Provisional Reconstructions: Geo-Histories of Infrastructure and Agrarian Configuration in Malanje, Angola By Aaron Laurence deGrassi A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Michael J. Watts, Chair Professor Gillian P. Hart Professor Peter B. Evans Abstract Provisional Reconstructions: Geo-Histories of Infrastructure and Agrarian Configuration in Malanje, Angola by Aaron Laurence deGrassi Doctor of Philosophy in Geography University of California, Berkeley Professor Michael J. Watts, Chair Fueled by a massive offshore deep-water oil boom, Angola has since the end of war in 2002 undertaken a huge, complex, and contradictory national reconstruction program whose character and dynamics have yet to be carefully studied and analyzed. What explains the patterns of such projects, who is benefitting from them, and how? The dissertation is grounded in the specific dynamics of cassava production, processing and marketing in two villages in Western Malanje Province in north central Angola. The ways in which Western Malanje’s cassava farmers’ livelihoods are shaped by transport, marketing, and an overall agrarian configuration illustrate how contemporary reconstruction – in the context of an offshore oil boom – has occurred through the specific conjunctures of multiple geo-historical processes associated with settler colonialism, protracted war, and leveraged liberalization. Such an explanation contrasts with previous more narrow emphases on elite enrichment and domination through control of external trade. Infrastructure projects are occurring as part of an agrarian configuration in which patterns of land, roads, and markets have emerged through recursive relations, and which is characterized by concentration, hierarchy and fragmentation. 1 Table of Contents Chapter 1 : Introduction: Agrarian Reconstruction in Post-War Oil-Boom Angola ...................... 2  Chapter 2 : A Critical Spatial Chronology: Beyond Creole Elite, Neo-Patrimonialism, and Dutch Disease in Angola ......................................................................................................................... 53  Chapter 3 : Rethinking the 1961 Baixa de Kassanje Revolt: Towards a Relational Geo-History of Angola ......................................................................................................................................... 145  Chapter 4 : Security and Subversion in the Logistical Reconstructions of Angola’s Transport Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................... 183  Chapter 5 : Interlude – The Kapanda Agro-Industrial Growth Pole as a Microcosm of National Reconstruction Approaches ........................................................................................................ 227  Chapter 6 : Real Cassava Markets from War Dissolution to the PRESILD Markets ................. 243  Chapter 7 : More than Trade and Grabbing: Agrarian Concentration, Fragmentation, and Hierarchy ..................................................................................................................................... 289  Chapter 8 : Conclusion: Beyond Contradictions ........................................................................ 357  References ................................................................................................................................... 362  Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 402  i Detailed Table of Contents Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................... i  Illustrations ................................................................................................................................ vii  Abbreviations ............................................................................................................................ xii  Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. xvi  Technical Notes ...................................................................................................................... xviii  Chapter 1 : Introduction: Agrarian Reconstruction in Post-War Oil-Boom Angola ...................... 2  1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 3  1.1.1 Context ........................................................................................................................... 6  1.1.2 Conventional Interpretations ........................................................................................ 11  1.1.3 War: The $200 Billion ‘Elephant in the Room’ ........................................................... 12  1.1.4 Key Themes in a Critical Relational Geography of Agriculture, Resources and Infrastructure in Africa .......................................................................................................... 19  1.1.5 Summary of Contributions, Sources and Methods ....................................................... 23  1.2 Argument and Chapter Structure ......................................................................................... 25  1.2.1 Issues and Sequence ..................................................................................................... 25  1.2.2 Chapter 2: A Critical Spatial Chronology .................................................................... 26  1.2.3 Chapter 3: Rethinking Kassanje ................................................................................... 27  1.2.4 Chapter 4: Reconstruction and Use of Roads ............................................................... 28  1.2.5 Chapter 5: Interlude – The Kapanda Agro-Industrial Pole ........................................... 30  1.2.6 Chapter 6: Agro-Food Provisioning and Marketing ..................................................... 