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Angola on the Move Angola Em Movimento Beatrix Heintze Achim von Oppen (eds) Angola on the Move Angola em Movimento Transport Routes, Communications and History Vias de Transporte, Comunicação e História Lembeck Angola on the Move Transport Routes, Communications and History Angola em Movimento Vias de Transporte, Comunicação e História Beatrix Heintze Achim von Oppen (eds) Angola on the Move Transport Routes, Communications and History Angola em Movimento Vias de Transporte, Comunicação e História Verlag Otto Lembeck Frankfurt am Main Agradecemos o apoio do Ministério da Cultura da República de Angola, e em especial do seu Ministro, Dr. Boaventura Cardoso Agradecemos o apoio da ESCOM Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie, detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http://dnb.d-nb.de abrufbar. Umschlagentwurf: Gabriele Hampel und Markus Wächter © 2008 Beatrix Heintze und Verlag Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt am Main Gesamtherstellung: Druckerei und Verlag Otto Lembeck Frankfurt am Main und Butzbach ISBN 978-3-87476-553-4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Beatrix Heintze and Achim von Oppen 7 1. Em Busca dos Sítios do Poder na África Centro Ocidental. Homens e Caminhos, Exércitos e Estradas (1483-1915) Maria Emília Madeira Santos 26 2. The Supply and Deployment of Horses in Angolan Warfare (17th and 18th Centuries) Roquinaldo Ferreira 41 3. Wagon Technology, Transport and Long-distance Communication in Angola 1885-1908 David Birmingham 52 4. Trade, Slavery, and Migration in the Interior of Benguela: The Case of Caconda, 1830-1870 Manuela P. Candido 63 5. The Economics of the Kwango Rubber Trade, c. 1900 Jelmer Vos 85 6. As Vias de Comunicação e Meios de Transporte como Factores de Globalização, de Estabilidade Política e de Transformação Económica e Social: Caso do Caminho-de-ferro de Bengela (Benguela) (1889-1950) Emmanuel Esteves 99 7. Nas Malhas da Rede: Aspectos do impacto económicoe social do transporte rodoviário na região do Huambo c. 1920-c. 1960 Maria da Conceição Neto 117 8. Communications between Angola and East Central Africa Before c. 1700 Jan Vansina 130 9. Long-distance Caravans and Communication beyond the Kwango (c. 1850-1890) Beatrix Heintze 144 10. A Escrita em Angola: Comunicação e Ruído entre as Diferentes Sociedades em Presença Ana Paula Tavares 163 6 Table of Contents 11. Escrever o Poder: Os Autos de Vassalagem e a Vulgarização da Escrita entre as Elites Africanas Ndembu Catarina Madeira Santos 173 12. Do Passado ao Presente: Tráfego Comercial e Redes de Comunicação, Factores Privilegiados de “Modernidade” Aurora da Fonseca Ferreira 182 13. Refugees on Routes. Congo/Zaire and the War in Northern Angola (1961-1974) Inge Brinkman 198 14. Crossing the River: Myth and Movement in Central Africa Wyatt MacGaffey 221 15. From Group Mobility to Individual Movement: The Colonial Effort to Turn Back History Joseph C. Miller 243 Notes on Contributors 263 Maps Northern Angola, c. 1910 88 A rede luso-africana 100 Mapa esquemático da rede de estradas no planalto e zonas vizinhas c. 1930 118 Angola and the East: Main channels of communication before 1700 132 Principal long-distance caravan routes in West Central Africa (1850-c.1890) 146 Photographs Carregador de borracha 115 Assentamento da linha de Bengela 115 Comboio de mercadorias 116 O Caminho-de-ferro de Benguela 116 “Artigos indigenas” 165 INTRODUCTION Beatrix Heintze and Achim von Oppen Angola and its hinterland is a striking case against the opinion, still widespread in public circles and western media, that Africa is only just coming out of a long history of isolation and localism. The West-Central part of this continent vividly illustrates the extent to which transport links and processes of communication have influenced the history of Africa for centuries. From pre-colonial migration and exchange through the period of Atlantic long-distance trade, the European travels of “exploration”, strategies of economic “development” and warfare in the era of colonialism, up to the making of the nation state and of global integration in the twentieth century, transport and communications in and beyond Angola have strongly shaped the whole region. They have shown a remarkable potential for transcending existing barriers as well as constituting new spaces and boundaries. At the same time, this region has an unusual wealth, in terms of both quantity and quality, of written sources dating back to the 15th century AD. They are themselves the result of early travels and com- munications by European traders, administrators and missionaries, but also include written and orally transmitted testimonies by Africans. Both features – the importance of transregional connections and a unique