Vidas Mulatas - The illusion of post modernity by Iara Silva-Silva

Vidas Mulatas: The Illusion of [Post]Modernity A Luanda Case-study

Technical, Professional and Cultural Studies AR7182 - Urban Theory Iara Silva u178869 Tutor: Christoph Hadrys March 2018

This essay is the result of my own work and includes nothing which is the outcome of work done in collaboration except where specifically indicated in the text. Student Name: Iara Silva Student Number: u1718869 Date: 12.03.2018 Signature:

Contents

00.Abstract

p. 6

01.Introduction

p.8-9

02.The Colonial Era

05.Final

p.10-15 p.16-21 p.22-27 p.28-29

06.Bibliography

p.30-31

07.Image references

p.32-33

03.Independence and Civil War 04.Post-Independence (2002-Present)

Abstract The purpose of this dissertation is to contextualise the sporadic moments of modernity/ glimpses of globalisation demonstrated within the city of Luanda, Angola, which are favoured over the requalification of informal settlements, that have been a part of the discourse of Luanda, urbanely, economically and socio-culturally.

Introduction The sporadic moments of modernity in today’s city can be found in almost every country in the world as internationalisation, capitalism, and the digital era bring different cultures and societies together. However this celebration of inclusiveness is often dictated by globalised standards of progress, generally reflected in the urban tissue as the infinitely high skyscrapers of glass and steel, which are so easily recognisable due to their repetition throughout the globalised world. Aubrey Alverson1 points out that “our cities are nothing more than the canvas upon which we inflict our desires”, it is understandable to an extent that it reflects the global era - the age of the ‘Capitalist Utopia’, which relies on a system of presumptions and leads people to believe in a false sense of wealth, and as so, it is reflected in the city, inevitably transforming the it into a spectacle. In Luanda, these glimpses of progress are even more provoking due to their drastic contrast to the city’s urban tissue, as Berman2 points out that “to be modern is to find ourselves in an environment that promises us adventure, power, joy, growth, transformation of ourselves and the world and, at the same time, that threatens to destroy everything we have, everything we know, everything we are”. This dissertation will focus on the city’s desire to appeal to the global standards of progress in prejudice of the existing informal settlements, which make up much of the city and inform it spatially, culturally, and economically. It is vital to understand the concepts of modernity and its subsequence consequent of post-modernism, in order to begin this study. Modernism, as a period, can be characterised by the drastic social, cultural and economic changes led by industrialisation. “Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent: it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and immovable” (Baudelaire, 1863)3, it is a period which can be defined by the rejection of tradition and the raise of capitalism, and secularisation. Urbanely, it is marked by the rural exodus and the necessity to rapidly expand the city in order to accommodate the newcomers. Post-modernism as an extension of modernism, is defined by globalisation - the international expansion of the economic, political, social, and cultural integration, much of which is due to the rise of the digital era. It is argued that one of the most important distinctions between post-modernism and modernism lies in the numerous possibilities of

Alverson, A. (2010). Contextual [mis] understanding. [Blog] Defy Rules. Available at: https:// defy-rules.com/ [Accessed 2 Feb. 2018]. 2.

Berman, M. (1982). All that is Solid Melts into Air. New York: Simon and Schuster. 3.

Baudelaire, C. (1863). The Painter of Modern Life.

an individual’s life course, and how society’s way of living is nowadays oriented towards consumerism and the importance of leisure activities over work, “the image of post-modern society is thus one of a shopping mall, rather than a factory”. (Thompson, 2016)4 Through the use of Henry Lefebvre and Marshall Berman’s theories of the city, in addition to Sílvia Viegas’ detailed studies of urbanization in Lusophone Africa and Guy Debord’s exploration of the spectacle in the face of modernism and globalisation – this essay will explore these alien edifications of post-modernity in the context of Angola as a postcolonial, developing country.

Thompson, K. (2016). From Modernity to PostModernity. [online] Revise Sociology. Available at: www.revisesociology.com [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].

