Current Time in Luena, Angola

Luena is the capital of Moxico Province in eastern Angola, standing on a high plateau of open miombo woodland and grassland close to the headwaters of several great African rivers. The Zambezi, the Kasai and the Cuando all rise in this region, and the land around the town is a mosaic of flooded plains, gallery forest and sandy soils. The altitude of around one thousand three hundred metres gives Luena a mild climate, with a hot rainy season and cool, dry nights in the middle of the year.

Roughly two hundred and fifty thousand people live in the city, the largest settlement in Angola's biggest and most sparsely populated province. Trade, transport and public administration form the core of the economy, along with farming of cassava, maize and beans, cattle raising, honey production and the harvesting of timber from the woodland. Diamond and mineral prospecting and cross-border commerce with Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are of growing importance.

The town was founded in the early twentieth century as Vila Luso, a station on the Benguela Railway, the line built by the Portuguese to carry copper from the Congolese and Zambian mining belt to the Atlantic port of Lobito. That railway defined the town's existence and made it a hub of the interior. After independence in 1975 the name was changed to Luena. The city then endured decades of civil war, during which it was besieged and isolated, its railway destroyed and the surrounding countryside heavily mined. Moxico was the final theatre of the conflict, and it was here in 2002 that the memorandum of understanding ending the war was signed, giving Luena a permanent place in the history of Angolan peace.

Reconstruction has transformed the city in the years since. The Benguela Railway has been rebuilt and now runs again from the Atlantic across the country to the Congolese border, with Luena as a major station, and the airport, roads, schools and hospitals have been restored. Visitors will find a spacious town of wide avenues, colonial-era buildings, markets and a cathedral, along with monuments commemorating the peace agreement. Beyond the city lie the vast wilderness areas of eastern Angola, including Cameia National Park with its floodplains, antelope and birdlife, where recovering wildlife populations are attracting conservation attention.

The province is the homeland of the Chokwe and Luvale peoples, whose artistic tradition is among the most admired in Africa. Chokwe masks, carved thrones and figures are held in museums worldwide, and mask dances, initiation ceremonies, drumming and basketry remain part of village life. Portuguese is the official language, but Chokwe, Luvale and Luchazi are widely spoken, and local food centres on cassava porridge, fish, beans and wild mushrooms.

The railway, the airport and improving roads now link Luena with Luanda, Lobito and the neighbouring countries. A campus of the national university system and teacher training colleges serve the province.

Luena is significant as the hub of eastern Angola and as a symbol of the country's recovery from war.