Angola: Southern Africa and the Future of the Global South

Luena Nascimento Nunes Pereira
Department of Social Sciences
Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro

LGBT Activism in Angola: Some Fieldwork Notes

This presentation brings observations resulting from fieldwork carried out between August and October 2023 in Angola, which sought to monitor recent activist groups linked to gender and sexuality. We intend to point out the context in which these social movements are inserted both at a continental level, in line with the Arab Spring, and at a national level, in reaction to the MPLA's long time in power and limited political opening and social advancement since the end of the civil war in 2002. Next, I intend to reflect on the connections and distancing between gender and LGBT activism and, more directly, “political” social movements. By observing these new activisms, it is also possible to highlight important transformations in the forms of civil organization and political protest that were felt after 2002 in Angola.

Luena Nascimento Nunes Pereira is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Sciences at the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She holds a PhD in Social Anthropology from the University of São Paulo. She is the author of the book “Os Bakongo de Angola: Etnicidade, Religião e Parentesco num bairro de Luanda.” Her main research and teaching interests are Angola, contemporary Africa, nationalism, race relations, and social markers of difference.

Garcia Neves Quitari
Department of Sociology
Agostinho Neto University

Perspectives on the Changing Profile of Chinese Investments in Angola

This presentation will reflect on how diplomatic relations between China and Angola can be reconfigured based on two important factors: the paradigm shifts of the Angolan government, increasingly focused on economic diplomacy based on the diversification of cooperation (more focused on the West and in the private investment, in addition to increasing competition between Chinese companies and companies from Western and emerging countries, such as Turkey and the United Arab Emirates); and the diversification of China’s economic interests, resulting in a greater presence of Chinese private companies in Angola.

Garcia Neves Quitari is a sociologist and Assistant Professor at the Department of Sociology at Agostinho Neto University, Luanda, Angola. He has a master's degree in Sociology and Law from the Fluminense Federal University in Brazil and is currently pursuing a PhD in Sociology at the Faculty of Sociology and Public Policies at ISCTE- University Institute of Lisbon in Portugal.