Suchergebnisse

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- List of Tables and Illustrations -- Introduction -- 1 Geographical Setting -- Notes -- 2 Historical Background -- Precolonial Angola -- Angola Under the Portuguese -- The War of Independence -- Notes -- 3 Political Ideology and Practice -- War in Postindependence Angola -- The Centralized One-Party State -- Toward Democracy and Political Pluralism -- Crisis Politics -- International Relations -- Notes -- 4 Economic Potential and Performance -- Economic Policy -- The Informal Economy -- Main Economic Sectors -- Trade and Aid -- Notes -- 5 Socioeconomic Conditions and Cultural Traits -- Population and Ethnolinguistic Groups -- Socioeconomic Conditions -- Education -- Health -- Civil Society and Cultural Institutions -- Notes -- 6 Angola's Future -- The Best Case Scenario -- The Worst Case Scenario -- The Middle Case Scenario -- Selected Bibliography -- About the Book and Author -- Index

Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-206). ; Focusing on four shantytowns in the northern Namibian town of Oshakati, this study analyses the coping strategies of the poorest sections of such populations. I ask what it is that enables some people living in oppressed and poor urban shantytowns to strive to go on with their lives or improve their situation, while others living in the same context and under the same conditions seem trapped in chronic poverty and apparently give up making much of their lives? The study is based on fieldwork conducted intermittently from 1991 to 2001, using qualitative anthropological methods supplemented by quantitative measures of material poverty. It combines theories of political, economic and cultural structuration, and of the material and cultural basis for social relations of inclusion and exclusion as practise.

It is generally agreed that the battle of Cuito Cuanavale in March 1988 marked the final attempt to secure a military solution to the Angolan conflict. Thereafter, in December 1988, South Africa, Cuba, and Angola signed the so-called 'New York accord' that included a timetable for the phased withdrawal of the South Africans and the Cubans from Namibia and Angola, respectively; in June 1989, the Gbadolite agreement initiated African attempts to end the continuing armed struggle in Angola; and in March 1990, Namibia achieved its long-awaited independence. But despite these efforts and developments, the war continued between the Government that had been established in Luanda by the Movimento Popular de Libertacão de Angola (M.P.L.A.) in November 1975 and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (Unita), with devastating implications for the country's estimated ten million inhabitants. Not before May 1991 was a final peace agreement signed in Portugal, and then with considerably poorer options for political stability and economic recovery than would have been the case after the original accord in New York.

An increasing number of poor Southern Africans live in poverty-stricken urban slums or shantytowns. Focusing on four shantytowns in the northern Namibian town of Oshakati, this book analyses the coping strategies of the poorest sections of such populations. The study is based on fieldwork conducted intermittently during a period of ten years. It combines theories of political, economic and cultural structuration, and of the material and cultural basis for social relations of inclusion and exclusion as practise. The poorest shanty dwellers are marginalised or excluded from vital urban and rural

An increasing number of poor Southern Africans live in poverty-stricken urban slums or shantytowns. Focusing on four shantytowns in the northern Namibian town of Oshakati, this book analyses the coping strategies of the poorest sections of such populations. The study is based on fieldwork conducted intermittently during a period of 10 years. It combines theories of political, economic and cultural structuration, and of the material and cultural basis for social relations of inclusion and exclusion as practise. The poorest shanty dwellers are marginalised or excluded from vital urban and rural relationships and forced into social relations of poverty amongst themselves. Having experienced long-term processes of impoverishment, the very poorest and most destitute in the shantytowns tend to give up improving their lives and act in ways that further undermine their position.

Historically, while cities such as Mozambique's capital Maputo have been analysed as divided into 'formal 'and 'informal' spaces, contemporary approaches tend to emphasise the heterogeneity and plasticity of African urbanities. Drawing upon original ethnographic material gathered from fieldwork in 2012/2013, we reframe the analysis of such cities through recognition of novel forms of urban imaginaries, emergent narratively, that may take the shape of dichotomies or trichotomies reconfiguring hegemonic notions such as formal–informal, centre–periphery or urban–suburban. In conclusion, it is suggested that this citywide ongoing process highlights the importance of appreciating dynamic discursive engagements with urban space, which not only are at odds with hegemonic definitions of the city but also, crucially, impinge on people's own urban strategies – in Maputo as well as elsewhere.

Rapid urbanisation is one of the most dramatic developments on the African continent, often yielding contrasting and shocking images of affluent businesses and residential districts alongside sprawling shantytowns or slums. Urban areas account for an increasing part of the continent's positive macro-economic development and represent opportunities for employment, education, health, leisure and well-being. However, urban growth is also manifested in emerging conditions of inequality and poverty, rising environmental problems, situations of political instability and riots, as well as persistent high levels of urban crime and violence. This film project seeks to visualise Maputo: one of Africa's divided cities. It is part of the research project "The Ethnography of a Divided City. Socio-Politics, Poverty and Gender in Maputo, Mozambique"headed by the Chr. Michelsen Institute and funded by the Norwegian Research Council. While the film relates actively to the research project, it approaches the project's themes from new and original angles and ANIMA has had full artistic freedom in its filmic approach. A focus on the people inhabiting the city's so-called bairros (districts/areas) provides a privileged view of the way in which symbolic and material boundaries of various urban spaces are contested, negotiated and, ultimately, inscribed onto mental maps of the city. Contributors: Inge Tvedten,Chr. Michelsen Institute, Head of project Fábio Ribeiro,ANIMA - Estúdio Criativo, Production and photo João Graça,ANIMA - Estúdio Criativo, Production and photo Bjørn Enge Bertelsen,Department of Social Anthropology, University of Bergen, Research advisor