Book Launch: Justin Pearce's Political Identity and Conflict in Central Angola, 1975–2002

Please join us for the launch of this exciting new book by Justin Pearce

Political Identity and Conflict in Central Angola, 1975-2002

Cambridge University Press

Justin will speak about his book and Angolan experts, Rafael Marques and Claudia Gastrow, will draw out key themes of the book and an open discussion will follow.

ALL WELCOME

Venue: WISER  -- 6th Floor Richard Ward building, East Campus WITS
(parking at Origins Centre)
September 8
5:30 for 6pm
Light refreshments will be served.

Political Identity and Conflict in Central Angola, 1975–2002 examines the internal politics of the war that divided Angola for more than a quarter-century after independence. Justin Pearce’s argument is based on original interviews with farmers and town dwellers, soldiers and politicians in Central Angola. He uses these to examine the ideologies about nation and state that elites deployed in pursuit of hegemony, and traces how people responded to these efforts at politicisation. The material presented here demonstrates the power of the ideas of state and nation in shaping perceptions of self-interest and determining political loyalty. Yet the book also shows how political allegiances could and did change in response to the experience of military force. In so doing, it brings the Angolan case to the centre of debates on conflict in post-colonial Africa and poses questions about the relationship between nation, state and political formations.

Justin Pearce, a graduate of UCT, worked as a journalist for more than a decade before starting the doctoral studies that led to his new book. The idea for the book, and his interest in Lusophone Africa, can be traced back to the two years he lived in Angola as a reporter for the BBC at the end of the civil war. The interviews that he conducted during that time, with people who had a strong sense of themselves as Angolan despite having had no contact with the Angolan state, raised the questions about political and national identity that he explores his book. Justin is currently a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the University of Cambridge and a visiting research associate at WISER. His current research investigates the roots and the character of political legitimacy in contemporary Angola and Mozambique.

Advanced commentary on the book: