Lubango, city in southwestern Angola, capital of Huíla province, located 150 km (94 mi) east-northeast of the port of Namibe, and 280 km (175 mi) south of Lobito. Situated on the Huíla Plateau, the city has a relatively cool, moist climate and savanna vegetation. Lubango's economy is based on agriculture, especially meat products, grains, sisal, tobacco, fruits, and vegetables produced in the surrounding fertile region. Food processing, leather tanning, and consumer goods industries dominate the industrial sector. Lubango is connected by rail to the port of Namibe and to the regional centers of Menongue, Chiange, and Cassinga. It has a major airport and is headquarters to a fighter-bomber regiment of the Angolan air force. A campus of Agostinho Neto University, with schools of economics, law, and education, is located in the city.
Lubango, known to Portuguese colonists as Sá da Bandeira, was established in 1885 by immigrants from Madeira. In the following decades, it became a major center of Portuguese settlement, and cultural and economic development. The infrastructure and economy of the city and its surroundings were greatly damaged following Angola's independence in 1975 by the departure of most Portuguese settlers, by the effects of two decades of civil war, and by bombing raids by South African planes. Agricultural and industrial production have been reduced to a small fraction of pre-1975 levels. The population has increased due to the arrival of refugees from the civil war. Population (1983 estimate) 105,000.
