Portuguese vs Kimbundu: language use in the colony of Angola (1575 – c. 1845)

Although Portuguese was the official language in Angola, the locally born population, even in the capital Luanda which was founded by settlers from Portugal, began to loose mastery of this language in favour of Kimbundu, the use of which enjoyed considerable expansion in the 18th century. The use of Kimbundu came to be prohibited by 1772 and all publications in this language were destroyed. Nevertheless, the situation would only begin to change around 1830 when a growing number of children from Luanda were educated in Portugal. At the same time, however, began a trend to valorize the use of Kimbundu in Luanda. Thus the elites of Luanda became gradually bilingual, a situation that still exists today. Bibliogr., sum. in English, French and Dutch.