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Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission

By Augusto Artur

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Augusto Artur

First Published: May 25, 2021

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Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission is a subsidiary church administrative unit of the North-Eastern Angola Union Mission of Seventh-day Adventists.

Territory: South of Luanda Province and Cabinda Province.

Statistics (June 30, 2020): Churches, 154; membership, 76,730; population, 4,028,223.1

The Origin of the Adventist Work in the Territory

The first Seventh-day Adventist pioneer to reach Angola was W. H. Anderson, who entered the country through Lobito via Nova Lisboa (Huambo) to Luanda, the capital city of Angola, in 1922. He traveled from South Africa through South-West Africa (Namibia) to explore the country of Angola for the possibility of establishing Adventist mission work there.2 While in Luanda, Anderson baptized five Portuguese believers who had received the Adventist message in Portugal. By 1929, one member had died and another apostatized, while the other three were still faithful. Anderson continued to visit Luanda from time to time to see the Portuguese Governor General in connection with acquiring land for opening new mission stations or to apply for visas. Elders C. W. Curtis and Peter Stevenson, superintendent and secretary-treasurer of the Angola Union Mission respectively, came to Luanda in 1933 for an interview with the Governor General and also conducted Harvest Ingathering solicitation in the city.3

Before the Adventist message sunk roots in Luanda, the Adventist pioneers entered the northern portion of the country where they established Cuale Mission in the Kalandula Municipality of Malanje Province in 1934.4 Although Adventism thereafter spread back to Luanda, available records focus largely on the growth of the Adventist church among the Europeans in Luanda. For example, in 1951 a European missionary, E. V. Hermanson, went to Luanda to undertake evangelism among the more than 25,000 Europeans.5 Still, by 1952, no organized church as yet existed in Luanda, although some 20-30 persons had begun gathering in Pastor Hermanson’s home for Bible studies. Later, leaders rented a new building and furnished it as a lecture hall.6

When Pastor O. Schuberth, Southern European Division department of education secretary, passed through Luanda in 1953, he attended Sabbath worship with “a small group of ‘European’ believers in the city, representing the various shades of color from white to black, even pure natives being permitted to join if they belonged to the ‘assimilative’ class.’”7 He reported having enjoyed very much his first Sabbath fellowship with the group.

In 1955, when Pastor M.V. Campbell, president of the Southern European Division, visited Luanda, Pastor A. J. Rodriques of the Luanda district showed the president a hall that had served as a rented meeting place for many years. Afterward, he took Campbell to a well-situated piece of property donated by an Angolan national who loved the Adventist message, that was to be used as a church site.8 On September 13, 1969, the Luanda Evangelistic Center (now Luanda Central SDA Church) was inaugurated, being the largest project undertaken by the union since its founding.9

By 1957, when Angola and Mozambique constituted the Portuguese African Union Mission, its total membership was 10,876 with about 25,000 Sabbath School members. In Angola, European worship centers had been established in Luanda, Lobito, Mossamedes, Nova Lisboa (Huambo), and Benguela.10 Radio became an important evangelistic agency in Luanda by 1964, airing six weekly Voice of Prophecy broadcasts.11 To continue promoting the growth of the work and to conserve the gains already made, Pastor M. S. Castro, his wife, and daughter, arrived from Brazil in Luanda during November 1970 to serve as pastor for the Luanda European Church.12

Meanwhile in Cabinda, two lay members from Portugal came to work in the oil sector in 1974. They shared their beliefs with the local people with whom they began to meet on Saturdays for worship. However, with Angola's political independence in 1975 and the political, military, social, and economic upheavals that arose at that time, the two Adventist laymen returned to Portugal, while their local converts either took refuge in the two Congo republics or returned to the Evangelical Church of Angola. As a result, the Adventist church in Cabinda became extinct.13

In 1983, some Adventist military personnel from Huambo Province and an Adventist family from Moxico Province restarted the church in Cabinda. The group grew without the participation of any indigenous members. In 1986, the North Mission Association sent Pastor Francisco Frederico to Cabinda, and he remained there until 1990. From that date to the present Cabinda has had a total of eight pastors assigned to work there.14

The first indigenous members converted in the second phase of evangelization joined the church in 1997. Among them were Brother Juliano and his wife. They had belonged to the group that in 1975 had rejoined the Evangelical Church of Angola. On his return to the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Juliano narrated the first group’s experience to Pastor Evaristo Hamuyela, who served as a pastor in Cabinda Province between 1997-2011.15

The other converts were Filipe de Oliveira Malondo Dumbi and his wife. Dumbi worked as a translator for the Ibinda language, and in 2000 the North Angola Mission Association sent him to Huambo Adventist Seminary to study theology. When he graduated in 2005, he became the first pastor from the local ethnic tribe to work in Cabinda.16 Currently there are three organized churches and 972 baptized members in Cabinda Province.