The dissertation will be structured around the three major historical moments of Angola’s history: the colonial era, independence and civil war, and post-independence, and draw on the essence of the concept of ‘vidas mulatas’, a term commonly used in Angolan slang, that revolves around Eurocentric ideals of beauty, which deeply ingrained in colourism, directly translates to ‘mulattos lives’ and it is used to describe what is considered to be a ‘good’ life, a flashy lifestyle mainly characterised by the illusion of material possessions – a spectacle. The first chapter will cover the creation of Angola as a nation and more specifically of Luanda as a city, focusing on the Portuguese colonialization - the brief analyses of the initial urban composition of Luanda will provide context and a better understanding of it as an urban centre. The second chapter will focus on the struggle for independence and the long civil war the country endured until 2002, this chapter will accompany the re-birth of Angola as an independent country, providing a base to its political regime and its influence on the urban tissue, as well as describing the basis for the city’s current urban fabric and the country’s position in relation to informal settlements which from now on will be addressed as mussekes. The third and final chapter will draw from the two previous chapters and argue the impact and power that these moments of Post-modernity - which will be simply described as modernity - have in the city’s urban fabric and the individual’s right to the city.

The Colonial Era Luanda is the capital of the Republic of Angola, located in west central Africa, the country is the seventh largest in the continent and is bordered by the Republic of Congo, Namibia, Zambia and the Atlantic Ocean.

Founded in 1576 by “a hundred settler families, four hundred soldiers, and twenty horses” (Headrick, 2012)5, Luanda, initially dubbed São Paolo de Assunção de Loanda, is thus one of the oldest urban agglomerates of Sub-Saharan Africa. The city which mainly served as the centre of the Portuguese slave trade, remained mostly under-developed, so much so that three centuries following its establishment, it was merely defined by “two costal settlements, three small forts, a tenuous hold on a hundred miles of river, and little else” (Headrick, 2012)5.

Angola which remained as a fairly unimportant colony until Brazil’s independence in 1822, was designed to “remain a small military, administrative and commercial outpost” (Jenkins, Robson and Cain, 2002)6 and was solely developed to subsidise the Portuguese slave trade. The city which was divided into two, the Cidade Alta (High City) at the top of the hill where the military, religious and administrative buildings were located, and the Cidade Baixa (Low City) where the commercial centre had been developed around the port, was only inhabited by 400 people until 1810, when the number rose to 4,500 (Jenkins, 2002)7 following the economic boost of the colony. The interior, however, remained unexplored and was solely populated by indigenous groups, until the 19th century. Following the Berlin Conference, there was the reluctant and delayed abolishment of the slave trade and the implementation of the effective occupation act, which required Portugal to be able to demonstrate its control over the territories it claimed, both economically and spatially. This led to the exploration and expansion of the inlands and resulted in the subsequent development of the city, as well as the mass migration of people from rural Portugal into the colony. Although the influx was intended to be directed towards the interior, the newly arrived Europeans congregated in the urban centre which saw its population sharply rise in the subsequent years, generating the first

Headrick, D. (2012). Power over peoples. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. Jenkins, P., Robson, P. and Cain, A. (2002). Local Responses to Globalization and peripheralization in Luanda, Angola. Environment & Urbanization. 7.

Jenkins, P. (2011). Maputo and Luanda. In: S. Bekker and G. Therborn, ed., Capital Cities in Africa - Power and Powerlessness.

[Top]: Merian, M. (1646). Antique town view of Sao Paulo de Luanda, Angola. Available at: https://www. vintage-maps.com/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2018]. B.

[Bottom]: Bellin, J. (1749). Karte Von Der KĂźste Von Angola Von Dem Flusse Bengo Bis An Den Fluss Quanza. Available at: https://www. vintage-maps.com [Accessed 9 Mar. 2018].

