North Tidewater News

City officials met with a delegation from Angola to establish a Sister Cities affiliation with Malanje, a city in northwestern Angola. The ceremony formalized a bond dating back to 1619 when a Dutch ship transporting workers from Angola landed at Point Comfort, marking the start of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in North America.

Mayor Donnie Tuck and Angolan Governor Marcos Nhunga of Malanje Province signed two copies of the agreement, one in English and one in Portuguese.

“We are a city that can trace our origins back to Angola,” Mayor Tuck said, referencing the Tucker family in Hampton, which traces its bloodlines back to the 1619 arrivals at Point Comfort.

The Angolan delegation included more than a dozen representatives led by Eionisio Manuel da Fonseca, Minister of Administration and Travel, and Gov. Nhunga. Hampton was represented by Mayor Tuck, City Manager Mary Bunting, and Glenn Oder, executive director of the Fort Monroe Authority. Cultural gifts were exchanged between Mayor Tuck and Gov. Nhunga, including a bust of Queen Njinga Mbande given to Mayor Tuck.

Gov. Nhunga called it “a historic day” through an interpreter and encouraged Hampton residents to visit Angola. “The doors are open to receive you, as well as your sons and daughters,” he said.

Vice Mayor Jimmy Gray and City Councilwoman Hope Harper visited Malanje Province for a week in late June inspired by members of the Tucker family. They met with local officials and Angolan President Joao Lourenco. Malanje is one of Africa’s fastest-growing cities with its airport serving as the primary point of arrival for Luanda.

Councilman Gray commented on his experience: “It’s a very different part of the world... What we might consider poverty here, it’s the standard that they know.”

At a City Council meeting in July, Councilwoman Harper shared her reflections from the trip: “I think I came back changed for the better... There are things that we do single day that are much more of a challenge in a place like Angola — such as simply having clean water to drink.”

Councilman Gray emphasized connecting Hampton to Angola as part of developing an African Landing Memorial site at Point Comfort: “Attaching Africa to it in this way will just add to the realism... they will have a better understanding of that line tracing from Angola to Hampton.”

The Sister Cities movement began in 1956 when U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower suggested American cities develop affiliations with overseas counterparts for “citizen diplomacy.”

Diane Peterson oversees Hampton’s Sister Cities program and told the Angolan delegation: “Your presence here gives us hope that the history between our two cities will be shared and passed down through generations.”

Hampton also has Sister Cities partnerships with Southampton (England), Anyang (South Korea), Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), and Verdome (France).

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