Europeans unfamiliar with the so-called "Ganguela" ethnic groups, but also contemporary urban Angolans often consider them erroneously as "tribes" of the Ovimbundu.
In the 1880s Kalene Hill was an important slave trading center, where Ovimbundu slavers came to deal with Ndembu headmen.
Portuguese authorities arrested the king of Bailundo after an Ovimbundu celebration in which natives consumed Portuguese rum, allegedly without paying.
Viye, also known and bihe, one of the traditional independent Ovimbundu kingdoms in Angola
Less heavily Catholic were the Ovimbundu-populated provinces of Benguela and Huambo, although the city of Huambo had been estimated to be two-thirds Catholic.
SINDACO remained based mainly in the Ovimbundu-dominated cities of Huambo and Lobito, whilst being marginalized in Luanda (where MPLA was monopolizing control over the trade union movement).