CULTURAL ALIENATION AND DEMOGRAPHIC NARRATIVES: SOCIO-GEOPOLITICAL IMPLICATIONS REGARDING POPULATION GROWTH IN ANGOLA

Abstract

Using a qualitative-quantitative approach and a critical documentary research method, this research analyzes the socio-geopolitical implications surrounding population growth in Angola from an interdisciplinary perspective. The rapid and high population growth that the country has experienced in recent decades has triggered various narratives. The results indicate that the Angolan population is small and does not numerically match the size of the national territory. That Angola has recovered a demographic dynamic that was historically taken from it. Indeed, population strength is power. These enormous asymmetries in the demographic distribution across the country give a false impression that Angola is a very populous nation, because those who analyze it do so from Luanda and/or the respective provincial capitals. Politicians, public administration officials, and political and social analysts are all concentrated in Luanda in the first instance and, secondly, in the capitals of the other provinces. Their perceptions and opinions on the country's population dynamics, politics, social issues, etc., are all determined and formulated from a perspective of regional control. Instead of population growth, as some would have us believe, Angola's problems lie in the unequal distribution of wealth.