Cassinga
| Cassinga | |
|---|---|
| commune and town | |
 Cassinga
|
|
| Coordinates: 15°06′47.4″S 16°06′08.8″E / 15.113167°S 16.102444°ECoordinates: 15°06′47.4″S 16°06′08.8″E / 15.113167°S 16.102444°E | |
| Country |
 Angola
|
| Province | Huíla |
| Municipality | Jamba |
| Time zone | WAT (UTC+1) |
Cassinga or Kassinga is a town and commune in the municipality of Jamba, province of Huíla, Angola.
It is situated on an old and important two-track road from Jamba to Huambo.
Established as an ore mine and during the Civil War used as Namibian guerrilla training site and refugee camp, the place was the scene of the Battle of Cassinga, an airborne raid by the South African Defence Force against the People's Liberation Army of Namibia on 4 May 1978 that killed several hundred Namibian people, guerrilla fighters, refugees, teenagers and children alike.
The settlement is a place of reverence and pilgrimage by both belligerents of its battle. Namibians celebrate Cassinga Day as a national holiday. Executing an air strike against poorly armed and largely untrained soldiers while killing hundreds of civilians as well laid bare the violence of the South Africans. The battle is thus regarded the turning point in the fight for Namibian independence, which then started drawing support from a wider segment of the population. South Africans celebrate a "jewel of military craftmanship" and a major blow against armed efforts to achieve Namibian independence.
One of the exploratory travels of the Dorsland Trek crossed Cassinga in 1874. There is still a monument remembering those trekboere that died during that trip.
Located near the site is an old iron mine constructed by Krupp engineers working in concert with the colonial administration. Between 1966 and 1967, a second terminal for extracting the ore was completed at Saco, a bay just 12 kilometres north of Moçâmedes (present day Namibe) by Compania Mineira do Lobito, the Lobito Mining Company. Cassinga's product would eventually be channeled to Saco under direction of Portuguese authorities. Development of the installation was trusted to Krupp and SETH, a Portuguese subsidiary of Denmark's Højgaard & Schultz. Moçâmedes housed expatriate workers, the foreign engineers, and their families for two years until the first 250,000 tons of ore were shipped out in 1967. At that time Cassinga had about twenty buildings serving as warehouses, accommodation and offices.
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Wikipedia