The People’s Republic of Angola is located on the southwest coast of Africa. The nation’s official language is Portuguese, but most Angolans live in rural areas and speak an African dialect. About 90% of the country’s 11 million people are Christians, with Catholicism being the dominant faith. In recent decades Angola has been ravished by war and famine.
Angola granted the Church official recognition in 1993, and the first branch was established three years later with Tshaka Mbenza Vuamina, a professor at the University of Angola, as president. From 1980 to 1996, approximately 400 Angolans joined the Church outside of their homeland, primarily in Portugal and France. Many returned to Angola and helped to establish the Church there. Several of these Saints met in homes and functioned as a group before becoming a branch. At the beginning of the year 2000, there were 502 Church members living in two branches.
[Year-end 2005: Est. population, 11,191,000; Members, 669; Branches, 1; Percent LDS, .005, or one in 18,021; Africa Southeast Africa; Source 2007 Church Almanac.]
SOURCES
“First Branch Formed in Angola after Years of Strife.” Church News, 7 September 1996. 5.
Johnson, Lisa A. “The Secret of His Success.” New Era 22 (May 1992): 20-25.
1999-2000 Church Almanac. Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1998. 268.
E. DALE LEBARON
From Arnold K. Garr, Donald Q. Cannon, and Richard O. Cowan, eds., Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2000), 29-30. Used with the permission of the Deseret Book Company. Copies prohibited by law.