Paper short abstract:

Through an ethnographic case, this paper describes power dynamics between community based organizations and informal governing institutions, who are locked in a struggle over services and resources and the economic and political power they yield at the peri-urban neighbourhood level in Luanda, Angola.

Paper long abstract:

Luanda, Angola's capital is largely made up of areas and neighbourhoods categorized as informal or peri-urban and are severely lacking in public infrastructure and services. In some of these peri-urban neighbourhoods of the city, community based organizations (CBOs) are working towards improving basic infrastructure and services such as water and electricity. However, during my 2009-2010 ethnographic fieldwork, I witnessed how these organizations were locked in power struggles with other institutions claiming to have the sole right to develop these peri-urban neighbourhoods.

This paper describes how institutions such as residence committees, which are not necessarily part of the state apparatus in Angola, take on the role and authority of "the state" to govern in peri-urban Luanda. The paper provides an ethnographic case of local level power struggles in a peri-urban neighbourhood in Luanda and the implications of such struggles. It describes a clash between community based organizations and other older informal as well as formal institutions of urban governance. In essence it describes a contest for power at the neighbourhood level as well as a struggle for control over the services and resources in the peri-urban neighbourhoods of Luanda and the economic and political power they yield.