Mining towns in Angola have followed a different growth trajectory from urban agglomerations elsewhere on the continent. Colonial mining cities were treated as regional strategic locations mainly under the direction of mining companies, with an orientation towards natural and human resources management and planned urbanisation. As Angola became engulfed in civil wa...

Santa Clara, on Angola's southern border with Namibia, is now a very dynamic urban hub, both economically and socially. It stands out in the remote province of Cunene, recording greater growth in the last five years than the provincial capital, Ondjiva. Its recent transformation into a thriving trading centre was mostly due to massive migration and an intensificati...

After nearly 30 years of civil war, Angola gained peace in 2002. The country's diamond and oil wealth affords the national government the means to pursue economic reconstruction and urban development. However, in the diamond-producing region of Lunda Sul, where intense fighting between MPLA and UNITA forces was waged, the legacy of war lingers on in the form of liv...

For most of the latter half of the 20th century, war carved the contours of settlement and mining activity in Angola. The aim of this article is twofold: first, to contrast migrant and urban livelihoods during the war, distinguishing between artisanal guerrilla diamond-digging settlements and the refuge 'government cities', and, secondly, to compare recent patterns...