The first contingent of settlers was sent to the south of Angola to an area called Lubango, three hundred kilometers from the coast. Antonio's parents Manuel Costa and Maria Augusta were part of a small group of brave people looking for a better life in the "black continent". They would be the equivalent to people sent to live in Mars or the Moon if we were to do it now.
They must have heard stories about Africa but nobody knew for sure what to expect there. Antonio, Maria, Manuel, Georgina, Augusto, Albino and Guilhermina were part of a battalion of little brats that filled the ship with innocent laughter and noise. They were probably the only ones that did not fear what the future had in reserve for them in that mysterious continent called Africa.
The conditions on the ship were Spartan with drinking water rationed and transported in wooden barrels, but after a month in high seas they made it to Moçamedes a trading post in the south coast of Angola and now a city of the same name.
The first contingent of settlers included 55 families, composing of 85 men, 47 women, 81 boys and 82 girls.
Moçamedes and all the southwest of Angola is dominated by the Namibe desert, an arid and inhospitable terrain with temperatures reaching forty degrees during the day and sub-zero during the night. Surprisingly the Namibe desert is teaming with wild life: zebras, orix, gazelles, lions and all sorts of animals.
In the desert itself, flies by the million and strange animals could not have been a warm and friendly reception for the first settlers, but they had resolved to face whatever necessary to provide a better future for their families.
The Route to Angola