wave of ‘gentrification’ as “the expelled Africans built their precarious housing on the slopes and uplands behind the central downtown Baixa, in mussekes”. (Jenkins, Robson and Cain, 2002)8 Musseke (Mu-seke), from the Kimbundu language, directly translates to ‘red earth’, described the sandy soil of the interior of Luanda where the settlements were build and became the designation for the informal neighbourhoods, which built on the periphery of the city, marked the beginning of the spatial segregation between the African population and the dominant classes. In 1933, Portugal fell under a military dictatorship and in order to enhance its international image, Portugal flaunted its colonies as a territorial extension of the metropolis, and like any other authoritarian regime, sought to demonstrate its power and progress urbanely. However, instead of following the regime’s policies due to being so far from the metropolis, most architects drew inspiration from a “Brazil-influenced, tropically inspired, free creative model which followed the International Style used by many European cities after WWII” (Viegas, 2016)9, instead of the historicist and revivalist models the regime had envisioned. Nonetheless, Luanda continued to reflect its colonial society, exposing the racial discriminatory systems in place, such as the Indigenato system which classified its population as either the indígena (native or uncivilised) or the não indígena (non-native or civilised). This categorisation led to other detrimental policies, such as the ‘Administrative Needs for Differentiation’ which formalised the slow cultural assimilation of the natives and their possible transformation into civilised Portuguese; and the ‘Stature of Portuguese Natives from Guinea, Angola and Mozambique’ that saw that all black individuals and their descendants were ranked as second class citizens, depriving them of any legal rights, such as the right to citizenship, property, and access to basic infrastructures. The end of the Second World War brought an economic boost to the trade of coffee, cotton, diamonds and petroleum - and as the economy grew so did the city. By 1940, Luanda’s population had reached 61,000 and continued to grow, as indigenous people, continued to flock towards

Jenkins, P., Robson, P. and Cain, A. (2002). Local Responses to Globalization and peripheralization in Luanda, Angola. Environment & Urbanization, [online] 14(1), pp.115-127. Available at: www. bibliotecaterra.angonet.org [Accessed 27 Feb. 2018]. 9.

Moreira, P. (2011). [image] Available at: http://www.chicala. org/urbanidade/etona/mapaangola-nao-e-um-pais-pequeno/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2018].

C .Translates to “Portugal is not a small country” and illustrates Portugal’s colonies c. 1933”

the urban centre in search of a better life than that of the inland, which revolved around the plantations, the diamond and petroleum exploration, and forced labour. Around this time, several master plans were devised with the intent to cater to the ever growing urban population and “Angola became the site of several important architectural experiments in the 50s and 60s which contributed to a new paradigm of modernity in Lusophone Africa” (Viegas, 2016)10. In her study of the Urbanisation and Peri-Urbanisatio in Luanda, Viegas draws attention to a masterplan developed by Etienne de Göer and D.Moreira da Silva which proposed the edification of five satellite cities, each able to house 50,000 people, around the Luanda Bay. The masterplan which was “rendered obsolete by rapid urban growth” (Viegas, 2016)10 was used as a basis by Viera da Costa in his 1948 study Satellite City no.3: Draft for a Satelitte City in Luanda, which implemented the urban principals of the aforementioned plan and proposed urban nodules between the city of Luanda and Malange – both schemes incorporated a formalised means of racial segregation. The urban centre of the city, became known as the Cidade Cimento (asphalt city), and saw its population nearly double with each passing decade, and as it continued to attempt to quickly adapt by expanding horizontally, some of its original mussekes became swallowed by the rapid urban development, forming little islands of informality within the urban tissue (Jenkins, Robson and Cain, 2002)11. Although some mussekes survived the continuous expansion, many were destroyed and the displaced inhabitants would relocated and reinforced other informal neighbourhoods, either situated within the urban centre or at its periphery, meaning that the destruction of the mussekes never relieved the city of its population and urban density, as it was desired. By 1950, with a population of 142,000 (Viegas, 2016)10, Luanda had begun expanding vertically with residential blocks of three to four storeys, and underwent a major infrastructure development that oversaw the construction of a new port, an airport and a new water system (Jenkins, 2011)12. In the subsequent decades, the drastic contrast between the Cidade Cimento and the mussekes grew further, as the

10.

Jenkins, P., Robson, P. and Cain, A. (2002). Luanda. City, [online] 19(2), pp.139-150. Available at: http:// bibliotecaterra.angonet.org/sites/ default/files/luanda_city_profile.pdf [Accessed 30 Feb. 2018]. 12.

