Sambizanga

Sambizanga is one of the six urban districts that make up the municipality of Luanda, in the province of Luanda.

Overview

Sambizanga has 14.5 km ² and about 244,000 inhabitants. Limited to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, on the north by the municipality of Cacuaco, in the East by the municipality of Cazenga and south by the municipalities of Ingombota and Rangel. It comprises the municipalities of Sambizanga, Bairro Operário and Ngola Kiluanje. Sambizanga is home to the Progresso Associação do Sambizanga football club of the Girabola.

2007 Shooting

In December 2007, film director Radical Ribeiro began shooting a film in Sambizanga. On 18 December, police mistook actors in Ribeiro's film, who were carrying unloaded firearms, as actual criminals and opened fire on them, killing two. Interior Minister Roberto Leal Monteiro said "We won't rest until police at all levels realise they are public servants,"

See also

Sources

Sambizanga (film)

Sambizanga is a 1972 film by director Sarah Maldoror. Set in 1961 at the onset of the Angolan War of Independence, it follows the struggles of Angolan militants involved with the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), an anti-colonial political movement of which Maldoror's husband, Mário Coelho Pinto de Andrade, was a leader. The film is based on the novella A vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier ("The Real Life of Domingos Xavier") by Angolan writer José Luandino Vieira.

Production

The film was shot on location in the People's Republic of Congo (also known as Congo-Brazzaville) in seven weeks.

Synopsis

Sambizanga is the name of the working-class neighbourhood in Luanda where a Portuguese prison was located to which many Angolan militants were taken to be tortured and killed. On February 4, 1961, this prison was attacked by MPLA forces.

The film begins with the arrest of Angolan revolutionary Domingos Xavier by Portuguese colonial officials. Xavier is taken to the prison in Sambizanga where he is at risk of being tortured to death for not giving the Portuguese the names of his fellow dissidents. The film follows Xavier's wife, Maria, who searches from jail to jail trying to discover what has become of her husband.