Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to explore the ways in which people in Huambo – a rural region of Angola, which was devastated by decades of war – reconcile a combination of rural and urban livelihoods with past and ongoing internal processes of migration and return.

Paper long abstract:

Land and agriculture are currently key foci of development and post-war reconstruction programmes in the Huambo region of Angola. Research in this region has revealed the intricacies of changes in agricultural practice (including decreasing land quality and tensions involved in land distribution), alongside the economic and social importance of the land, which is used to define both agricultural fields and a sense of belonging to a territory, people and history. Internal and international migration in attempts to escape the war are an intrinsic part of the history of the region, as is the continued movement between villages and towns. This paper will explore some of the findings from our preliminary research on the relationship between land, mobility and livelihoods in Huambo. Within this relationship, it will focus more specifically on the ongoing connections between rural and urban social and material landscapes, on internal processes of migration and return, and on the combination of rural and urban livelihoods. We will explore the links between these connections and issues of land use and distribution which, after a long period of abandonment of land due to the war, produce new, complex relationships and opportunities in a changing social landscape.