Angola - Context and Land Governance

^{The impacts of conflict continue to affect Angola. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

The war had huge impacts on land use and accelerated urbanisation. An estimated 6 million landmines had been planted by the end of the war.  According to the UN only 30% of rural areas were considered safe and with the requisite infrastructure for resettlement¹ while just 3% of arable land remained under cultivation².

By 2020 Angola had the sixth-largest economy in Africa, built primarily on oil and diamonds, but this remains highly vulnerable to price fluctuations in the global oil market. In 2017 oil accounted for 95% of export earnings with diamonds the remaining 5%. Oil accounted for 21% of GDP and more than 65% of government revenue between 2012 to 2018. This has since risen to 47% of GDP, 98% of export earnings and 75% of government revenues in 2021³. The GDP growth rate has fluctuated with periods of negative growth recorded since 2016⁴, alternating with modest expansion in 2021.

Exploring the historical backdrop

As early as the 1500’s the Portuguese established coastal towns whose primary function was to trade in slaves which linked Angola with Brazil since the sixteenth century. By the time of the formal abolition of slavery between four and seven million Angolans had been ‘exported’ as slaves. Slavery persisted after its abolition in 1836. The Native Labour Code (Código do Trabalho dos Indígenas) adopted in 1899 enshrined the principle of forced labour which persisted to 1961⁵. The forced levies, first of hut taxes, (imposto de cubata), and then ‘native’ taxes (imposto indigena) ensured a supply of labour for settler owned businesses⁶. All native men had to pay tax in Portuguese currency, forcing those who could not pay their tax to work as “contract workers” for settler employers⁷. Contracted labour (trabalho contratado) was the colonial system of forced work which was based on “specific local forms of coercion and work obligations”⁸.

Throughout the colonial period Angolan land was taken by force. With the appearance of the first land law in 1838, the colonial government sought to legalise the processes of land occupation by the settlers. This was largely of uncultivated lands, but this land was held in terms of customary tenure systems by the Angolan people. From the mid 1850s Angolans started to feel the real weight of land loss and alienation⁹. In 1880 conflicts over land intensified as agricultural companies took over more land for production. In 1907 the Portuguese demarcated ‘native reserves’ and gave some legal recognition of customary domain territories.  

In the 1950’s and 1960’s large scale land dispossession took place to establish plantations for settlers. Land that was appropriated was incorporated into the colonial cadastre1⁰. Land dispossession continued as a colonial military response to the war of liberation.

“Forced resettlement uprooted many Africans, forcing them to abandon lands that they had claimed and cultivated for a long time’¹¹.

“About one million rural families saw the average land area they occupied reduced from a little more than 9 hectares per family in the mid-1960s to about 4 hectares in 1973, whilst 6,000 commercial farmers had an average of 700 hectares of which only 10 per cent was actually cultivated”¹².

The colonial authorities promoted programmes of forced villagisation. As a result, “local populations were moved without consultation, often leaving behind ancestors’ lands and moving to new vicinities they did not choose… creating massive decades long displacement”¹³.

^{Rural settlement. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

In 1961 a rebellion against forced labour and settler land expropriation marked the start of the anti-colonial liberation war. Initially there were two opposing formations – the anti-Marxist FNLA and the Marxist MPLA which fought against the Portuguese. These had different power bases and represented very different interests. A third movement, UNITA, was formed in 1966. These forces did not defeat the Portuguese. Instead, rapid decolonisation followed after Portuguese military officers staged a coup in Portugal in 1974. This led to the Alvor agreement through which Portugal divested itself of its colonies.   A joint interim government was hastily created with representatives of the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA. This collapsed after MPLA forces occupied the capital Luanda and declared a People’s Republic in 1975. Political conflict amongst Angolans in a cold war context quickly became internationalised as Cuba supported the MPLA through the airlift of 35,000 troops, while South Africa and the USA supported UNITA.  The FNLA was defeated militarily by the MPLA and faded away¹⁴.

As different forces fought each other for state control, 300,000 out of a total of 340,000 Portuguese settlers fled the country – many destroying what they could not take with them¹⁵. In the process thousands of commercial estates (fazendas) were abandoned and the entire rural trading system was dismantled¹⁶. Angola’s GDP fell by 43% between 1973 and 1977.

^{Abandoned settler estate. Picture by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

Angola entered into two periods of civil war. The first commenced in 1972 three years prior to independence in 1975 as parties fought for power, before ending temporarily with the signing of a peace agreement between the MPLA and UNITA in 1991. This led to elections in 1992. However, UNITA rejected the MPLA election victory, and the war resumed. 

UNITA collapsed as an armed force when its leader was killed by government forces in 2002, bringing to an end almost three decades of civil war. There are no reliable figures on the casualties. Estimates suggest that between 1.5 and 2 million people died in these wars, while some four million were displaced. After the war millions of land mines had to be cleared before the fields on which rural people depended could be brought back into production. As early as 1997 70,000 civilians in Angola had already suffered amputations as a result of anti-personnel mines¹⁷.

^{Danger: Land mines Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

Despite military defeat, UNITA is reported to have been resuscitated in recent years as a political opposition characterising the ruling MPLA as “an urban, creole, Luanda-centred, Portuguese-speaking elite”¹⁸.

Land legislation and regulation

The MPLA drew up Angola’s first constitution in 1975. This created a one-party Marxist-Leninist State in Angola. The constitution was subsequently amended in 1992 to allow for multi-party elections, before a new constitution was drafted in 2010¹⁹. Land was nationalised in terms of the founding constitution and a law of forfeiture was passed in 1976 to give effect to the state takeover of property abandoned by the Portuguese. However, Angola has never developed a land policy document. Changing approaches to land rights recognition are to be deduced from constitutional changes and related laws. 

The first post-independence land law was only adopted in 1992 (Law 21-C/92 of August 28). This law did not give formal legal recognition to customary rights in land. Nor did it recognise the rights of those in urban informal settlements, or those who had reclaimed estates abandoned by the Portuguese²⁰. Although Law 21-C/92 did not recognize the informal peri-urban settlements, the people, in many cases, who occupied those spaces due to the war, were regarded as having beneficial occupation rights known as usucapião. 

^{Many people were internally displaced by conflict. Photo by Adriana via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

Regulations in terms of the 1992 Land Law annulled the land rights of those colonial fazenda owners who fled the country at the time of independence, and remained away for three years without returning²¹. In the interim the MPLA government granted new concessions on this land. It also sold some state-owned plantation land to private commercial entities²². 

As the civil war accelerated displacement, there was increasing recognition globally of the need to resettle displaced persons and to allocate land for this purpose.

The Land Law of 2004 confirmed ultimate state authority over land and natural resources, in both urban and rural settings. However, the law allowed for land to be transferred for private use, subject to conditions including “useful and effective usage.” Section 7(4) makes provision for the cancellation of land rights if the effective usage terms are breached. 

In terms of this law concessions of urban land up to 1,000 m² may be authorised by the Municipal Administration, while the Provincial Governor must approve concessions of land areas of up to 50,000 m². Concessions of areas larger than 50,000 m² may only be authorised by the Minister of Urbanism and Construction²³.

The 2004 law recognised rural community lands held and administered in terms of customary norms.  This land is administered by soba – customary leaders who mediate disputes and oversee the exercise of locally agreed land use rights. 

The 2004 Land Law revoked earlier legal protections for informal settlement dwellers. The law deemed informal land holdings to be illegal, and the occupiers were subject to eviction if they were unable to obtain permission to occupy from the state.

The Law of Territorial Planning and Urbanism, LOTU Law No 3 of 2004 dealt with territorial and urban planning. This law permits the reclaiming of land deemed to be illegally occupied or degraded. In 2007/8 the state created land reserves to cater for the construction of new settlements. The Official Gazette (Diário da República I Serie No. 181 of September 26, 2008), records that 33 Decrees were issued which established 99 state land reserves for the development of housing. However, this land identification and allocation process was not preceded by any study and did not include the participation of civil society organisations. As a result, many land reserves were declared on land owned by third parties, or already allocated under customary tenure, resulting in conflicting and overlapping rights. In 2016 there were reported to be 326 such reserves. However, it seems that many declared reserves have never been utilized and the plans to develop them have been abandoned.

