F “H e r e i n t h e c i t y t h e r e i s n o t h i n g l e f t o v e r f o r l e n d i n g a h a n d” P a u l R o b s o n S a n d r a R o q u e ADRA “ Action for Rural Development and the Environment (ADRA) was founded in 1990 and is an Angolan, non-profit, non-governmental organisation that contributes to appropriate development that is participatory and sustainable, closely linked to r the strengthening of the democratisation processes of Angolan society. ADRA Angola: [email protected] Development Workshop (D W) is a non-profit organisation working to improve living conditions for the poor in less developed communities. With a focus on shelter, settlement planning, water and sanitation, health, small enterprise and disaster mitigation, our aim is to help communities and organisations strengthen their capacities to act on development problems and opportunities. Founded in 1973, DW has worked with NGO's, local, governmental and international institutions in more than 30 countries. Angolan office: [email protected] Canadian office: [email protected] European office: [email protected] “ H E R E I N T H E C I T Y T H E R E I S N O T H I N G L E F T O V E R F O R L E N D I N G A H A N D ” I N S E A R C H O F S O L I D A R I T Y A N D C O L L E C T I V E A C T I O N I N P E R I – U R B A N A R E A S I N A N G O L A B Y P A U L R O B S O N & S A N D R A R O Q U E D E V E L O P M E N T W O R K S H O P – O C C A S I O N A L P A P E R Nº 2 First published 2001 ISBN 0 - 9688786 - 2 - 8 Published by Development Workshop PO Box 1834 Guelph Canada N1H 7A1 Tel (1 – 519) 763 3978 Fax (1 – 519) 821 3438 E-Mail [email protected] The research project was coordinated in collaboration with Acção para o Desenvolvimento Rural e Ambiente (ADRA) Praceta Farinha Leitão 27 CP 3788 Luanda Angola Tel (244 - 2) 396 683 Fax (244 - 2) 396 683 E-mail [email protected] The research project and the publication of this Occasional Paper were carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada (IDRC). Printed by SSP in Amsterdam AUTHORS Paul Robson and Sandra Roque RESEARCHERS Ana Maria de Carvalho, Sandra Roque and Paul Robson TRANSLATION Mark Gimson DESIGN Margrit Coppé MAP Katuzola Paulina, Development Workshop Angola PHOTOGRAPHS Cover Margrit Coppé Changing Kwanzas in the streets of Huambo. In the city everything costs money, though many people have very little. Chapter 2 Margrit Coppé Aerial view of peri-urban bairros of Huambo Chapter 3 Dorumi Nosanu Newly arrived displaced person in Viana, Luanda Chapter 4 Margrit Coppé Peri-urban areas in Luanda Chapter 5 Henrietta Koning Girls making each others’ braids Chapter 6 Margrit Coppé Home-made bike Chapter 7 Myeong Seob Jeong (Padre João Coreano) Church activities Chapter 8 Margrit Coppé Studying for exams Chapter 9 Henriettta Koning Solidarity in peri-urban areas A C K N O W L E D G E M E N T S Filomena Andrade and João Cunha who carried out preliminary field research in Huambo and contributed to the original research design. Maria da Conceição Neto who provided valuable comments on historical aspects of the research. The staff of Development Workshop and ADRA in Luanda, particularly Fernando Pacheco, Allan Cain and Mary Daly, who provided valuable input throughout the research. The staff of ADRA and ACORD in Lubango, and of Development Workshop in Huambo, who interviewed residents of peri-urban bairros in those cities. The residents of peri-urban bairros in Lubango, Huambo and Luanda who took part in discussion groups or who were interviewed about migration to the cities, settling in peri-urban bairros and what this meant for their lives. MAP OF ANGOLA CABINDA Cabinda # Mbanza Congo ZAIRE UIGE Uíge Lucapa Caxito LUNDA NORTE LUANDA MALANJE KWANZA Luanda! NORTE Malanje N’dalatando Saurimo BENGO LUNDA SUL KWANZA SUL Sumbe Luena Kuito HUAMBO Benguela Huambo BIE BENGUELA MOXICO Menongue HUILA Lubango Namibe NAMIBE CUANDO CUBANGO CUNENE Ongiva T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I ORIGINS AND RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH AND METHODOLOGY 8 II HISTORICAL OUTLINE: URBAN GROWTH AND RURAL SOCIAL CHANGE DURING THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 17 III POST-INDEPENDENCE MIGRATIONS 40 IV CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STUDY AREAS 62 V SOLIDARITY AND MUTUAL AID 88 VI COLLECTIVE ACTION IN PERI-URBAN AREAS 106 VII CHURCHES IN PERI-URBAN SOCIAL LIFE 128 VIII COLLECTIVE ACTION AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE 144 IX CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 