Engaging with Colonial Knowledge on African Associational Life: Angola Case Study from 1860 to 1974

Abstract

AbstractDespite growing interest in African civil society and the enduring legacy of colonialism, studies on this theme with a historical perspective are still few. This article analyses the evolution of associational life in Luanda from its origins in the mid-nineteenth century until the decolonisation in 1974. It is based on a complete census of the officially recognised bylaws, which confirmed that formal associationism was exclusive to settlers and a minority of ‘assimilated’ natives. Modern associations among the ‘detribalised’ urban populations, never recognised by the colonial authorities, were considered by analysing ethnographic research. Historical empirical evidence sustains the idea that the colonial encounter determinately shaped civil society and the public sphere, determining the inequality in access and exercise of citizenship while illustrating the strategies used by native people to overcome legal and political constraints to associationism.