Urbanisation and Peri-Urbanisation in Luanda: A Geopolitical and Socio-Spatial Perspective from the Late Colonial Period to the Present

Abstract

Luanda has experienced rapid urban expansion, especially since the mid 20th century, due to growing migration from the countryside and intensive demographic growth. The city has been transformed by actions undertaken by the state and/or the private sector with government incentives, and by the people in their everyday lives. This forging of the city is characterised by significant territorial fragmentation and an enormous level of social exclusion, affecting particularly the most deprived social groups. The purpose of this article is, first, to systematise the geopolitical and socio-spatial changes taking place in the Angolan capital according to three major periods - late colonial (1948-1975), postcolonial amid civil war (1975-2002) and postcolonial at peace (2002 to the present) - and, second, to formulate theoretical considerations based on the work of scholars such as Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells, Michel Foucault and David Harvey, while taking into account dominant practices...