After more than twenty years of devastating civil war, Angola is slowly moving toward peace and reconciliation. In this accessible introduction to one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa, Inge Tvedten traces Angola's turbulent past, with a particular focus on the impacts that political and economic upheaval have had on the Angolan people. First, Tvedten reviews five centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, which drained Angola's resources through slavery and exploitation. He then turns to the postindependence period, in which the country became a Cold War staging ground and its...

An increasing number of poor Southern Africans live in poverty-stricken urban slums or shantytowns. Focusing on four shantytowns in the northern Namibian town of Oshakati, this book analyses the coping strategies of the poorest sections of such populations. The study is based on fieldwork conducted intermittently during a period of ten years. It combines theories of political, economic and cultural structuration, and of the material and cultural basis for social relations of inclusion and exclusion as practise. The poorest shanty dwellers are marginalised or excluded from vital urban and...