Events that Led to the Organization of Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission

Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission emerged from the realignment of the North (Angola) Association Mission (now Angola North Mission) in 2016. Established in 1982, the North Mission Association comprised Cabinda, Zaire, Uige, Bengo, Malanje, Kuanza Norte, and Luanda provinces in the northern part of the Republic of Angola. The growth of the work that had taken place and the complexity of administrating it led the executive committee of the North-Eastern Angola Union (NEAU) Mission, which met December 6-8, 2016, to recommend the reorganization of the North Association Mission territory into three new missions.17 The North Association Mission executive committee meeting voted to accept the proposal from the North-Eastern Angola Union, as well as authorizing a Realignment Commission made up of some of the members of the NEAU and North Association Mission’s executive committees.18

As a result of the intense work done by the Realignment Commission, followed by the assessment made by the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division Commission on August 3, 2017, the division executive committee voted to approve the restructuring of the North Association Mission into three new units, namely: North Angola Mission, North-Eastern Angola Mission, and Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission respectively.19

Following the division’s approval, the executive committee of the North-Eastern Angola Union met on December 4, 2017, to elect the administrative officers for the three new missions.20 On February 5, 2018, the South Luanda and Cabinda Mission held its first constituency session, which among other things elected the departmental directors and the executive committee members. It marked the beginning of the South Luanda and Cabinda Mission in Angola with 61,507 baptized members, 137 churches, and 32 pastors. The mission’s office currently operates in a rented building situated in Nova Vida, Luanda.

List of Presidents

Augusto Artur (2017-July 2021); Tito Mateus Zua (July 2021- )

Office Address: Kilamba Kiaxi, Distrito Urbano do Nova Vida, Urbanization Nova Vida, Rua 60, Lote 1637, Luanda, Republic of Angola

Sources

Anderson, W. H. “The Report of the Angola Union to the African Division Constituency.” African Division Outlook, August 8, 1929.

Beach, W. R. “Angola’s Story of Achievement.” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, June 1951.

Buckley, E. A. “Angola’s Latest Mission Station.” Southern African Division Outlook, October 15, 1934.

Campbell, M. V. “Tour of Inspection: Angola Union Mission.” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, September 1955.

Cazeaux, Jean. “High Lights of the Division Quadrennial Council 1968: Angola Union Mission.” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, March 1969.

Editorial. “Angola News Notes.” Southern African Division Outlook, November 1, 1933.

Ferreira, E. “Progress in Angola.” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, December 1964.

Gerber, R. “Angola.” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, March 1952.

Krebs, Gretty. “‘Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9:38).” Trans-Mediterranean Division, December 1970.

Lourinho, M. “Portuguese African Union.” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, June 1957.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. https://www.adventistyearbook.org/.

Notes

  1. Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (2021), https://www.adventistyearbook.org/entity?EntityID=54393.↩

  2. W. H. Anderson, “The Report of the Angola Union to the African Division Constituency,” African Division Outlook, August 8, 1929, 8.↩

  3. Editorial, “Angola News Notes,” Southern African Division Outlook, November 1, 1933, 12.↩

  4. E. A. Buckley, “Angola’s Latest Mission Station,” Southern African Division Outlook, October 15, 1934.↩

  5. W. R. Beach, “Angola’s Story of Achievement,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, June 1951, 2.↩

  6. R. Gerber, “Angola,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, March 1952, 5.↩

  7. O. Schuberth, “A Visit to the Angola Union Mission,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, September 1953, 4.↩

  8. M.V. Campbell, “Tour of Inspection: Angola Union Mission,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, September 1955, 8.↩

  9. Jean Cazeaux, “High Lights of the Division Quadrennial Council 1968: Angola Union Mission,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, March 1969, 2.↩

  10. M. Lourinho, “Portuguese African Union,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, June 1957, 12.↩

  11. E. Ferreira, “Progress in Angola,” Quarterly Review of the Southern European Division, December 1964, 4.↩

  12. Gretty Krebs, “‘Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth laborers into his harvest’ (Matthew 9:38),” Trans-Mediterranean Division, December 1970, 7.↩

  13. Evaristo Hamuyela, interview by Florindo Chiconjo, Villa Estoril, Luanda, Angola, July 21, 2018.↩

  14. Ibid.↩

  15. Ibid.↩

  16. Ibid.↩

  17. North-Eastern Angola Union Executive Committee Minutes of December 6-8, 2016.↩

  18. North Association Executive Committee Minutes of June 28, 2017.↩

  19. Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division Executive Committee Minutes of November 5-7, 2017.↩

  20. North-Eastern Angola Union Executive Committee Minutes of December 4-6, 2017.↩

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Artur, Augusto. "Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. May 25, 2021. Accessed January 21, 2025. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CG9E.

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Artur, Augusto. "Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. May 25, 2021. Date of access January 21, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CG9E.

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Artur, Augusto (2021, May 25). Angola South Luanda and Cabinda Mission. Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved January 21, 2025, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=CG9E.

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