Current Time in Menongue, Angola

Menongue is the capital of Cuando Cubango province in south-eastern Angola, standing on the banks of the Cuebe river on a high plateau roughly thirteen hundred metres above sea level. The surrounding landscape is a mixture of open woodland, sandy soils and river valleys that drain south-east towards the great Okavango basin. The climate is tropical savannah, with a warm rainy season from October to April and a dry season of clear skies and surprisingly cool nights.

The city and its municipality are home to somewhere in the region of two hundred thousand people, making it by far the largest settlement in a province that is one of the least densely populated in Angola. It functions as the administrative, commercial and transport centre for an enormous, thinly settled territory of forests, rivers and grasslands.

The town was founded in the colonial period and was known for many years as Serpa Pinto, after a Portuguese explorer, before returning to its African name at independence in 1975. Its modern history has been dominated by the long civil war that followed, during which Cuando Cubango saw some of the heaviest fighting in the country. Menongue's airfield became a major military base, the population swelled with people displaced from the countryside, and the surrounding land was left heavily mined. Since peace came in 2002 the city has been steadily rebuilt, roads have been repaired, demining teams have cleared large areas and new public buildings, schools and hospitals have appeared.

The economy is based on farming, livestock and trade. Maize, cassava, millet, beans and vegetables are grown along the river valleys, cattle are raised on the plateau, and timber, honey and fish add to local incomes. The province is rich in water and arable land, and agriculture is widely seen as its greatest asset for the future.

For visitors the appeal of Menongue lies in its setting and in what surrounds it. The Cuebe river with its sandy banks and gallery forest is a pleasant place to spend time, and the town has a relaxed atmosphere with markets, small restaurants and colonial-era buildings. Further out lie the vast national parks of Luengue-Luiana and Mavinga, which form part of the Kavango-Zambezi transfrontier conservation area, the largest of its kind in the world, shared with Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Wildlife populations there are slowly recovering, and the rivers that rise in this province feed the Okavango Delta.

Local culture reflects the peoples of the region, with Portuguese as the official language alongside Ngangela and other Bantu languages, and music, dance and community festivals playing an important part in social life.

Menongue is the eastern terminus of the restored Moçâmedes railway, which runs across the country to the Atlantic port of Namibe, and its airport provides flights to Luanda and other cities. The Cuito Cuanavale university serves students across the province.

Menongue is important as the gateway to Angola's remote south-east, a frontier city rebuilding after conflict at the heart of a region of great ecological value.