31  1.2.7 Chapter 7: Agrarian Configuration ............................................................................... 32  1.3 Study Area and Methodology: Inconstant Geographies of Western Malanje ..................... 33  1.3.1 Kota and Around .......................................................................................................... 39  1.3.2 Amaral .......................................................................................................................... 41  1.3.3 Kuzuka .......................................................................................................................... 47  1.3.4 Mwanya ........................................................................................................................ 47  1.3.5 Details on Methodology ............................................................................................... 48  ii Chapter 2 : A Critical Spatial Chronology: Beyond ‘Creole Elite,’ Neo-Patrimonialism, and Dutch Disease in Angola .............................................................................................................. 53  2.1  Angola 1500-2014: A Brief Spatial Chronology ........................................................... 53  2.2  The Weight of History and the Neo-Patrimonial Creole Rentier-Gatekeeper State ...... 64  2.2.1 Spatiality in Conventional Models of Angola’s Political Economy ............................. 68  2.3  Key Limitations of Conventional Models ...................................................................... 75  2.4  Conjunctures as an Alternative Explanation: Settler Colonialism, Protracted War, and Leveraged Liberalization ........................................................................................................... 80  2.3.1 Settler Colonialism ....................................................................................................... 80  2.3.2 Protracted War .............................................................................................................. 81  2.3.3 Leveraged Liberalization .............................................................................................. 83  2.5  The ‘(Mbundu) Creole Elite’ of Angola: Geo-History and Identity .............................. 87  2.5.1 Distribution of White and Mestiço Population ............................................................. 90  2.5.2 ‘Creole’ vs Multiple Identities ...................................................................................... 96  2.5.3 Ethnographic Cadasters, Colonial Historiographies, and Geographic Erasures ........ 101  2.5.4 ‘Creole Elite’ as Reified by Cold Warriors and Savimbi ........................................... 121  2.5.5 The Mythical Metonym of ‘The Dozen Great Families’ ............................................ 124  2.6  Neo-Patrimonialism: Extractive Institutions, the Resource Curse, and Spatiality ....... 127  2.6.1 Weber and Space I: Industrial vs/and Commercial Capitalism .................................. 129  2.6.2 Weber and Space II: Industrial Capitalism and Racial Colonialism .......................... 131  2.6.3 Weber and Space III: Gender, Arbitrariness and Discretion ...................................... 133  2.7  The So-Called ‘Dutch Disease’: Oil and Neo-Liberal Projects ................................... 135  2.7.1 Political Economic Origins of the Dutch Disease Term and Model .......................... 137  2.7.2 How has the Dutch Disease Model been Invoked for Angola? .................................. 141  2.8  Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 143  Chapter 3 : Rethinking the 1961 Baixa de Kassanje Revolt: Towards a Relational Geo-History of Angola ......................................................................................................................................... 145  3.1 Kassanje in Debates and Problems in Angola ................................................................... 150  3.1.1 Academic and Policy Interpretations of Political Economy in Angola and Africa .... 152  3.2 Reconsidering Angola’s Baixa de Kassanje and 1961 Revolt: A Crossroads in Transformation ........................................................................................................................ 154  3.3 Malanje-Congo Relations .................................................................................................. 155  3.4 Malanje-Luanda Connections ........................................................................................... 161  3.4.1 Contracted Labor ........................................................................................................ 161  iii 3.4.2 Transport: Road and Rail Construction and Use ........................................................ 163  3.4.3 Rural and Urban Land and the Settler Economy ........................................................ 166  3.4.5 Church Networks ........................................................................................................ 171  3.5 Transformations in Malanje and Kassanje ........................................................................ 172  3.6 The Roots of Contemporary Reconstruction in Late-Colonial Regional Development as Counter-Insurgency ................................................................................................................. 175  3.7 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 181  Chapter 4 : Security and Subversion in the Logistical Reconstructions of Angola’s Transport Infrastructure ............................................................................................................................... 183  4.1 Beyond ‘Investing in Investing’: Resources, Infrastructure, and Spatiality ..................... 