Ombongo

Ombongo lies in the southern Angolan interior, in the Cuvelai basin where seasonal floods spread across the flat ground and feed the grass and reed margins. Woodland and cultivated clearings covered the rest of the landscape, and villages grew millet, sorghum and pumpkins on the ground the floods left damp, while herds of cattle grazed the grass that followed the water.

The Ovambo peoples who lived across the southern Angolan plains and northern Namibia were organised into several kingdoms and chiefdoms, each with its own ruler and councils. Herding and grain farming were combined, and salt, iron and copper passed between communities through exchange. Their political authority rested on lineage, cattle and the control of the water and grazing.