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Paper short abstract:

The present paper aims to see beyond the dichotomy formal / informal, questioning the relevancy of these concepts when applied to Luanda's reality and to the decisions taken in Angola's urban planning, concerning their position on informality.

Paper long abstract:

Observing African cities, one usually easily distinguishes its formal and urbanized areas from its informal settlements. In Luanda, the latter are called "musseques" and one of the policies of Angola's urban planning is to end them. They represent poor living conditions and poverty. They are the side of the coin that must be hidden. But is this distinction between formal and informal so simple?

Since its foundation, there never existed a previous formal city plan and Luanda developed spontaneously, adapting to the topography and resulting in an organic radiocentric city structure, with axes coming from the bay and connecting to the interior. Throughout the centuries, Luanda grew along these axes, mostly due to micro-scale social and economic dynamics, despite some attempts to "formalize" many areas, usually expropriating poor people living near the center and pushing "informality" towards the periphery. This segregation movement has been occurring for a long time, shaping the city's urban growth and its citizens-mentality.

This paper aims to take a new approach at this dichotomy. As the standards defining "formal" were set according to Western societies from the North and not the African reality, whatever does not comply with those standards is branded as "informal": economy, social interaction, space appropriation, construction. The current paper wants to redefine this conception and question whether "informality", "urban informality" in particular (different from "slum conditions"), should be fought or, on the contrary, is a part of Luanda's character and should be taken into account in its relationship with the world.

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