184  4.1.1 The Bridge on the River Lombe: Roadblocks, Logistical Construction and Corruption ............................................................................................................................................. 187  4.2 Geo-Histories of Colonial Road Construction and Counter-Insurgency .......................... 194  4.3.1 Transport in Late-Colonial Counter-Insurgency ........................................................ 197  4.3.2 Late-Colonial Road Construction ............................................................................... 198  4.3.3 Late-Colonial Road Construction in Western Malanje .............................................. 202  4.3.4 Late-Colonial Counter-Insurgency in Western Malanje ............................................ 204  4.4 Transport, Logistics and War in Independent Angola ...................................................... 206  4.4.1 Institutional Continuity and the National Highway Network ..................................... 210  4.5 Contemporary Road Reconstruction: The Logistics of Rebuilding the Luanda-Malanje Highway .................................................................................................................................. 211  4.5.1 Leaving Luanda: The Chinese, the Roads Institute, and ‘The Bulldozer’ ................. 216  4.5.2 Climbing to Ambaca: the Reconstruction Office and Military Logistics ................... 217  4.5.3 Angolan Contractors from Amabaca to Malanje: Brafrikon and Metroeuropa .......... 221  4.5.4 Motorcycle Proliferation ............................................................................................. 223  4.6 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 226  Chapter 5 : Interlude – The Kapanda Agro-Industrial Growth Pole as a Microcosm of National Reconstruction Approaches ........................................................................................................ 227  5.1 The Kapanda Agro-Industrial Pole Today ........................................................................ 231  5.2 Elaboration of the Kapanda Growth Pole in the Socialist Period ..................................... 236  5.3 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 240  iv Chapter 6 : Real Cassava Markets from War Dissolution to the PRESILD Markets ................. 243  6.1 Real Cassava Markets, Regulation and Evasion ............................................................... 246  6.1.1 Colonial Roots of Agro-Industrial Markets and Trade Regulations ........................... 251  6.2 War and the Defeat of Socialist Restructuring of Colonial Agro-Industry ....................... 256  Period 1 - 1974-7: Independence Turmoil, Assessment, and Initial Plans .......................... 260  Period 2 - 1977-80: Reported Coup and the Turn to Active State Efforts .......................... 260  Period 3 - 1980-1983: Reform and Progress amidst Deteriorating Conditions ................... 264  Period 4 - 1983-86: Disruption by War ............................................................................... 267  Period 5 - After 1986: Plans Abandoned, and a Shift to Survival ....................................... 272  6.3 War, Leveraged Liberalization, and the Privatization of Food Marketing ....................... 273  6.4 Post-War Nationalist PRESILD Supermarkets Revive Logistics but Backfire ................ 278  6.4.1 PRESILD in Malanje .................................................................................................. 280  6.4.2 PRESILD as a Response to Effects of 1990s Conflict and Liberalization ................. 282  6.5 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 287  Chapter 7 : More than Trade and Land Grabbing: Agrarian Concentration, Fragmentation, and Hierarchy ..................................................................................................................................... 289  7.1 Agrarian Configuration and Cassava Production, Processing and Marketing .................. 290  7.2 Land Inequality in Post-Independence Angola: Conventional Perspectives and an Alternative ............................................................................................................................... 294  7.2.1 Land, Law and Power 1992-2004 ............................................................................... 297  7.2.2 Post-2004 Land Law Ambiguity as Instrument of Power? ........................................ 304  7.2.3 Land, Traditional Authorities, and Patronage Networks ............................................ 305  7.2.4 Conceptualizing Agrarian Configurations: Concentration, Hierarchy and Fragmentation ...................................................................................................................... 308  7.3 Land in Colonial Angola and the Agrarian Configuration of Western Malanje ............... 310  7.3.1 Colonial Plantations in Malanje and Angola .............................................................. 311  7.3.2 Increased Commercial Settler Land Claims for Mechanized Cultivation of Cotton and Other Crops.......................................................................................................................... 317  7.3.3 Cotton beyond Trade and Enclaves: Agro-Industrialization in Malanje .................... 319  7.3.4 Notable Examples of Agrarian and Inter-sectoral Investment in Malanje ................. 321  7.3.5 Paternal Colonial Protection against Land Exploitation............................................. 326  7.3.6 Colonial Settlement Schemes ..................................................................................... 