Kuando Catholic Mission Church

Leaving Caconda and heading north, we will reach, after almost 150 kilometers, the city of Huambo.
If someone, fifteen years ago, going from Caconda to Bié, heard that a city was going to be built in this place , I would hardly believe it.
And yet today it is a fact.
The place where the city is located is the watershed; from here some flow to the Atlantic and others to the great interior basins, and to the Indian Ocean.
It enjoys a temperate climate, which can be cold at certain times of the year.
The terrain is of mediocre quality.
We had long thought about founding a Mission in Huambo and already in 1896, speaking of this land, the tearful Father Lecomte, my predecessor, wrote: «After the Bailundo tribe, it is the Huambo tribe that captivates us the most.
I intend to soon establish a Mission there ».
These natives are currently fighting a real war against the beasts.
The lions seem to have sworn to put an end to these people.

Each week, numerous are the unfortunate mortals who serve as pasture for the king of the forests.
If we give credit to the legend, the love of lions for these people comes from far away. Date of the beginning of the world: tunde nunde, they say.
In fact, they say that at the dawn of creation, when men had multiplied somewhat, they gave them lions, and with such courage that soon only one remained. This man, discouraged and not knowing what to do with his sad life, wandered sadly through the woods, fearing to live because he didn't feel well alone, but receiving the death of all his fellow men.
One day he sees a young lioness coming towards him.
He thought he was going to serve him as food.
He had no idea how to defend himself.
For what? Resigned to his fate, he closes his eyes, lowers his head and waits.
What was his amazement and astonishment, when instead of feeling the animal's teeth sink into his flesh, he caught it speaking to him and I asked him why he was so sad.

He answered honestly and confessed the discouragement that had invaded his soul.
Adding that, as his last moment had come, he was ready for everything.
– “What a last moment, not even half a last moment, interrupted the lioness.
You are alone and there is the curious coincidence that I am also a widow.
Why shouldn't I found a great libata and be the trunk of a powerful people? I’m not old yet.” The man was accepted and from this union came the illustrious tribe of Huambos.
– “As you see, the Huambos say with bursts of barely disguised pride, the origin of our race is illustrious.
“ It is perhaps because of this that, later, the lions devoured them beautifully.
It was proof of the veracity of that word: Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reveris, which they translated as: "Remember, man , which is a lion and will return to the lion.” The indigenous population was very dense before the war of 1902, reaching over 80,000 inhabitants in an area of one hundred square kilometers.

But at the time of the revolt, it dropped somewhat, because of the lives lost at the time.
It then continued to decline as they fled first from the road route, then from the vicinity of the Railway.
The Huambo region is, par excellence, the region of great rivers: the Cunene, the Cubango, the Cunhangâmua, the Calai, the Queve, etc. have their source here... It is an exciting spectacle to contemplate these rivers that now spread out and, as it were, they lounge along the banks, sometimes they rush in waterfalls and seem to want to sow death and devastation with their foaming waves of anger.
Sometimes, on the bottom of the white sand, you see little fish passing by, which They glide gently, as if they have no other care than to enjoy the life that God grants them.
Others, above the waters, float like a greenish stick, similar to a decayed tree trunk; but whoever considers it carefully discovers a brief passage that is an alligator in search of prey that, carelessly, fell asleep.
It is also not uncommon to see the waters suddenly boiling in cachão and from the middle of them the hippopotamus appears , who comes ashore for a walk and, as it were, to sunbathe.
But, just as every medal has a reverse side, these beauties also have their uncomfortable side; In general, the banks of these rivers are swampy, sterile and unhealthy.