158 BIBLIOGRAPHY 173 I • O R I G I N S A N D R A T I O N A L E O F T H E R E S E A R C H A N D M E T H O D O L O G Y C O N T E N T S I O R I G I N S A N D R A T I O N A L E O F T H E R E S E A R C H A N D M E T H O D O L O G Y 1. ORIGINS AND RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH : WHY RESEARCH ON COMMUNITIES AND COLLECTIVE ACTION 2 1.1 Community organisations, collective action and social reconstruction 2 1.2 Difficulties experienced in locating and understanding community organisations 3 2. BASIC RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESES 5 3. SOME BASIC CONCEPTS 6 3.1 Collective action and organisation 6 3.2 The relationship between the ‘urban’ and the ‘peri-urban’ in Angolan cities 9 4. CITIES INCLUDED IN THE RESEARCH 11 5. METHODOLOGY 12 5.1 Questions that guided the research 12 5.2 The process of qualitative research 13 5.3 Collection of data 13 5.4 Analysis 15 2 I - Origins and rationale of the research and methodology 1. ORIGINS AND RATIONALE OF THE RESEARCH: WHY RESEARCH ON COMMUNITIES AND COLLECTIVE ACTION 1.1 Community organisations, collective action and social reconstruction During the 1990s various development organisations working in Angola, as in other countries, began to introduce a community-based approach in their development projects. These organisations attempted, in this way, to make development activities respond to the interests and preoccupations of the beneficiaries of these actions. The reasons for this orientation were a result of: • the fact that in Angola the needs are huge; to deal with the challenges of reconstruction and development all available resources must be mobilised, including those of the community • a perception that government bodies are more interested in large, ambitious, centralised projects that fit into a “modernising” view of development; these big projects will impact most people’s lives only in the long term • a perception that there must be more and wider community participation in the planning, implementation and evaluation of the development process and in the mechanisms of management and maintenance of the infrastructures created. In the process of trying to encourage a substantial involvement of communities in the processes of reconstruction and development, certain organisations have gone further and adopted a “civil society rebuilding approach”. This strategy is based on the hypothesis that in “complex political emergencies” and “post conflict reconstruction”, the cause of people’s poverty and vulnerability is not only material loss but also the weakening of the social fabric. If this is the case, reconstruction of the country and its development call for rebuilding of the social fabric and, in particular, for the creation of mechanisms in society that enable people to work together.1 Such a strategy implies rebuilding the capacity of institutions and of community organisations that, through promoting solidarity and collective action, will create the conditions for the re-emergence of civil and political structures. As a response to the perceived need for this approach, the idea gained ground in Angola during the period of the implementation of the Lusaka Protocol (1995-98) that post- conflict reconstruction, reconciliation and the consolidation of peace depended on the participation by Angolans in these processes, in particular by rural and peri-urban 1 For example: Fagen (1995), Stiefel (1998), Harvey (1998), Duffield (1994b), Colletta and Cullen (2000), Prendergast (1997), Norton (1999), Anderson and Woodrow (1989). 3 communities. The documents of the Programme of Community Rehabilitation and National Reconciliation for the Roundtable Conference of Donors in Brussels in 1995 noted that “reconstruction in Angola depends on the capacity to rehabilitate economic and social infrastructures through community rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes” (Angola, 1995). By placing emphasis on community-level initiatives, the document expressed the hope that rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes could side-step the State’s centralised and weak institutions, and allow communities to participate in a significant way in the planning and rehabilitation of their own areas while giving them more control over the results and the use of their contributions. However, the realisation of the need for “social reconstruction” was accompanied by a doubt that Angolan communities had reached such a level of disintegration that it might jeopardise a community reconstruction policy.