Candonga, Governmentality and Corruption in Post-Conflict Luanda
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The informal city: Candonga, governmentality and corruption in post-conflict Luanda Pétur Waldorff Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology McGill University Montreal, Quebec, Canada August 2014 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Copyright Pétur Waldorff 2014. All rights reserved. Table of Contents Table of Contents ................................................................................................................. i Tables and Figures ............................................................................................................. iv Glossary ............................................................................................................................... v Accronyms and Abbreviations .......................................................................................... xiv Abstract ............................................................................................................................ xvii Sommaire ......................................................................................................................... xix Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... xxi Chapter 1. Introduction: Luanda, a City of Contrasts .......................................................... 1 1.1 Luanda and its Musseques ....................................................................................... 1 1.2 Historic Roots of Urban Segregation ........................................................................ 8 1.3 Theoretic Argumention: Candonga as Culture and the Ubiquity of Informality ....... 13 1.4 The Reliability of Angolan Statistical Data and the Paradox they represent .......... 19 1.5 From “Afro-optimism” to “Afro-Pessimism”: A Call for “Angola-Realism” ............... 24 1.6 Some Notes on Angola’s Post-Conflict Development ............................................. 27 1.7 Colonial (R)evolution: From “Post-Colonialism”, to “Neo-Colonialism”, and Subsequently a Reversal of Roles .......................................................................................................... 31 1.8 Of Traps and Curses ............................................................................................... 37 1.9 Some Notes on Research Methodology ................................................................. 46 1.10 Organization of the Dissertation: The Chapters and their Contents ..................... 52 Chapter 2. Informal Beginnings: Luanda “Before” and Luanda during Fieldwork ............. 56 2.1 From Longing to Belonging: Cacuaco a Place and Community from the Past ....... 56 2.2 “The Great Transformation”: From War to Peace in Luanda and Angola ............... 67 2.3 Cacuaco Past and Present ..................................................................................... 73 2.4 Luanda “Before” [antes] .......................................................................................... 75 2.5 Loss of Community ................................................................................................. 76 2.6 Changes to Luanda’s Landscape and Society........................................................ 79 2.7 Physical Changes to Cacuaco’s Geography ........................................................... 81 2.8 The Kicolo Area ....................................................................................................... 84 2.9 Symbols of Peace and Evidence of War ................................................................. 86 2.10 Rusga, providing a steady flow of soldiers for the war ......................................... 90 2.11 Shots in the Dark or Shots from the Past .............................................................. 92 Chapter 3. Candonga and “Informality” in Angolan Society .............................................. 96 3.1 Everyday Representations of Candonga in Contemporary Luanda ....................... 98 3.2 The Origins of the Informal Economy Concept ..................................................... 112 i 3.3 Candonga and the Informal Economy/Sector in Angola ....................................... 122 3.4 Candonga and the Informal Parallel Market in Historical, Political and Economic Context .................................................................................................................................... 125 3.5 The Post-Independence Socialist Economic System ........................................... 128 3.6 The Failure and Demise of the Socialist Economic System ................................. 134 3.7 The Informal Parallel Market as an Avenue for Corruption, Kleptocracy and Cronyism .................................................................................................................................... 140 3.8 The Blurring of Boundaries: The Elasticity of the Formal/Informal Boundaries in Contemporary Angolan Society .................................................................................. 145 3.9 Formalizing the Informal or Moving “the Problem” Around ................................... 154 3.10 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 159 Chapter 4. A “Pipedream”: Access to Water in Luanda’s Informal Water Economy ....... 166 4.1 Water in Luanda .................................................................................................... 168 4.2 How the Informal Water Market Works ................................................................. 173 4.3 Patterns of Water Use and Access in “Paradise”.................................................. 177 4.4 Water as a Commodity .......................................................................................... 179 4.5 Water Sanitation .................................................................................................... 185 4.6 The Informal Water Economy as a Development Model ...................................... 187 4.7 Successful Bottom-up Approaches ....................................................................... 196 4.8 Contemplating Water as a Biopolitical Tool .......................................................... 199 4.9 Conclusion............................................................................................................. 205 Chapter 5. “The Law is not for the Poor”: Land, Law and Evictions in Peri-Urban Luanda211 5.1 Small Scale Agriculture Vs. Large Scale Urban Development ............................. 216 5.2 Urbanization of the land ........................................................................................ 222 5.3 A Fight for Water = A Fight for the Future of the Area .......................................... 224 5.4 Fighting for the Land ............................................................................................. 228 5.5 Legal Documents .................................................................................................. 234 5.6 The Angolan (Informal) Land Market .................................................................... 238 5.7 Forced Evictions and Relocation .......................................................................... 248 5.8 Virtual Realities ..................................................................................................... 255 5.9 The Land Registration Process and Angolan Law ................................................ 258 5.10 From the Formalization of Land Tenure to Accumulation by Dispossession ...... 264 5.11 A Two Tiered System of Land Titling .................................................................. 268 5.12 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 272 Chapter 6. Local Level Power Dynamics in the Musseques: Civil Society, the Elusive State and Governmentality............................................................................................................... 278 ii 6.1 Civil Society in Angola: The Legal and Political Environment ............................... 280 6.2 Philosophical Roots of the Civil Society Concept ................................................. 284 6.3 Civil Society as “Association” and the (Global) Politics of an NGO “Revolution” .. 288 6.4 CBOs, Residents’ Committees and Power Dynamics in Luanda’s Peri-urban Context .................................................................................................................................... 292 6.5 The Civil Society-State Dichotomy: Vertical and Horizontal Power Relations ...... 297 6.6 The “Elusive” State ................................................................................................ 302 6.7 The Real Conditions of CBOs in Peri-Urban Luanda: The Case of an ODA (Organization of Area Development) in Kilamba Kiaxi .......................................................................... 306 6.8 Power and the State in Angola ............................................................................. 313 6.9 Expressions of Governmentality and Social Control: “Party” Interrogation of CBO Members .................................................................................................................................... 316 6.10 Other Forms of Spatial and Social Control: Delinquency and the Police ........... 320 6.11 Public Participation, the Stifling of Free