Communities and Reconstruction in Angola

THIS BOOK IS sub-titled The Prospects for Reconstruction in Angola from the Community Perspective and is a collection of papers based on research done in Angola in 1996 and 1997. At the time of the research, the peace process resulting from the Lusaka agreement of 1994 was still in place, however Angolans described it as “not peace but not war”. The research was carried out because reconstruction plans were being drawn up and more needed to be known about the community level in order to better plan the reconstruction.
A decision was made to publish these papers now, despite the change in situation, for several reasons. First, there has been little research about Angolan society at the community level and this begins to fill some of the gaps. Second, whilst there is no longer a comprehensive reconstruction plan for Angola, actions are continuing which will affect reconstruction, and some of these take little account of what is happening at the community level. Third, peace-building itself might involve actions at the community level, which will require some appropriate knowledge.
These studies fall within ten themes:
• There has been rapid social change in Angola over the last 40 years but very little is known about it.
• The distribution of population is now very different to that of 40 years ago but there has been no systematic and comprehensive study of migration. Many people have been forced to move a number of times.
• The urbanization of the population. The urban population is now estimated at 50 per cent of the total population compared to 14 per cent in 1970.
• There is a diversity of situations, including geographical differences and differences in the extent to which areas have been affected by war and the colonial period. Outside interventions require a greater knowledge of the micro-realities of these differences.
• All the papers indicate the large-scale loss and vulnerability experienced by Angolans. The long-term uncertainty has eroded family, community and social linkages.
• The changes during the colonial period and the instability and war of the post-colonial period have deeply affected the Angolan social fabric. Traditional structures have been affected, old communities destroyed and new ones are still in the making.
• During the colonial period, the nature of the traditional leadership changed and has remained problematic ever since, with traditional leaders who may not necessarily represent the interests of their communities.
• All the research reports state how weak the provision of state services is. People identified the state with its services and thus see even local government as remote,
• All the papers mention the role of NGOs in providing services that the state has ceased to supply, however this should not be a substitute for government services.
• The various research papers note the lack of policies in key areas that will affect reconstruction, and the need for debate on these issues. Access to land is crucial, as is the relationship between urban and rural areas.
The most common forms of aid provided by international relief organizations are relief aid (which addresses the short-term effects of vulnerability but ignores long-term causes) and development aid (which rarely addresses the causes of vulnerability but focuses on additions to physical capital). Opportunities are lost for examining the roots of the crisis and for trying to find new solutions. Rehabilitation and reconstruction programmes rarely address the social dimensions of reconstruction; they usually focus on rebuilding physical infrastructure. It is rare for them to either experiment or evaluate or tackle institutional strengthening.
The research shows how far capacities at the community level have been strained by multiple changes. People have developed strategies for survival in such a context but this may have reduced the