When we took our eyes off the rivers and directed them towards the forests, they destroyed blocks of granite, standing tall vertically, often split from top to bottom, in the direction of the plane of crystallization, formed from monoliths measuring 20, 30 and not infrequently more meters. tall.
There are more than 50 that, seen from afar, no one will fail to think of as gigantic buildings, reminiscent of those medieval castles, which Europe is covered with, when our ancient cathedrals, armed with multiple towers, are not called to mind. … churchkeiling_luischinguar-002The Mission was founded in 1910, close to the Railway, in the place now occupied by the administration.
They were already designed as the first homes, in the space designated for green vegetable gardens, they stood like the first banana trees next to the burly cabbages, while that a little further away, oxen tied to the plow were turning the land and preparing the future wheat harvest, when the Railways Directorate declared an embargo, with that portion of land ending up being concentrated in the space reserved for the future city of Huambo.
We were forced to abandon the place and look for another.

We headed east in search of a place that we could use to have workshops at the same time.
We walked for eight days, two of my companions and I, traveling these surroundings in every sense.
Digitized from original 6x6cm film negative, dimension ECC/NC4247 by Luis Pavão Lda.We visited Candumbo, went to Tahilua, and thought about building in this place.
A white that there we found planned, he asked for 12,000{directory}199{/directory} for a piece of land (it's important not to forget that this is 1912, and at that time, 12,00{directory}199{/directory} was a handful of money), he also told us that we built on the opposite bank of the Cunene, and we should take a levada, whose water we had to leave at his disposal for half the week.
It didn't suit us.

My companions, called by work, who waited for them in their Missions, (one was from Bailuindo and the other from Cubango ) were forced to withdraw and I continued alone.
After a thousand laps, all in vain, I decided to return home.
I gave orders to the carts that were waiting for me on the right bank of the river Cuando, where they were taking care of It's mid-afternoon, and I get on horseback.
What steps would I take that day, Holy God! When I thought about returning to a place called Capingala, where I could ford the Cuando.
Answer me that there was no favorable place and I had to go around the source.
In Africa there are no difficulties that stop the Missionary.
Is it necessary to go for a walk? It's all done and everything stays here.
It was the trail drivers who found my delay prolonged and, thinking that I had undoubtedly already gone to the Mission, by another route, they prepared everything and set off,
After a lot of walking and getting very tired, I reached the place where the car had been camped. The remains of the fire they had made could still be seen there.

But what use is fire to someone who is tired and hungry?…Hunger, no; appetite.
The Missions of Huambo and Bailundo are close and similar.
Bailundo and Huambo are two denominations of the same tribe, same origin, same ancestral affinities.
same customs and traditions.
These two Missions, established in two corners blessed people of the Benguela plateau, they also have great affinities.
The results obtained on the populations are equally surprising.
The only emulation to which these affinities give rise is to do the greatest good possible.
In Bailundo Christians are more numerous, 47,000, as it was founded 15 years before Huambo, which already has 38,000.
But its schools number 450.

The influence of Catholicism on the mass of the population is increasingly profound.
The large number of Christians, who flock from all sides on festival days, constituting an authentic flood, is proof enough.
If we move from indigenous people to Europeans, what can we say? There is Nova Lisboa with 4,000 white people, many families with many children. This fact cannot leave us indifferent.
Every Sunday and holy day there is a Priest from the Mission there, at 5 am, available to the indigenous people for whom there is a special Mass at 8 am.

At 10 is the Mass of Europeans and assimilated people.
Both Masses are practiced: the first in the indigenous language; the second in Portuguese. After Mass, the Father prepares the children for their first communion, after which, tired, he leaves, very late.
In addition, there is religious assistance along the Railway.
Along the 1,347 kilometer route, there are beautiful chapels built, which it is necessary, from time to time, to visit, to celebrate the feast of the Patron Saint whose religious solemnity consists of at Mass, procession, solemn blessing, communion of children and confirmation.
In addition to this, having the Companhia do Caminho de Ferro Lobito-Catanga as its central offices in Nova Lisboa, it sources energy and lighting from a hydroelectric plant installed within our property.

For this reason, the mills and other dependencies, but the Company compensated us princely.
For the installation of different offices and, in particular, the typography, new buildings were built, which cause admiration for everyone.
And the Company provides us with electricity and light for the entire Mission.
Furthermore, nothing new, from a material point of view, other than a few more hectares added to the old fields.