Jenkins, P. (2011). Maputo and Luanda. In: S. Bekker and G. Therborn, ed., Capital Cities in Africa - Power and Powerlessness. [online] Cape Town: Codesria, pp.142-166. Available at: https://www.codesria. org [Accessed 28 Feb. 2018].

informal settlements firmly established themselves in periphery of the urban centre, exposing the Luandaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growing social exclusion. The quick urban development that followed, continued to further emphasize the ad hoc manner in which the urban fabric had been developed, illustrating the laissez faire attitude and the lack of control the Portuguese regime had over its colonial population and territories, as well as the inability to cater to the ever growing urban population.

2 3 5

D. Etienne de GrĂśer and D.Moreira da Silva urban proposal - 1942

Postcolonialism, independence and civil war During the Portuguese colonialization, as evidenced in the previous chapter, any attempts at the implementation of a formal urban planning strategy were frustrated by the rapid population growth and the subsequent continuous spatial growth of the city. The urban and housing policies which were carried out, were deeply rooted in social and racial segregation and implemented with the intent of the continuous alienation of the indigenous people from the urban centre. As Viegas 13 points out, “this phenomenon illustrates Lefebvre’s thinking, that amid the implosion of the old morphologies of the urbanised city and the persistent islands of rurality lies a socio-spatial conflict, latent or overt”, this was expressed by spatial fragmentation of the city mainly derived by the continuous neglect to recognise the ever increasing musseke population and its ever growing spatial presence. The aforementioned policies, such as the indegenato categorisation system and its derivatives, violated the human dignity of the indigenous people, who with limited access to education led to the country’s 1958’s illiteracy rate of 97%. In addition to the scarce employment opportunities and upward social motility, the grudge against the colonial power continued to be aggravated by the physical violence carried out by the Portuguese and as a result, anti-colonial revolutionary groups began to assemble, such as the MPLA – Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola). In attempts to join the UN14, and thus being recognised by the international community, Portugal made enormous efforts to appear as a “mild colonial power”, and as so, in 1960 the racial discriminatory systems were abolished and the colonial regime began to implement urban planning policies which recognised, for the first time, the existence of the mussekes and aimed at their requalification. In 1961-64, Simões de Carvalho who begun working in Luanda following his brief experience in Le Cobusier’s Atelier, proposed the city’s 6th urbanisation plan since 1943. Despite never being concluded, “the ideas behind it became a reference point for the allegedly more inclusive ideas of the Portuguese colonial power for the production and transformation

E. Luanda’s population growth over the years

13, E.

Achieved in 1955.

of space in the capital” (Viegas, 2012)15. The urban strategy included the construction of collective infrastructure, residential neighbourhood areas and the eradication of satellite cities which according to Carvalho promoted racial and social segregation and encouraged people to move back and forward from the centre in pendular movements. Additionally, he also proposed the Unidade de Vizinhança (Neighbourhood Unit) no.1, later known as Bairro Prenda which “although not meant for the residents of the mussekes, it allocated plots for self-produced housing, seeing it as an opportunity to integrate the indigenous population” which according to Carvalho had to be taught how to live. (Viegas, 2016)15 However, despite the regime’s efforts to appease the indigenous’ people resentment by allowing access, even if limited, to basic infrastructures and education, and following the independence of the Belgian Congo in 196016, MPLA initiated the long, brutal liberation war in February of ’61. The beginning of the fight for independence, set the tone for the armed disputes that followed. All main confrontations took place in the interior of the country and resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people, as well as the destruction of the inlands that were left unusable due to the placement of millions of landmines17, preventing the cultivation of crops, expansion of villages or the development of land.

Viegas, S. (2012). Urbanization in Luanda: Geopolitical Framework. A Socio-Territorial Analysis. [ebook] São Paulo. Available at: http://www. fau.usp.br/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2018]. 15

As part of the UN’s decolonisation resolutiondisregarded by Portugal. 17

The HALO Trust. (2017). 20 Years after Diana’s visit, landmines are still killing children. [online] Available at: https://www.halotrust.org/ [Accessed 6 Mar. 2018]. 18

Omniumm Technique d’Arménagement.