328  7.3.7 From Rivers to Roads: The Concentration and Relocation of Villages in Rural Reordering ........................................................................................................................... 330  7.3.8 Colonial Processes and Agrarian Configuration ........................................................ 341  v 7.4 From Land Grabbing to Agrarian Configuration .............................................................. 343  7.4.1 Ambiguity: Procrescer ................................................................................................ 347  7.4.2 Inter-sectoral I: Cahombo/Agritrade/Terras de Kolo ................................................. 348  7.4.3 Inter-sectoral II: The (Auto) Union Plantation ........................................................... 352  7.4.4 Imperfect continuity in global context: The Luiz / Fonseca claim ............................. 354  7.4  Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 356  Chapter 8 : Conclusion: Beyond Contradictions ........................................................................ 357  8.1 Questions for Further Research ......................................................................................... 359  8.2 Angola Beyond Contradictions ......................................................................................... 360  References ................................................................................................................................... 362  Appendices .................................................................................................................................. 402  vi Illustrations Figures Figure 1.1: Basic Analytic Framework & Chapters ........................................................................ 4  Figure 1.2: Timeline........................................................................................................................ 4  Figure 1.3: ‘The Ruse of Brutality,’ Kota ....................................................................................... 8  Figure 1.4: Road through Kota ..................................................................................................... 39  Figure 1.5: Schematic of Changes in Road and Train Links around Study Area, 1904-2013 ...... 42  Figure 1.6: Amaral, 2012 .............................................................................................................. 46  Figure 2.1: Some Origins of Nationalist Organizations and Movements, 1948-1965.................. 60  Figure 2.2: The Neopatrimonial-Rentier-Gatekeeper State .......................................................... 70  Figure 2.3: Colonial Geo-Historiography and a Critical Genealogy of the Notion ‘Creole Elite’ ..................................................................................................................................................... 120  Figure 2.4: Cartoon from Conservatives’ Open Letter, 1984 ..................................................... 122  Figure 2.5: Weber’s Continuum of Personal Discretion in Patrimonial Rule ............................ 134  Figure 3.1: Transnational news in Kimbundu in La Nation Angolaise ...................................... 157  Figure 4.1: Market Share of Global Construction Industry ........................................................ 186  Figure 4.2: Lombe Road and Rail Bridges and Infrastructure, 1907, 2008, and 2013 ............... 188  Figure 4.3: Models of Development Poles and Logistics Networks in Angola and Region ...... 189  Figure 4.4: Malanje Military Artillery for Kassanje, 1911; de Matos’ 1912 Car Trip to Malanje ..................................................................................................................................................... 195  Figure 4.5: Bulldozers Used to Build Military Road in Eastern Angola .................................... 200  Figure 4.6: Colonial Manual Labor Road Gravel Pit at Kota ..................................................... 203  Figure 4.7: Lombe-Kalandula Road c. 1970 ............................................................................... 204  Figure 4.8: Army Food Warehouse and Mobile Trucks, mid-1980s .......................................... 207  Figure 4.9: Management of Road Reconstruction Segments ...................................................... 215  Figure 4.10: Impounded Motorcycles at Malanje Police Lot ..................................................... 226  Figure 5.1: Hydroelectric Dam, Government Billboard, Central Garden Square, Malanje ..... 230  Figure 5.2: Presidential Plaque Commemorating First Harvest at Pungo Andongo, May 2007 ..................................................................................................................................................... 234  Figure 5.3: MPLA Images, Videos and Text Emphasizing ‘Sure Route’ (O Caminho Seguro) ..................................................................................................................................................... 242  Figure 6.1: Luanda-Malanje Railroad Comic ............................................................................. 247  Figure 6.2: PAPAGRO Headline: ‘Thousands of Stores in the Rural World’ ........................... 256  Figure 6.3: Abstract Models and Historical Sequences of Oil, War, and Food Imports ............ 259  Figure 6.4: June 1977: ETP Volvo Trucks Unloading in Malanje 200 Tons of Food from Luanda; Malanje Sobas Meeting in Luanda ............................................................................................. 262  Figure 6.5: President dos Santos Inaugurates Commerce Program & Tours Farms, Malanje, 1982 ..................................................................................................................................................... 