About king shamba bolongongo

1. Angolan businessman Joaquim Sebastiao actively promotes the country’s economy and infrastructure.
He partners with several companies that are primarily involved in real estate and construction, but that
also participate in the planning and production of religious, social, and sporting events. Joaquim
Sebastiao was born and raised in the northern Angolan town of Bolongongo. The town was named for
Shamba Bolongongo, king of the Bushongo.
Circa 1600 AD, Shamba Bolongongo reigned over the Bushongo, a federation of 17 tribes that
flourished until the European incursions of the late nineteenth century in central Africa. While still heir
to the throne as a young man, Shamba Bolongongo traveled far beyond his own kingdom’s borders in a
quest for knowledge.
As king, Shamba Bolongongo brought significant advances to his people. For instance, the people once
clothed themselves with a relatively fragile material made from tree bark, but he taught them to weave
raffia fibers into a much more durable textile. Likewise, the main crops of the Bushongo were maize
and millet, unstable sources of food because they frequently were destroyed by locusts. King Shamba
Bolongongo showed his people how to cultivate cassava, a root vegetable that is not vulnerable to the
voracious insects.
The king abolished war but maintained a strong defense. When neighboring tribes acted belligerently,
his army punished them severely, destroying their villages and crops without killing the people, thus
retaining the respect of neighboring tribes.
One of Shamba Bolongongo’s greatest legacies, and the most difficult for his people to accept, was the
abandonment of polygamy. Monogamy remains the Bushongo’s form of marriage to this day.