In 1970, Luanda’s population had grown to 480,613, 74% of which lived in the mussekes, and the colonial regime hired the French firm OTAM18 to devise a new urban strategy, who proposed three urbanisation centres - Viana, Cacuaco and Camama – the plan covered an area of 170,000 hectares, and even though it continued to promote segregation, acknowledged for the first time, the need for an upgrade of the mussekes, instead of their eradication – resulting in the complete dismissal of the proposal. (Viegas, 2016)15 Following the fall of the Portuguese dictatorship in 1974, a transitional government was introduced and on November of 1975 Angola declared its independence. However, due to Portugal’s immediate withdrawal and the lack of a clear leader, an internal dispute between the independence

movements arose for the control of the new State and “the country became a battleground of the Cold War as the USA supported UNITA19, and the USSR and Cuba supported the MPLA government”. (Jenking, Robson and Cain, 2002)20 The city’s urban centre experienced a mass abandonment, following the flight of the Portuguese (Jenkins, 2011)21 and at the same time, experienced yet another rural exodus, which in addition to the return of some Angolans emigrants, resulted in a population of 1,822,407 by 1990 (Viegas, 2016)22. The new MPLA government saw to the confiscation of abandoned property and allocated it to indigenous Angolan citizens, often “returning refugees and rural migrants to the city, rather than existing musseke dwellers”. (Jenkins, Robson and Cain, 2002)20 Nevertheless, the existing mussekes continued to grow and expand further from the urban centre, and towards the nearest adjacent urban agglomerate – Viana, as visible in the map. Angola, in alignment with Cuba and the Soviet Bloc, adopted a Marxist socialist model and embraced the bureaucratic allocation of resources which consolidated “the autocratic and bureaucratic model of government inherited from Portuguese colonialism” (Viegas, 2016)22, and focused on the exportation profits of diamonds and oils over agricultural development. During this recent post-colonial period, the government intended to apply some bottom-up urban regeneration policies, in efforts to reduce the drastic contrast between the Cidade Cimento and the mussekes. Polices such as the allocation of plots to low-income families for the construction of their own houses in exchange for work; the production of four to six storey collective housing buildings; and the publishing of the Lei da Auto-Construção (Self-Construction Law) which in partnership with several non-governmental organisations set up the Gabinete para Reabilitação dos Mussekes (GARM – Office for Musseke Upgrading) and proposed “the development of a social mobilisation strategy to provide basic urban services and to facilitate community management of water distribution” (Viegas, 2016)23. Apart from the first policy which saw the creation of neighbourhoods such as Praia do Bispo and Bairro Azul.

19.

UNITA - União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola) Established in 1966. 20.

Jenkins, P., Robson, P. and Cain, A. (2002). Local Responses to Globalization and peripheralization in Luanda, Angola. Environment & Urbanization, [online] 14(1), pp.115-127. Available at: http:// bibliotecaterra.angonet.org [Accessed 27 Feb. 2018]. 21.

F, G, H.

Viegas, S. (2012). Urbanization in Luanda: Geopolitical Framework. A Socio-Territorial Analysis. [ebook] SĂŁo Paulo. Available at: http://www. fau.usp.br/ [Accessed 26 Feb. 2018].

