Projekt

In the last decade, Angola has experienced unprecedented economic growth, due to the end of the civil war and high prices of oil in the international market. A part of this economic growth has been channeled into expensive development housing projects. Kilamba, the most important of these projects, is the case study of this research project. This project addresses this new urban reality in Angola and is concerned with mainly two questions. Firstly, it raises the problematic of local governance and service delivery through the study of everyday practices in the city Kilamba. Kilamba came about under the false pretense that the country was ready for a housing market. However, when apartment buildings were put on the market, very few people purchased them. When news dubbing Kilamba a ghost town started to circulate, the government stepped in to distribute the apartments to various sectors of society. Most people have only paid the first installment to the government which is the formal landlord. Tenants, then, have to deal with the burden of governance through the work and action of Residents' Commissions. Uncertainties over the legal status of Kilamba have been a source of conflict. To understand these issues, this research project examines with the interstitial spaces between fantasy and reality, public and the private, and state and society.

• Prof. Dr. Mamadou Diawara

  Universität Frankfurt am Main
  Zentrum für interdisziplinäre
  Afrikaforschung (ZIAF)
  Campus Westend
  Frankfurt am Main