Paper short abstract:

The contribution explores in which ways chiefs, returning from refugee camps to post-conflict Angola after years of exile and facing expectations and pressure from state and party authorities as well as the local population, position themselves in the emerging local political order.

Paper long abstract:

During the long-lasting war in their country, many Angolans fled violence and insecurity to seek asylum in neighboring countries. There, they spent years or decades in refugee camps. Among the camp refugees were also 'traditional' Angolan chiefs and other local authorities. In the camps, chieftaincy was suspended, though some patterns of chief-follower relations were sustained unofficially. As the war ended in 2002, chiefs and their followers, as most of the Angolan refugees, started their way back in order to resume their position in post-conflict Angola.

As the chiefs resume their local leadership positions, they have to deal with new challenges compared to their pre-flight situation: State authorities, intertwined with the party hierarchy of governing MPLA, claim political loyalty. The people under their leadership have demands shaped by their experiences in refugee camps, where facilities and infrastructure were provided by the international refugee regime and the host states. These requests challenge both chieftaincy as an institution and the individual chiefs - whose position might also be contested by actors who gained influence during the chiefs' absence as refugees. The contribution explores this new interplay between chiefs, people and regional or local state and party authorities. What kinds, or types, of changed chieftaincy in a new social and political context emerge from specific conditions in post-conflict situations? The analysis is mainly based on interview material from fieldwork in Angola, conducted in 2011 and 2012 as part of a research project on the repatriation of local leaders from refugee camps to Angola.