F. Musseke of Cazenga

G. Old musseke of Sambizanga

H. Peripheral musseke of Cacuaco

In the mid-80s, the increased foreign debts, in junction with the tarnished international image of the country, due to the rise of clientelism and the continuous of the civil war, led to an opening of the country’s economy to national and international markets, as well as the encouragement of private enterprises and investments (Viegas, 2016)24, in exchange for financial assistance, this resulted in major agreements between international nations, such as China. 25 As a result, the “inequalities of income and concentration of individual wealth skyrocketed. A huge gap emerged between, on the one hand, a wealthy elite and a well-endowed state, and, on the other, an impoverished urban population, whose needs continued to grow”. (Viegas, 2016)24 People continued to flee the countryside due to the civil war and Luanda experienced, once again, the proliferation of the urban space, both in the existing mussekes, such as Catambor, Operário and Chicala which surrounded by the asphalt city, had grown vertically to two storey houses, becoming semi-formalised and were being targeted by developers as for their increasing commercial value; as well as in the new peripheral mussekes, such as Cacuaco and Viana which invaded rural land and mainly consisted of zinc-plated houses, depended on illegal connections and sabotages to the formal urban infrastructure in order to access water, sewage, and power supply. Once again, the city reflected the country’s political and economic occurrences, as the State interrupted the bottom-up urban and housing policies aforementioned, and implemented top-down legislation which benefited the government and allowed more freedom for private investors. Some of the policies included granting provincial governments the ability to transfer urban state land to other states; in partnership with two Brazillian companies, it allowed for the creation of and construction of private condominiums – mainly along the southern coast. In between 2000 and 2002, the government did attempted to produce two urban plans, but the urban strategies were once again rendered obsolete, one by Luanda’s rapid urban growth and the other as it went against the strategy of the Gabinete de Obras Especiais (Cabinet for Special Works) that is directly connected with the Angolan Presidency, illustrating the government’s desire for progress but only if beneficial to the consolidation of power of the administration.

24.

Africa confidential (2006). New Luanda’s Gleaming Towers. [online] Available at: http://bibliotecaterra. angonet.org/ [Accessed 1 Mar. 2018].

I, J.

I. Location of the musskes and housing areas mentioned in text - Chicala, Operรกrio, Catambor, Caucao and Viana

J. Expansion of the city towards Viana - the image exemplifies how mussekes affect the city and its growth

Amid Peace: Post-Independence times The civil war lasted for 27 years with intermittent moments of relative peace, coming to an end in 2002. The State which had chosen to mimic the colonial governmental structure of autocracy, and had turned to international and private investors for economic support, viewed the dislodgment of mussekes more financially advantageous than their requalification, and as such, implemented laws that saw to their eradication. Laws like the Lei de Terras 2004 (Land Law) and the Lei do Fomento Habitacional 2007 (Law of Housing Development), demanding a land owner to be defined, and as all unclaimed land had been nationalised, the mussekes’ territory now legally belonged to the state; it determined under what conditions the rights to the land could be nullified, and introduced under which principals the urban fabric of the city was allowed to develop, specifying that all buildings must follow the state’s perception of ‘appropriate’ and provided the government with the power to destroy any constructions deemed unappropriated. 26 In addition to other policies and programs, that aimed to “transform irregular occupants into regularised citizens integrated in urban society” (Viegas, 2016)27, the government continued to allude to colonial spatial segregation policies, as it categorised musseke population as inappropriate citizens due to their economic class. “Even though Angolan government states that one of its goals is the abolition of urban poverty, recent actions by authorities to reshape the use of Luanda’s territory reflect the force of capitalism in determining the way the space is occupied and geared to the creation of short-term profit” (Viegas, 2016)27, in addition to a complete lack of information and understanding regarding the social and spatial make-up of the mussekes, the State presented a posture of total neglect towards these urban spaces. Examples of such, are the new housing projects which became prototypes of the government’s “ideal” urban fabric, usually built adjacent to main roads, either existing or under construction. The urban models, which include the new urbanisation centres of Cacuaco, Zango, Km44 and

K. Luanda’s population growth over the years

26.

Like the partial destruction of the Chicala Musseke, under the pretext of flooding danger. The demolished area the continuous requalification of Luanda’s Bay. 27, K.

Moradoras em meio às demolições no bairro da Chicala. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://envolverde. cartacapital.com.br/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018]. M.

Musseke. (2015). [image] Available at: https://jornalf8.net/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].

L. Chicalaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residents in the middle of its demolition.

M. Musseke - Unidentified location.

Kapari, as well as the highly publicised Cidade do Kilamba, built by a Chinese firm as a result of intercountry agreements between Angola and China in the 80s, and dubbed ‘Ghost City’ due to its lack of social activity and odd appearance. These new residential centres allude to the 1942 proposal of five satellite cities, a proposal which had been entirely rejected in 1961, as it was deemed to promote racial and social segregation and encouraged people to move back and forward from the centre in pendular movements now defines the urban future of the city of Luanda. The centralities, are usually destined for and occupied by, evicted low income families which most of the times struggle to finance these new apartments. Mostly precarious, the new centralities, are located miles from Luanda’s urban centre, where most of the family’s subsistence derives from, and in most cases, seriously lacks in urban, social and transportation infrastructures – alienating, once again, the ‘poor’ from the city. In contrast, the new ostentatious housing projects of the upper class, such as Talatona and Nova Vida, built in 1996 and 2002, respectively, are located in peripheral areas extremely close to the urban centre, and provide the luxurious gated communities, a network of social and urban infrastructures, such as the Belas Shopping Centre and supermarkets like Kero. These constructions, physically illustrate the socio-spatial separation between the elite and the rest of the population. As pointed out by Viegas28 in 2016, “profit-making urban expansion – namely ‘mercantilist’ urban expansion – is often linked to coercive evictions and the forced resettlement or rehousing of the poor”- the mentioned gates communities and high rise developments, come at the cost of the existing or newly formed musseke communities which are usually attracted to the area for its new urban infrastructures. For example, the destruction of the Iraque-Bagdad musseke and others around the Nova Vida compound, resulted in the forced eviction of approximately 30,000 people in 2009, and illustrated the continuous abuses of power and violent modus operandi utilised by the government

28, N.

Kilamba. (n.d.). [image] Available at: https://angola-online.net/ noticias/ [Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].

N. Location of housing projects mentioned in text - Panguila, Kilamba, Zango, Iraque-Bagdad

O. Cidade do Kilamba, also known as, Ghost City.

in these situations.

29.

These actions and urban strategy plans are expressed in the Plano Director de Reconversão de Cazenga, Sambizanga e Rangel (Masterplan for Urban Conversion for Cazenga, Sambizanga and Rangel), approved in 2013, which “will establish the framework for the following 20 years of all peri-urban areas to the north of Luanda which house 3 million people and 5,400 hectares of land” (Viegas, 2016)29 - the plan stresses an urban reconversion, which as explained by Bento Soito30 encompasses the complete eradication of existing urban fabric – the project which has already begun, with the destruction and rehousing of some of the Cazenga inhabitants to Zango IV, plans to completely rebuild the city from scratch.

30.

Rem Koolhaas, whilst conducting his study of Lagos, describes the city as “becoming more normal, more like other cities, much less dramatic” – Godlewski31, in his review of Koolhaas’ study, stated that “Lagos is constantly referred to not by what it is but what it is not”, which reflects how the developing nations are perceived, and more specifically in this case, how mussekes are acknowledged. They are always expected to, without any formal support, be able to comply and maintain standards of progress and development in order to be salvaged - The future of these settlements are always depended on their initial perception as ‘failed’ urban spaces. The city which already struggles to preserve its historical heritage, such as the Quintalões and the sobrados from colonial times, will continue to witness its progressive de-characterisation in favour of and economic development that will only benefit the elite – and will soon become a series of “images detached from every aspect of life merging into a common stream, and the former unity of life is lost forever” (Debord, 1994)32, as exemplified in Berman’s testimony of Brasilia, which he described as looking dynamic and exciting from the air, but bleak from a ground level due to the “deliberate absence of public space in which people can meet and talk”, and stated that “Brasilia’s design might have made perfect sense for the capital of a military dictatorship, ruled by generals who wanted the people kept at a distance, kept apart and kept down. As the capital of a democracy, however, it is a scandal”.33

Viegas, S. (2016). Urbanisation and Peri-Urbanisation in Luanda: A geographical and Socio-Spatial Perspective from the Late Colonial Period to the Present. Journal of Southern African Studies, 42(4), pp.595-618. Director of the Technical Office of Urban Reconversion of Cazenga, Rangel and Sambizanga, Bento Soito, talks about the project. 31.

Godlewski, J. (2010). Alien and Distant: Rem Koolhaas on Film in Lagos, Nigeria. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review 32.