The primary protection for land rights is to be found in the rewritten 2010 constitution. Article 15 makes provision for land to be transferred to individuals or corporate bodies “with a view to its rational and full use under the terms of the Constitution and the law”. All formal land grants and transfers in Angola are subject to this requirement²⁴.  

The constitution also guarantees that “access and use of land by local communities shall be recognised by law”. In these settings criteria determining what constitutes “rational and effective use of the land” vary according to local custom. 

^{In law land rights are linked to effective use of land. Photo by SIM USA via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

The Constitution makes provision for expropriation of land in the public interest and requires payment of just compensation. Article 98(3) of the constitution requires that "the concession by the State of private land ownership, as well as its transfer, is only allowed to national citizens, under the terms of the law".  

In 2011 the government announced the establishment of a ‘one stop shop’ for the registration of property. However, the implementation of the legal framework has been weak, as there is a dependence on institutions which have yet to be created or adequately capacitated²⁵. 

Angola has long had a global reputation for corruption characterised by the capture of key sectors of the Angolan economy by elite interests. This includes allocation of valuable agricultural land. However, the Corruption Perception Index is recognised as having significantly improved since 2012²⁶. 

Land tenure classifications

Protracted civil war in Angola and associated displacement of millions of people impacted heavily on an already overburdened and basic land administration system, which was brought to the point of collapse. This means that there is an absence of “up-to-date municipal land cadastres and a registry of housing and real estate”²⁷.

In these circumstances a combination of informal arrangements and local customary norms have proved to be the most resilient land administration system. More than 75% of urban households in Angola rely on this²⁸. In war affected rural settings customary systems had to contend with conflicting claims over land between original occupiers, internally displaced persons, returnees and concession holders. The linkage between informal land allocation and dispute resolution systems on the ground and the legislative frameworks remains tenuous²⁹.

There are five broad categories of land rights.

Ownership- The state is the overall owner of Angolan land, although land held by embassies and churches is exempt. Registered landholders in urban areas enjoy perpetual rights to occupy and use the land, and can transfer, mortgage, and sell the right. However, the state restricts how land can be bought or sold, requiring that transactions are concluded through public auctions with prices of urban land fixed by state regulated price indices³⁰.

Customary use rights-Recognised rural communities can obtain “a perpetual right of useful customary domain”. These rights are not transferable. The constitution holds that land held by such communities cannot be the subject of a concession, or have their land is allocated to a third party³¹. However in practice these rights are frequently overridden.

^{A commercial agricultural estate. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

In 2018 Presidential Order 14/18 created a commission to register rural land for communities linked to   the implementation of the Minha Terra (my land) programme to strengthen the land rights of communities (while also seeking to gain revenue through land related taxes). According to the Angolan government, some 239 communities have been identified for inclusion in the programme, while 31 have been registered with title deeds for customary land³².  However there remain concerns that this programme has been imposed from the top down and that it will provide limited protection from elite capture of valuable estates and agricultural land in Angola.

Useful Civil Domain. The state can grant rights of ‘useful civil domain’ over rural and urban land by means of a concession contract or lease. Such rights are perpetual rights and can be mortgaged.

Surface Rights Grants. These rights are provisional for the first five years but can be extended to 60 years. 

Precarious Occupation Rights/Temporary Leaseholds. The government is empowered to grant temporary occupation rights up to one year in duration. Such rights can be renewed. 

So, while there is some protection in law, there remains a wide gap between the law and its implementation in practice. In both the cities and the countryside ordinary Angolan men and women appear to be increasingly at risk of being evicted, or having their lands expropriated in favour of megaproject investment without due process. 

Land use trends

The central highlands in Angola were most affected by the civil war and it is here that people were most prone to food insecurity. In 2014 just 10% of the arable land in the country was under production and 80% of farmers were smallholders³³. 

Angola is experiencing prolonged cycle droughts linked to climate change, particularly in the Southern provinces. In 2022 the IFRC issued an emergency appeal stating that Angola is facing the worst recorded drought in 40 years. Food insecurity analysis conducted in Southern Angola found that between October 2021 and March 2022, around 1.58 million people experienced high levels of acute food insecurity³⁴.

^{Persistent drought has gripped parts of Angola. Photo by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

Mean annual temperature is projected to increase between 1.2 and 3.2°C by 2060, and 1.7 and 5.1°C by 2090, and warming is projected to occur more rapidly in the interior and eastern parts of Angola³⁵.

Rapid urbanisation represents a key land use trend in Angola. This has its roots in the displacement of 4.5 million people during the civil war and their relocation to the coastal strip and urban centres. When the war ended an estimated 500,000 people returned to their home areas, but the overwhelming majority opted to stay in the cities. This concentrated pressure on grazing, wildlife and forest resources. In Angola, about 80% of the population relies on charcoal and firewood to meet their residential energy needs. In consequence here is much pressure on existing natural forests, especially in places with high fuel-wood production and charcoal consumption³⁶. In the rural setting a bid to reboot agricultural production by the government has focused on attracting foreign investment, rather than developing the smallholder sector. 

Land investments

The granting of agricultural concessions to foreign investors has long been a source of conflict in Angola. One of the earliest examples is that of the Kilometer 25 dispute in which the Angolan government, together with Brazilian investors, set out to establish a coffee plantation which would have required resettlement of the local community. After a legal intervention, an agreement was reached that the community would not be relocated.

A recent report documents widespread land dispossession as the Angolan government promotes agricultural megaprojects. Between 2015 and 2018 the government was reported to have allocated 1.1 million ha of land for 48 mega investments in agriculture and forestry. Of this just 80 000 ha, or 7% of the area granted was being used productively in 2018³⁷.

Alongside megaprojects has been land capture by politically connected elites. A traditional leader of a village in Kuanza-Sul province that was removed because of the (illegal) occupation by an Angolan businessman in 2018 described the process of dispossession:

“The former vice-governor gave us a bag of rice, a bag of salt and some blankets to let his cattle graze in our area. Then he sold our area and today the new owner occupies an area of thousands of hectares. We lost our farm areas, live in the area of another traditional leader and cannot even visit the sacred places of our ancestors”³⁸ 

The government’s Agro Industrial Horizonte 2020 megaproject is reported to have resulted in the expropriation of 76000 ha of land and led to conflict in Cunene. Commercial ranches have been given access to ancestral lands utilised by San communities in Southern Angola. Efforts to resist this appropriation have led to representatives of a local NGO MBAKITA which has sought to defend the land rights of San being assaulted and receiving death threats³⁹.

In the semi-arid Gambos region the government has allocated the best land historically used by pastoralists to commercial ranching ventures. Some 46 commercial livestock farms have been allocated 2,629 km2 of the most fertile land, leaving only 1,299 km2 of grazing land for the traditional cattle breeders without full consultation and informed consent as required by the constitution⁴⁰.

The mining sector in Angola is also expanding. The country has a wide range of mineral resources – most of them yet to be exploited. Current mining activity focuses largely on oil and diamonds.

^{Drilling for oil. Photo by JBDodane via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

Angola is the third largest producer of diamonds on the African continent⁴¹. During the civil war a large garimpo sector involved in illegal artisanal diamond mining developed. So called ‘blood diamonds’ became an important source of revenue for militia, before the introduction of the Kimberley Process Certificate Scheme (KPCS) in 2002, in an attempt to restrict trade in rough diamonds⁴². Small-scale mining remains widespread despite the requirement of the new mining law of 2011 which requires informal miners to register their activity⁴³.

Women’s land rights

The 2004 land law does not make specific reference to women’s land rights. These are rather regulated by the Family Code which provides different options for the holding and disposal of property.  While the 2010 constitution and the statutory legal code promotes equal rights to property of men and women, there is a gap between the requirements of the legal code and everyday practice⁴⁴. Overall securing rights in land especially for marginalised people and women remains a challenge⁴⁵.

^{Land rights of women lack formal legal protection. Photo by USA SIM via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

Urban tenure issues

Just 500,000 people lived in the capital city Luanda in 1975. Currently some 10 million people live in the city, of whom 7 million live in informal settlements⁴⁶. Luanda is characterised by the presence of informal settlements, predominantly located in the inner city⁴⁷. Since 2002 many people in slum areas have experienced eviction and land uses have been changed to cater for the needs of the urban elite. Reports suggest that the local government frequently fails to comply with expropriation procedures and have arbitrarily evicted occupiers in a number of cases.

^{The majority of the urban population live in informal settlements. Photo by David Stanley via Flickr (CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0 license)}

The National Development Program (Programa Nacional de Desenvolvimento, 2013–2017) set out policies related to urban and territorial development. This included plans for new towns and amalgamated villages. However negative associations generated by painful histories of past forced removals and displacement has meant that this initiative has had little success⁴⁸.

Community land rights issues

According to the 2014 census, San indigenous people comprise 0.1% of the Angolan population and are primarily located in provinces in Southern Angola. The Angola government has a poor record of recognising and protecting indigenous people’s rights. Land rights of the San remain insecure, and they face food insecurity and social exclusion.  

More broadly, effective recognition of customary land rights has been slow to gain traction, with the FAO estimating that 0.1 percent of the territory is registered under land customary titles.

Land governance innovations

There has been an EU project entitled ‘Strengthening Capacity for Improved Governance of Land Tenure and Natural Resources by Local Government in Partnership with non-state Actors in the Central Highlands of Angola”. This forms part of a regional programme to boost implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines of the Responsible Governance of Tenure (VGGT) in ten African countries⁴⁹. This project started in 2014 and finished in December 2017. According to a report on the programme “many of the VGGT principles are already included in the Angolan legal framework on land, but are not respected in practice”⁵⁰. The report highlighted the prevalence of contradictory claims to land and noted that when private claims to land are being formalised on community lands, there needs to be stronger mechanisms for dispute resolution available to communities and government entities.

Timeline - milestones in land governance

1500’s - Portuguese establish coastal towns whose primary function is to trade in slaves.

1878 - By the time of the formal abolition of slavery between four and seven million Angolans had been ‘exported’ as slaves.

1899 - Colonial Native Labour Code (Código do Trabalho dos Indígenas) puts in place a system of forced labour which persists until 1961.

1917 - Diamang, a company consortium controlled by Belgian, British, and American interests with the Portuguese state commences mining of diamonds in the Lundas. 

1950–1960’s - Portuguese confiscate 360,000 acres, dispossessing about half the population of African smallholder coffee producers.

1961 - Start of war of liberation against Portuguese.

1968 - Discovery of oil in Angola.

1975 - Portugal divests its colonies following a military coup. 
Angolan MPLA occupies the capital Luanda. 300,000 Portuguese settlers flee the country. 
MPLA nationalises all land.
Conflict between rival political formations MPLA and UNITA plunges Angola into 27 years of civil war. 

1980 - War triggers rapid urbanisation.

1990 - 50% of Angolan population is urbanised.

1991 - Peace agreement between MPLA and UNITA leads to elections, but results are disputed and civil war resumes in 1998.

1992 - Law 21C gave the state power to regulate surface land rights and to issue concessions for agricultural use.

1999 - Despite vast mineral reserves of oil and valuable diamonds Angola is one of 15 poorest countries on the globe⁵¹.
Some 3.7 million people – a third of the population are directly affected by the war with 1.5 million internally displaced.

2002 - Civil war ends with killing of UNITA leader. 
An estimated 6 million landmines had been planted by the end of the war by both sides. Only 30% of rural areas are considered safe and with the requisite infrastructure for resettlement⁵².

The government distributes approximately 50% of the land held by settler farmers in the colonial era to small numbers of urban-based absentee owners. Policies did little to protect and consolidate the rights of small-scale producers occupying scattered parcels of land. 

2004 - The Luanda government introduces a new Land law. This recognises communal tenure rights for the first time.

The Angolan government launched large scale urban evictions, destroying houses, crops and residents’ personal possessions.

2007 - New law on decentralisation.

2010 - Angola passes new Constitution.

2011 - New mining law.

2014 - The Ministry of Planning and Housing adopts the Social Tenure Domain Model ((STDM) promoted by the UN’s Global Land Tool’s Network (GLTN).

2019 - 62% of the population lives in informal settlements with insecure land tenure and under threat of eviction⁵³.

2020-Angola has a population of 32 million people and the capital city Luanda has a population of 8 million people and is the 5th largest city in Africa.

Where to go next?

