Mbegela

Mbegela, better known as Benguela, stands on the Atlantic coast of Angola, below the routes leading to the central highlands. Ndombe and Kuíssi communities already lived in the region when the Portuguese established a coastal trading post. The harbour would become a point of departure for goods and people brought from a vast interior, linking the highland kingdoms to the Atlantic world.

In 1617 Manuel Cerveira Pereira founded São Filipe de Benguela for the Portuguese Crown. Trade in enslaved people became central to the settlement, and from the 1720s Benguela emerged as a major port of embarkation. African and Portuguese merchants took part in the traffic, which connected the coast with Brazil and other destinations across the ocean. Ivory and copper also passed through the town, but the forced removal of captives marked its history most deeply.