266  Figure 6.6: The Nosso Super Market in Malanje ........................................................................ 279  Figure 6.7: The Old Municipal Market in Malanje, and the Cleared Lot ................................... 281  Figure 6.8: Relocated Xawande Market and Trader Arriving via the Dirt/Mud Entrance Road 281  Figure 6.9: Inflation and Dollarization ....................................................................................... 283  Figure 7.1: Dry Menya Creek and Dry Pools, July 2013............................................................ 292  Figure 7.2: Cotonang’s Tractor Park, c. 1962 ............................................................................. 318  Figure 7.3: Katepa Agro-Industry, Malanje City ........................................................................ 320  vii Figure 7.4: East of Malanje City, Kissol Sugar Alcohol Distillery Works, c. 1905 ................... 323  Figure 7.5: Sketch of Fazenda Inveja (‘Jealousy Plantation’), c. 1888 ...................................... 324  Figure 7.6: Area of Former Inveja Plantation: Casa Gaiato Orphanage, Church and Farm, c. 2014 ..................................................................................................................................................... 324  Figure 7.7: Rhizomatic Senu (Imperata cylindrica) on the Roadside near Kota ........................ 326  Figure 7.8: JPP Facilities being inaugurated near Kota, mid 1960s ........................................... 328  Figure 7.9: The São João Village Plan at Cole Settlement Scheme, Malanje ............................ 329  Figure 7.10: Pine Kiln / Fornos do Pinhal .................................................................................. 338  Figure 7.11: Dormant Korean-Built Chicken Project near Kota ................................................ 339  Figure 7.12: Village-level Fragmentation: Aerial Photograph of Mechanized Plantation, c. 1960 ..................................................................................................................................................... 342  Figure 7.13 Sisal Harvest and Drying at Cahombo Plantation, late 1950s ................................. 349  Figure 7.14: General Gato signs Document of Cuban Troop Withdrawal Jan 10, 1989 ............ 354  Maps Map 1.1: Provinces of Angola ...................................................................................................... 15  Map 1.2: The 2012 Parliamentary/Presidential Elections (Percent of Vote to MPLA) ................ 17  Map 1.3: Municipalities in Malanje Province............................................................................... 35  Map 1.4: Study Area Roads and Administrative Divisions (Municipal and Comuna) ................ 38  Study Area Below: Map 1.5 & Map 1.6 (IGCA) .......................................................................... 42  Map 2.1: Some Major Pre-Colonial Political Entities and Trade Routes ..................................... 55  Map 2.2: Main Sources and Destinations of the Atlantic Slave Trade ......................................... 56  Map 2.3: The Slaving Frontier: Approximate Dates and Locations” ........................................... 57  Map 2.4: ‘Locations of Principal Military Actions, 1888-1926’ .................................................. 58  Map 2.5: Select Reported Deadly Conflict Events, 1961-2002 .................................................... 63  Map 2.6: ‘The Geography of Useful Africa’ ................................................................................ 72  Map 2.7: Rail vs Road Networks in Africa................................................................................... 78  Map 2.8: Reification of Ten “Tribes” of Angola .......................................................................... 88  Map 2.9: Alternate Colonial Representation of Ethnic Groups .................................................... 90  Map 2.10: Distribution of White Population in Angola, 1950 ..................................................... 92  Map 2.11: Relative Distribution of White Population in Angola, 1970 ....................................... 93  Map 2.12: Relative Distribution of Mestiço Population in Angola, 1970 .................................... 94  Map 2.13: Population Distribution, 1950 ..................................................................................... 95  Map 2.14: ‘Ethnographic Map of Angola,’ 1916, by the Secretary of Indigenes Affairs .......... 104  Map 2.15: ‘Distribution of Spoken Languages,’ 1916 ............................................................... 105  Map 2.16: Colonial Ministry’s 1946 ‘Ethnographic Sketch of Angola: Linguistic Differentiation’ ..................................................................................................................................................... 108  Map 2.17: ‘Sketch of Ethno-Linguistic Distribution,’ ................................................................ 109  Map 2.18: Initial IICA Map of Approximate Ethnic Groups without Boundaries ..................... 113  Map 2.19: Conventional Map of Ethnic Boundaries on Empty Space ....................................... 117  Map 3.1: The Baixa de Kassanje in North-Central Angola ........................................................ 146  Map 3.2: Main Towns and Roads of the Baixa de Kassanje ...................................................... 148  Map 3.3: Distribution of Registered Trading Stores in Malanje in 1958 ................................... 170  Map 3.4: Colonial Regional and Development Pole Plans in Angola ................................... 176  viii