Since its independence in 1975, Angola’s capital Luanda has been
going through deep processes of demographic, economic, social
and physical transformations. In this article, apart from introducing
the case study of private condominiums in the general discussion
on urban studies in the Global South, we focus on the dynamics of
transformations regarding housing for the mid/upper strata, providing the background for the emergence and recent expansion of
gated communities/condominiums, a phenomenon that has
acquired major importance in the recent decades in Luanda.
