Private condominiums in Luanda: more than just the safety of walls, a new way of living

ABSTRACT

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. The specialised literature relates the demand for and multiplication of these residential structures in Africa with issues such as the search for safety associated with demonstrations of exclusive lifestyles. In the case of Luanda, the authors found––through a case study and qualitative data collected among residents and non-residents of condominiums––that, contrary to the results from other studies, condominiums in Luanda are essentially sought after primarily for functional reasons such as access to infrastructure and better living.

KEYWORDS:

• Condominium
• gated communities
• infrastructure
• urban safety
• urban stratification

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Abbreviations to interviews provide a simple characterisation of the interviewee, indicating sex (M/F), age, occupation and year of interview.

2. Condomínio Projecto Nova Vida (CPNV) is the name commonly given to this extensive parcel of urbanised territory within the administrative area of Belas Municipality. It is sometimes called Housing Complex Nova Vida or Urbanisation Project Nova Vida.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sónia Frias

Sónia Frias is Auxiliary Professor of the Institute of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Portugal) and researcher at the Centro de Estudos sobre África, Ásia e América Latina (CEsA) of the University of Lisbon (Portugal). She has published about urban issues in Mozambique and in Angola.

Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues

Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues is a Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute (Sweden). She has conducted several research projects about the Lusophone African countries and has a number of publications about urban Africa, namely Angola. Currently, her research is about urban-rural migration in Angola and Mozambique.