a diploma of merit.
Press learned, from a family source, that the bookseller is currently going through a bad health period, due to a pathology that has been bothering him for several years. To the authorities and legal institutions or individuals with financial power, This humble reporter requests occasional help from the bookseller who once dreamed of being a writer and already has, in the form of a manuscript, a book of poems and another of riddles and riddles..
Neighborhood was also an industrial zone
The story goes that Jacinto Cruz, an industrialist who made his fortune in Brazil, invested in the creation of the first tobacco factory in Angola, importing machines from England and chopped tobacco from Havana and installing the factory in a rented house near the Igreja dos Remédios, in Luanda. The first records of tobacco plantations in Angola date back to the plantations in Golungo Alto (Cuanza-Norte) and predate the creation of the first cigarette production house in Angola. In the 19th century, informed that in Golungo Alto there was an excellent quality of nicotine, coming from a tobacco plant that grows well throughout Angola, Jacinto Cruz decided to set up a plantation there. Still on the quality of tobacco from Golungo Alto, there is an old reference to a “factory” in 1833, owned by the chief Bango Aquitamba, prior to the arrival of the Portuguese industrialist.
However, the tobacco industry in Angola actually began in 1884, when José Jacinto Cruz acquired a building facing the Bay of Luanda, currently in severe degradation, where he installed a factory worthy of the name, which initially employed thirty people, who, with innovative tobacco cutting machines, packaging machines, presses, greenhouses and even a printer to make their own packaging, they begin the new activity.
FTU – Fábrica de Tabacos Ultramarinos was, in the late 1960s, one of the visiting cards of the Terra Nova neighborhood. This factory produced and exported the famous AC, Caricoco, Negrita and Hermínios cigarettes.
The first cigarette brands launched on the market by FTU were: “Flor do Dande”, “Picado Holandez”, “Meio Forte”, “Repicado”, the “Jacinto” cigars and some unnamed cigarettes sold in packs of 600 grams. But Later, “Francês no1”, “Estrela”, “São Rafael”, “Hermínios”, “Swing” and “Caricoco” appeared.
A certain narrative indicates that with the establishment of the tobacco industry in Luanda, tobacco plantations multiplied across the country. In the territory that today comprises the province of Huíla, the municipality of Quilengues came to occupy a prominent place.
Located on the Catete road, Fabrica de Tabacos Ultramarino-FTU was one of the landmarks in the Terra Nova neighborhood. This scenario today has completely changed its appearance.
These facilities were transformed into a place of worship by the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD). This happened 16 years after the old factory received an investment of around three million dollars from the North American group “British American Tobaco”, which created 190 jobs.
Car manufacturers
Meanwhile, the Guedal firm, a “monster” in automobile assembly and repair, built its headquarters in Angola in Terra Nova. The aforementioned firm assembled and provided technical assistance to vehicles from the brands Mercedes Benz, Mitshubishi Fuso and Pajero. The main parts or molds of the vehicles were packaged in miniatures from abroad, and, locally, they were assembled without any major problems”, points out Alberto Santos, who worked at Guedal as an auto mechanic’s assistant.
There was, still in Terra Nova, another firm, called Garam, whose purpose was to assemble and repair vehicles from the brands Volkswagen, Fiat, Audi, Seat, Peugeot and Citroen. Currently, the facilities of this dealership are linked to the Mbakassi& Filhos business group, owned by António Mosquito, while the former Guedal was allocated to the Comauto business group.
Home for the Elderly of Beiral
Sharing the street with the Church of Christ the King of Glória, the Centro de Acolhimento de Idosos do Beiral, also known as Home for the Elderly, is a charity institution built in the 1970s. Calm and serene place, with some acacia trees, It is a residence that has accommodated the elderly, who are left there by their families, and those who go there on their own initiative or because they are found abandoned in various corners of the city.
Some sources from the institution indicate that the support given to that charity house is very limited and does not meet demand. “Support often only comes when Elderly Day approaches, which is celebrated on October 1st, which is bad”, said a source who preferred to remain anonymous. Thousands of elderly people have visited this reception center. As a result of a profound rehabilitation that it has benefited from in recent years, Beiral has expanded its reception capacity to 120 elderly people. However, the press report a few days ago had two conversations with one of the oldest people staying there who said that the food conditions are still bad.” There has been no change since the house received some improvements. We always wait for the 1st of October, dedicated to the elderly, to eat better”, said the old man, who warned everyone to take care of and respect their parents and grandparents. “If a mother has the capacity to take care of ten children, the ten children must have the capacity to take care of a father or a mother.”
