Cement Citizens: housing, Demolition and Political Belonging in Luanda, Angola

Following the end of Angola’s civil war (1975–2002), the capital city, Luanda, found itself awash in dreams of becoming a ‘world-class city’. The war had been won by the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which used its dominant position to launch a project of ‘national reconstruction’, ostensibly to repair the broken country materially and politically. In practice, reconstruction became a means of attempting to solidify the MPLA’s political control (Schubert 2015; Soares de Oliveira 2015). Drawing from the country’s oil profits,1 the MPLA-state extended its reach through infrastructure projects and the building of clinics, schools and housing. In Luanda, state and private initiatives intersected in a construction frenzy that rapidly reshaped the city centre and peripheries. New high rises, luxury condominiums and state-sponsored housing remade experiences of urban life