This section of my website shows a series of old photographs mainly from my mother’s archives (if you can call a series of old envelops stored all over the place an archive… but what is a fact is that she is the one that have them). The photographs give a good idea of the life of our previous generations in Angola.
The Costa’s arrived in Angola from Madeira Islands at the end of the XIX century and they were the first successful attempt to colonise Angola. The first attempt was made from Brazil. The anti-Portuguese current after the independence of Brazil resulted in a group of Portuguese to migrate to the south of Angola. They arrived in Moçamedes and tried to settle there. They did not receive any help from the Portuguese government and the settlement was a total failure. Moçamedes is on the South Atlantic coast and surrounded by the Namibe Desert, a very harsh environment and therefore without any extra help, the first settlement was a total disaster. When the second lot arrived, including my grand father António Costa, they found only remainings of the first colonisation attempt. However they learned the lesson and did not attempted to settle on the coast. They moved inland and settled in a fertile area called Lubango.
My grand mother Rita was born already in Lubango, Angola.
The Leal Family came later. Our grand father Manuel Gomes Leal came from Barrancos Portugal in 1917 and settled in Benguela starting a small trading post. Our grand mother Beatriz came from Cabo Verde Islands and arrived in Angola in 1914.
The Costa’s and the Leal’s lived in relatively close proximity. The Costa’s in Bela Vista and after a few moves the Leal family settled in Silva Porto. The winds of the destiny made my father Fernando move to Silva Porto where he met my mother Isabel… and the rest can be imagined by reading this website and the photos in this section.
