Greeting etiquette

The most frequent form of welcome in Angola is a handshake; at gatherings, each person should shake hands separately. Friends can give each other hugs, cheek kisses, and back thump. When encountering someone of higher position or age, it is customary to bow gently. Angola's culture values hierarchy, and titles and surnames are widely employed as a form of respect. Women in remote places, particularly older women, dislike looking other people in the eyes.

When addressing friends, teenagers, or children, people commonly use their first names. Otherwise, an adult should be addressed by their title and surname. People frequently use their title in conjunction with their first name rather than their last name. This, however, is dependent on personal preference and the relationship between the speakers.

Making eye contact with someone who is in a comparable position to you or is your "equal" is a display of honesty. Meanwhile, avoiding eye contact when speaking to someone older or more senior than you conveys respect. In Angola, greetings are not hurried. You'll be asked how you're doing and how your family is doing, and the individual asking will be genuinely interested. It is not only a formality, as in many other cultures, and the sentiment will be expected to be reciprocated.