Debord, G. (1994). The Society of Spectacle. New York: Zone Books. 33.

Berman, M. (1982). All that is Solid Melts into Air. New York: Simon and Schuster.

“Cities have always been the place where the contrast between societal wealth and poverty was so evident that it became a metaphor for social contrasts, inequality and social conflicts (...) Disorder seems to be the rule of informal growth. However this is only half of the truth.” (Brillembourg, Feireiss and Klumpner, 2005)34

Luanda is currently undergoing major urban transformations, and its government, committed to the destruction of mussekes in favour of instantly economically beneficial developments - fail, in my opinion, to see the arm of the total reconstruction of the city, as well as the social and cultural value of these informal settlements, which predating colonial times are true examples of Angolan resilience in the face of adversity.

Berman, M. (1982). All that is Solid Melts into Air. New York: Simon and Schuster. 34

GTRURS. (n.d.). [image] Available at: https:// www.facebook.com/pg/ GTRUCS[Accessed 7 Mar. 2018].

Motivators of the folklore culture, the mussekes, appear to be urban disasters to the unfamiliar eye yet, encompass socio-spatial characteristics which allow it and its inhabitants to constantly flourish and survive. Although lacking most of the basic infrastructures, there is precious value in the requalification of these spaces and the integration of its population within the formal urban tissue. Furthermore, the continuous socio-spatial segregation, will persist to amplify the nation’s divide between classes, reiterating colonial principals of “the right to have rights”, now based on financial hierarchy.

P. Masterplan for Urban Conversion for Cazenga, Sambizanga and Rangel

Final After a closer examination of Luanda’s inception, history, and development, I came to the realisation that the glimpses of modernity, as I described them in the introduction of this dissertation, were not a drastic contrast to the city’s urban fabric, on the contrary, it is the city itself that is in contrast with the government’s hopes and desires for the city of Luanda. It demonstrates no desire to create or recreate, a unified Angolan identity, expected after four decades of war, but rather showcases through its urban policies, legislation and housing programs, that it plans to eradicate the country’s last remains of identity, commonly found intact in the mussekes, and reintegrate an autocratic control of the city. I came to the conclusion that the city is not attempting to portray an urban showcase of vidas mulatas but rather is using the pretext it to partially cover of what is to come – a brand new urban fabric which will prioritise the State’s continuous consolidation of power, and economic investments and developments over all else – an Armageddon, as described by Koolhaas35, “the violent birth of a new architecture (…) aimed at a montage of maximum possibility collected from any point, lifted from any context, pilfered from any ideology”, a complete and total eradication of North Luanda’s urban history. “The human is not in the world but of the world, of a society so proud of the self that is unable to realize how blinding the sought illusion is” - Kostas Axelos in his book ‘Arguments’, published in 1950 Luanda, which as demonstrated, has since its inception been affected by globalisation and dictated by economic aspirations, has opted to exclude the population who, even if informally, create alternative physical, economic, cultural and social spaces in which marginalised people are accepted and allowed to interact. I believe that unless the government recognises the architectural and urban taxonomy of mussekes, resulting in their appropriate requalification, the social integration of its marginalise population, and preventing their eradication, by shifting the urban display of economic abundance into a more individual-focused, more homogenous development of the city, granting its existing communities the attention and aid they deserve – Otherwise, Luanda will eventually lose most if not all, of its valuable social, cultural and spatial aspects and as disparities between ‘urban’ centralities rise, I predict that the city with experience the ‘Azusa Street Awakening’ prophecy cited in Davis’ book36: “[The Lord says:]The time will come when the poor man will say that he has nothing to eat and work will be shut down… That is going to cause the poor man to go to these places and break in to get food. This will cause the rich man to come out with his gun to make war with the labouring man… blood will be in the streets like an outpouring rain from heaven.”

Koolhaas, R. and Mau, B. (1998). S, M, L, XL. New York: Monacelli Press. 35

Davis, M. (2006). Planet of slums. London: Verso. 36

Khoolas, R. (1972). Exodus, or the voluntary prisoners of architecture. Q, R.

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