Newfoundland Sports and Recreation Group
At the Terra Nova Social Club, specifically in its Sports Group, many talents emerged in terms of football. , Careca, Carlitos, Joy, Antoninho, Zé Ceará, Zé Paixão, Engenheiro Tomás, Cavunje, Nelito Suribana, Júlio de Carvalho “Luchazes”, Nelito Zimbabué, Kikinha, Kafuringa, Zé Sócrates, André, Dracula, Nelito Kuanza…These ball players were guided by coach Luciano, an Italian priest from the parish of Cristo Rei.
“In the famous Year of Agriculture Tournament, in 1978, at the time already under the guidance of Mister Esteves, the Grupo Desportivo da Terra Nova had a good and honorable performance”, says Jorge Pedro “Careca”, one of the members of the former squad.
According to our interlocutor, the club at that time had stars such as the great left defender Malé Malé, Ângelo Silva, a goalkeeper who later played for 1o de Agosto, Xavita, Picas, Maninho Miguel, Pírula, Eugénio Amado and Gigi.
There are records that attest that the famous Osvaldo Saturnino “Jesus”, from Petro de Luanda, made his debut game as an official player in the Grupo Desportivo da Terra Nova, alongside Adé, Zé Peixe, Kafuringa, Afonso “Fó”, Marito , among others. The junior squad, resulting from the merger of the clubs Manuel Van-Dúnem and Kissas, in which stars such as Careca, Chiquinho, Pegado and Berita emerged, in the years 1975/1976 became the bogeyman of the Provincial Junior Championship of Luanda.
The story goes that an order dated August 10, 1981, from the State Department of Physical Education and Sports authorized the merger of the Terra Nova Sports and Recreational Group with the Red Cross Sports Group, with the new sports collective being called – is Associação Desportiva da Cruz Vermelha de Angola, headquartered at Rua do Minho number 9, in Luanda.
In the 1990s, with the name Flaminguinhos, the association continued to form stars, such as Manucho Gonçalves, Xará (former captain of Petro de Luanda and the National Team), André Makanga “Selau” and Picas, who had a spell at Petro de Luanda and today he is developing at the Casa Pia club in Portugal, just to name a few.
Furthermore, the mythical Terra Nova naked field, which also served the Dínamos de Luanda club in the 1980s and 1990s, is now considerably reduced, and one can imagine its extinction to make way for other infrastructures, depriving young people of playing football there. A former partner took over the facilities of the Terra Nova Sports and Recreational Group. In addition to the football field, there was the club’s headquarters, which included a restaurant and a sports court. Nowadays, on the side that gives access to the main gate of the Church of Christ the King, there are bars and a service station. , leaving a tiny access to the field. On the other opposite side, which gives access to the streets of Beiras and Estremadura, a church and a warehouse for various consumables were built, thus making the old access to the sports venue unfeasible.
Roller hockey and basketball
Among the roller hockey stars forged in the Terra Nova neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s, players Coyo, Betinho, Quim Jorge and Santo António stand out. circumscription. In relation to basketball, the neighborhood saw the emergence of the sport Ângelo Victoriano, who was, last year, honored by FIBA World for the achievements achieved with the National Team in high-level international competitions. Ângelo Victoriano, along with Jean-Jacques da Conceição in 2013, are the only Angolans who are part of the FIBA World hall of fame. Other figures from the neighborhood who stood out in basketball are the no less well-known Aníbal Moreira, Baduna and Benjamin Romano. On the other hand, it is said that Amaral Aleixo and Ralph played handball, in the late 1970s, for the Grupo Desportivo da Terra Nova association.
Largo do Motorista mandatory reference
Largo do Motorista, built in the late 1960s in memory of those who died in the exercise of this important activity, was in colonial times a special place for walks. Located on the old Catete road between the Terra Nova and Cemitério Velho neighborhoods (Bairro Popular) , was for a long time considered a “dovecote of love” where young lovers went to exchange gifts, hugs and caresses. Some say that many perfect marriages were born from these hugs and courtships, which continue to this day. point of reference for families coming from the interior with the purpose of visiting their relatives for the first time. Despite having undergone a profound restructuring, the Largo do Motorista Statue no longer has the shine it once did.
Who saw you and who sees you. Terra Nova, a neighborhood that is today inhabited by a multifaceted population, originating from the ethno-linguistic mosaic that makes up the country. The current inhabitants are essentially dedicated to informal trade, an activity that is also carried out by West African citizens (known as mamadus). The old Rua Henrique Gago da Graça is now called Rua das Pedrinhas. The backyards of the majestic villas were transformed into authentic wholesale and retail warehouses. Some residents dissatisfied with the current situation on their street took steps with “Quem de Direito” to have street commerce banned there, but the truth is that everything remains the same. Some residents say they are “invaded” and with the their privacy is “robbed”, as they are not even able to enjoy their own street. Furthermore, the times when the district had great shine, becoming the “crowd” of the Rangel District and even Luanda, are long gone.
Jornal de Angola
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