The author's suggestion for further reading

If you are interested in a more in depth understanding of Angolan history and land issues then we recommend Jeremy Ball’s History of Angola in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. A number of researchers explore land issues in Angola’s post-conflict setting including Fernando Pacheco, Jenny Clover and Conor Foley while Robin Nielsenfocuses on women’s land rights. Christina Udelsmann Rodrigues has written extensively on urbanism and mining.  Development Workshop Angola provides a wide range of resources and publications.  USAID’s Angola country profileprovides a perspective on property rights and resource governance. Urban LandMark provides valuable analysis of informal land tenure arrangements in urban areas. The round table of German NGOs in Angola has produced useful research on elite land capture and the rise of agricultural megaprojects. The Institute for Security Studies 2020 Angolan Futures beyond Oil provides topical contemporary analysis and future projections.

References

[1] Cain, A. (2010). "Research and practice as advocacy tools to influence Angola’s land policies." Environment and urbanization 22(2): 505-522.

[2] Foley, C. (2007). Land rights in Angola: poverty and plenty. HPG Working Paper. London, ODI.

[3] Trading Economics. (2022). "Angola GDP Growth Rate."   Retrieved 14 June 2022, from https://tradingeconomics.com/angola/gdp-growth

[4] Welborn, L., J. Cilliers and S. Kwasi (2020). Angolan futures 2050: Beyond oil. Johannesburg, Institute for Security Studies.

[5] Ball, J. (2017). The history of Angola. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Online, Dickinson Scholar.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.

[8] Udelsmann Rodrigues, C. (2017). "Configuring the living environment in mining areas in Angola: Contestations between mining companies, workers, local communities and the state." The Extractive Industries and Society 4(4): 727-734.

[9] Filipe, P. (2014). Nos e a nossa terra: Mitos e percepções sobre a nossa relação com a terra. Luanda.

[10] Urban LandMark (2013). Angola and informal land tenure arrangements: Towards an inclusive land policy. Johannesburg, Urban LandMark.

[11]Riddell, J. C. and C. Dickerman (1986). Country profiles of land tenure: Africa 1986, Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

[12] Pacheco, F. (2004). "The land issue in the context of peacebuilding: Development or conflict?" Accord 15.

[13]Udelsmann Rodrigues, C. (2017). "Configuring the living environment in mining areas in Angola: Contestations between mining companies, workers, local communities and the state." The Extractive Industries and Society 4(4): 727-734. P.730

[14] Beck, T. K. (2009). "Staging Society: Sources of Loyalty in the Angolan UNITA." Contemporary Security Policy 30(2): 343-355.

[15] Bhagavan, M. R. (1986). Angola's political economy 1975-1985, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

[16] Clover, J. (2010). "The role of land as a site and source of conflict in Angola." The struggle over land in Africa: Conflicts, politics and change: 147-174.

[17] Human Rights Watch (1997). Still killing: Landmines in Southern Africa, Human Rights Arms Watch Project.

[18] Pearce, J. (2020). "From Rebellion to Opposition: UNITA’s Social Engagement in Post-War Angola." Government and Opposition 55(3): 474-489.

[19] Constitutionnet. (n.d). "Constitutional history of Angola."   Retrieved 2 December, 2020, from https://constitutionnet.org/country/constitutional-history-angola.

[20] Development Workshop Angola (2016). Land markets for housing in Angola: Policy paper. Luanda, Development Workshop Human Settlements and Development, Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, FSD Africa.

[21] ARD Inc (2005). Land tenure and property rights assessment for Angola. Washington, USAID.

[22] Development Workshop Angola (2016). Land markets for housing in Angola: Policy paper. Luanda, Development Workshop Human Settlements and Development, Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, FSD Africa.

[23]Urban LandMark (2013). Angola and informal land tenure arrangements: Towards an inclusive land policy. Johannesburg, Urban LandMark.

[24] USAID (2016). Angola: USAID Country Profile: Property Rights and Resource Governance. Washington, USAID.

