Current Time in Mossamedes, Angola

Mossamedes lies on the Atlantic coast of south-western Angola, capital of Namibe province, at the point where the Namib desert reaches the ocean. It is one of the driest inhabited places on the continent, where rain may not fall for years at a time, yet the cold Benguela current keeps the air cool and often misty, producing a climate far gentler than the latitude would suggest. Behind the city the desert rises towards the escarpment of the Chela mountains.

Something over two hundred thousand people live in the city and its surrounding district. Its economy has always looked to the sea and to the interior. The fishing fleet, the canneries and the fishmeal plants along the shore make it one of the most important fishing centres in Angola, while the deep-water port handles minerals, salt, marble and granite quarried inland. The Mossamedes railway, running eastwards to Menongue through the highlands, was built to carry iron ore from the mines at Cassinga and remains a lifeline for the interior provinces.

The city was founded in 1840 by Portuguese settlers who established a fort and a fishing station on the sheltered bay, and it grew with the arrival of colonists from Brazil, Madeira and the Algarve. It was named after a Portuguese colonial official and developed through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the main port of the south. During the years after independence the city was renamed Namibe, a name that many people still use, before the historic name of Mossamedes was formally restored in 2016. The long civil war disrupted the railway and the mines, and much of the recent effort has gone into rebuilding that infrastructure.

The centre retains an attractive Portuguese colonial character, with pastel-painted buildings, the old fort of Sao Fernando, a seafront promenade and a cathedral, all set against sand and sea. The greatest attractions, though, lie outside the city. Iona National Park, the largest in Angola, protects an extraordinary desert landscape of dunes, canyons and stone plains where the ancient welwitschia plant grows, some specimens more than a thousand years old, and where nomadic Himba and Mucubal herders keep their cattle. The lagoon and rock formations at Arco, the beaches of Praia Amelia and Baia das Pipas, and the fishing town of Tombwa to the south are popular excursions, while whales and dolphins pass along the coast in season.

Life in Mossamedes moves at an unhurried pace, with grilled fish, Portuguese-influenced cooking and a mixture of Angolan and European traditions. Portuguese is the common language, spoken alongside Nyaneka, Herero and other southern tongues. A provincial university campus and technical institutes provide higher education, and an airport, the coastal highway and the railway connect the city with Lubango, Luanda and the interior.

Mossamedes is important as the main port and fishing centre of southern Angola and as the gateway to one of the most remarkable desert landscapes in Africa.