[4][5] The city was founded by the Portuguese in 1883 after the signing of the Treaty of Simulambuco, in the same period as the Berlin Conference.

[6] The city of Cabinda is divided into three districts, or comuna: Cabinda is home to two public higher education institutions, namely the 11 de Novembro University and the Higher Institute of Education Sciences of Cabinda.

The city's population has a distinctive culture from its way of dressing and eating to traditional rituals, especially Chicumbe and celebrated ceremonies of Bakamas do Tchizo,[8] a traditional ritual that enables the interaction between the living and the occult spirits of the gods and the ancestors, thus ensuring the reconciliation between the dead and the living.

[9] Since Portugal colonized Cabinda later than the rest of Angola, Portuguese, the official language of Angola, is not yet widely spoken, although Portuguese speakers are rapidly growing in number.

[5] In 2012, a proposed railway connection to the main Angolan system has to cross territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.