[25] Development Workshop Angola (2016). Land markets for housing in Angola: Policy paper. Luanda, Development Workshop Human Settlements and Development, Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, FSD Africa

[26] Transparency International. (2022). "CPI 2021 For Sub-Saharan Africa: Amid Democratic Turbulence, Deep-Seated Corruption Exacerbates Threats To Freedoms."   Retrieved 14 June, 2022, from https://www.transparency.org/en/news/cpi-2021-sub-saharan-africa-amid-democratic-turbulence-deep-seated-corruption.

[27] Urban LandMark (2013). Angola and informal land tenure arrangements: Towards an inclusive land policy. Johannesburg, Urban LandMark.

[28] Ibid.

[29] ARD Inc (2005). Land tenure and property rights assessment for Angola. Washington, USAID.

[30] USAID (2016). Angola: USAID Country Profile: Property Rights and Resource Governance. Washington, USAID.

[31] Ibid.

[32] (Angolan government reply to Amnesty International 2019)

[33] IFAD (2014). Investing in rural people in Angola. Rome, International Fund for Agricultural Development.

[34] IFRC (2022). Angola Food Insecurity: Emergency Appeal, International Federation of the Red Cross.

[35] World Bank. (n.d). "Angola." Climate Change Knowledge Portal  Retrieved 30 November 2020, from https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/country/angola.

[36] Chiteculo, V., B. Lojka, P. Surový, V. Verner, D. Panagiotidis and J. Woitsch (2018). "Value chain of charcoal production and implications for forest degradation: Case study of Bié Province, Angola." Environments 5(11): 113.

[37] Tump, R. and E. Cassinda (2019). Synergies and competition between the agroindustrial sector and small-scale farmers in Angola, Round Table of German NGOs in Angola.

[38] Ibid.

[39]Cortez, C. (2020). "Angola: Authorities must do more to protect the vulnerable San people during Covid-19."   Retrieved 30 November, 2020, from https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-10-angola-authorities-must-do-more-to-protect-the-vulnerable-san-people-during-covid-19/.

[40] Amnesty International (2019). The end of cattle's paradise: How land diversion for ranches eroded food security in the Gambos, Angola, Amnesty International.

[41] Euronews. (2021). "The mining industry in Angola, no longer a diamond in the rough."   Retrieved 14 June, 2022, from https://www.euronews.com/2021/03/17/the-mining-industry-in-angola-no-longer-a-diamond-in-the-rough.

[42] Udelsmann Rodrigues, C. (2013). Mining in Angola. Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. H. Stein, Springer Science and Business Media.[43] Udelsmann Rodrigues, C. (2017). "Configuring the living environment in mining areas in Angola: Contestations between mining companies, workers, local communities and the state." The Extractive Industries and Society 4(4): 727-734.

[44] Development Workshop Angola (2016). Land markets for housing in Angola: Policy paper. Luanda, Development Workshop Human Settlements and Development, Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa, FSD Africa.

[45]De Villiers, S., Å. Christensen, C. Tjipetekera, G. Delgado, S. Mwando, R. Nghitevelekwa, C. Awala and M. Katjiua (2019). Land Governance in Namibia. Land Governance in Southern Africa Symposium. Windhoek.

[46] Barros, C. P. and C. J. L. Balsas (2019). "Luanda’s Slums: An overview based on poverty and gentrification." Urban Development Issues 64(1): 29-38.

[47] Ibid.

[48] Udelsmann Rodrigues, C. (2017). "Configuring the living environment in mining areas in Angola: Contestations between mining companies, workers, local communities and the state." The Extractive Industries and Society 4(4): 727-734

[49] FAO (2017). Commemorating the fifth anniversary of the voluntary guidelines on tenure. Rome, FAO.

[50] EU land governance programme. (2020). "Strengthened capacity for improved governance of land tenure and natural resources by local government in partnership with Non State Actors in the Central Highlands of Angola."   Retrieved 30 November, 2020, from https://africalandpolicy.org/eu-programme/node/3.

[51] Le Billon, P. (1999). "A land cursed by its wealth? Angola's war economy 1975-99."

[52] Cain, A. (2010). "Research and practice as advocacy tools to influence Angola’s land policies." Environment and urbanization 22(2): 505-522.

[53] Cain, A. (2019). Women’s tenure rights and land reform in Angola. 2019 WORLD BANK CONFERENCE ON LAND AND POVERTY. The World Bank, Washington DC.