Cristo Rei - Lubango, Angola
Lubango is a 6 hour drive from Huambo. As we drove into town, which sits in a valley, the first thing I noticed was the white speck on top of the mountain in front of me. It was clearly a very large statue since it was visible from miles below.
We drove up the mountain and as we came closer I realized it was a statue of a man (Jesus) with his arms outstretched. This is called Cristo Rei (Christ the King, in Portuguese). There are at least 2 just like it in Brazil and Portugal. Built in 1957 it is all white marble sitting on cement and imposes an impressive height of 30 meters.
We got out of the Land Cruiser and looked around at the awesome views from 2130 meters above sea level.
As I studied the monument’s face, I realized the nose was broken, apparently shot up during the war. Rounding the far side of the statue I came upon children of the Mwila Tribe playing with rocks in the sand. They were in traditional dress of loincloths, rope and mud caked on top of their braids.
It was a jarring juxtaposition to say the least, me in my jeans and what felt like excessive camera equipment, but a fascinating experience.