Roofing in Angola

Angola stretches from the humid north and Atlantic coast to the dry south-west bordering Namibia. Its roofs combine African traditions of thatch with Portuguese-introduced stone building, and the national census now records zinc sheet, fibre cement, tile, concrete slab and grass as the main roof materials.

Climate and hazards

Climates range from tropical in the north to arid in the south-west.

Roofing history

Mbanza Kongo, in the north, was the political and spiritual capital of the Kingdom of Kongo, active from the 14th to the 19th century. Its pre-existing town was built with local materials; after the Portuguese arrived in the 15th century they added stone buildings constructed by European methods, including churches, convents, a Jesuit college and military and civil buildings. The cathedral, later known as Kulumbimbi, is dated to 1491 and was raised to a cathedral in 1596; by the 1620s the city had about twelve churches. The city was sacked in civil wars after the battle of Mbwila in 1665, abandoned in 1678, and restored as capital by Pedro IV in 1705-1709. Its remains were inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2017.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Himba homesteads in the far south (across the Kunene River from Namibia): houses of mopane wood plastered with red clay and cow manure, arranged around a sacred fire and livestock kraal.
• Grass thatch (capim) on rural houses, recorded as a census category.

Roofing today

The 2014 General Population and Housing Census asked whether a dwelling's roof was mainly of concrete slab (placa de betao), tile (telha), fibre cement (lusalite/fibrocimento), zinc (zinco), grass (capim) or other. Angola's 2016 national report for Habitat III notes the growth of peripheral musseques around Luanda.

Codes, standards and regulation

Land use and urban planning are governed by the Territorial and Urban Planning Law (Lei 3/04) and the Land Law (Lei 9/04); Lei 3/07 on housing promotion formally recognises directed self-build (autoconstrucao dirigida). At Mbanza Kongo, a provincial decree of August 2013 regulates building permits in the protected area.

Notable roofs

• Mbanza Kongo (UNESCO 2017): ruins of Kulumbimbi cathedral and the royal precinct.

Local roofing terms

• zinco (Portuguese): zinc-coated roof sheet.
• capim: grass thatch.
• telha: roof tile.
• lusalite: fibre-cement sheet (from a brand name).
• placa de betao: concrete slab roof.

Sources and gaps

Specific roof hazards: published information is limited. No national roofing standard was identified. No information on domestic roofing manufacturers was found in published sources.

Census roof shares, colonial tile-making and Portuguese-era roof forms in Luanda and Benguela, and Ovimbundu or Kongo thatching techniques: published information is limited.