Paper short abstract:

The enduring heritage of Portuguese authoritarian colonialism mixed with a pseudo Marxist-Leninist socialism has culminated into a rural development model marked by an outdated colonial nostalgia that has guided future trajectories, with foreign assistance and interests providing an outsized role.

Paper long abstract:

The state-led colonial governing model of the Estado Novo led by Portuguese strongman António de Oliveira Salazar relied upon a delicate balance of native forced labor, an uncomfortable dependence on foreign capital, and the social control of natives and colonizers alike. With time, pressure, and persistence, this combination seemed to bear considerable fruit. Yet, Salazar's vision of deepening this Colonial Pact into the future couldn't foresee the groundswell of profound forces (Renouvin) bubbling up among his colonial subjects. The same brutal forces that built up Angola's extraverted economy eventually brought the colonial project down.

Upon independence, many of the same strategies guiding the rural political economy were largely reintroduced by Angola's new socialist rulers. This attempt at building a future rural economy based on a lost past would quickly encounter structural incoherencies, deepening already existing inequalities as the country was held together in piecemeal fashion through decades of intermittent war (1960-2002). Following the civil war, new opportunities arose and colonial development strategies were repackaged anew, again assisted by foreign interests.

This text explores ideas about the past and "past futures" regarding the strategies to establish both control and dominance over the Angolan countryside. We hope to demonstrate how important continuities exist in the rural development policies between the Portuguese colonial period and Angola's nationalist leaders, accentuating the incoherencies currently guiding rural development policy.