wealth in resources, both people and commodities, and in source materials – seem to privilege Angola and its hinterlands vis-à-vis other parts of the continent for historical studies of mobility and communication. Surprisingly, however, the topic has so far been largely neglected in studies on that part of Africa, a region that has generally not benefited fully from the recent growth in African studies, especially in Germany. Still more generally, there are signifi- cant lacunae in research on transport and communication as such. So far, this topic has been studied mainly with regard to its economical, technical and political aspects. There is still a dearth of research into the social and cultural impact of these connections in the contexts of regional and transregional histories, especially with regard to the making or transformation of social spaces in the widest sense. This is a particularly interesting subject of study for the non-European world. This book brings together a range of studies that use the example of Angola and its hinterland to show how existing gaps in research can be filled and how the potential of the topic just outlined can be brought to fruition. It will convince the reader, it is hoped, that the insights gained here are of relevance for other areas of Africa and of the world as well. They also illustrate yet another aspect that privileges this region for a case study. Research on the “Angolan sphere” in West Central Africa can rely on a geographically dispersed 8 Beatrix Heintze and Achim von Oppen but highly connected network of scholars of very diverse backgrounds, who share a strong commitment to the past as well as to the present of this particular region of Africa, to its languages and to its sources. Scholars from Angola itself are part and parcel of this network. Their voices ensure that African perspec- tives on one of longest experiences of colonial rule as well as todays’ challenges of reconstruction are sufficiently heard, after decades of ravaging war, not least in the field of transport and communication. The authors of the contributions to the present book are distinguished or emerging members of this Angolan studies network. Despite the very different topics, periods and subregions they concentrate on, these chapters are the result of an intense process of communication among the authors themselves. A good occasion to observe this process of exchange and mutual inspiration was offered by a symposium held in Berlin in 2003.1 Incidentally, it was this event that launched the discussion which is elaborated in this book. Earlier versions of many of its chapters were presented and discussed at that conference, along with others that, for various reasons, do not appear in this book. The book itself, however, may be seen as a further step in this conversation, one for which earlier drafts have been thoroughly revised. A number of additional chapters have also been included to achieve a more complete range of perspectives. However, the thematic debates and questions that emerged during that sympo- sium provided a useful matrix for this book. Each of the following sections will be introduced through a particular set of issues, along with the individual chapters they contain. Insights gained from other contributions to the original symposium are also mentioned where appropriate. The Modernization of Transport and its Contradictions The first of these foci addresses the history of actual movements and means of transport that shaped routes and communications in the region. How did these strategies of mobility develop in and beyond Angola? How have different types of movement and means of transport influenced each other in the given historical contexts, be it through complementarity, competition or contestation? Contrary to linear ideas of modernization of transport, what ruptures, as well as continuities, what disjunctures as well as simultaneities can be observed from a historical perspective? How did these contradictions affect the spatial organiza- tion of transport and communication, in both the short and the long run? These 1 This symposium, convened by the two editors of this book, took place from September 24 to 26, 2003, at the Zentrum Moderner Orient in Berlin, Germany. Thanks to generous funding by the Volkswagen Foundation, a total of twenty scholars from Africa, Europe and North America were able to take part and to contribute, mostly historians but also representatives of other disciplines. Remarkably, one third of the participants were from Angola itself. Introduction 9 questions require highly specific answers for the different transport systems, as demonstrated by Emília Madeira Santos, Roquinaldo Ferreira and David Birmingham (chapters 1-3). Each case study
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