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Luanda Onde Está? Contemporary African Art and the Rentier State

2014; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 8; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/19301944.2014.939524

2326-411X

Kate Cowcher,

Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1 "Future City: Why Luanda is the new Dubai," Universo, Sonangol, Winter 2008, Cover Story.2 The importation is highlighted with a sense of pride in the corporate magazine of Angola's parastatal oil company, Sonangol. "Miami on the Marginal," Universo, Sonangol, Winter 2008, p. 13.3 "Oil for infrastructure" first emerged in the early 2000s with China's proposals to Angola: see Weimer and Vines (2012 Weimer, M. & Vines, A. (2012). China's Angolan oil deals, 2003–2011. In M. Powers & A.C. Alvares (Eds.), China and Angola: A marriage of convenience? (pp. 87–88). Oxford: Fahamu Press and Pambazuka Books. [Google Scholar]), pp. 87–88.4 NGOs, including Homeless International and the Development Workshop, run by Allan Cain, claim that the percentage of the urban population living in the musseques is around 75 percent.5 Luanda has long been characterized by spatial stratification. On its development as a "white" (concrete) and black (musseques) city, see Rodrigues (2009 Udelsmann Rodrigues, C. (2009). Angolan cities: Urban (re)segregation. In F. Locatelli & P. Nugent (Eds.), African cities: Competing claims on urban spaces (pp. 37–54). Leiden: Brill.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). On Vieira's work, see "Counter mapping Luanda" in Peres (1997 Peres, P. (1997). Transculturation and resistance in Lusophone African narrative. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. [Google Scholar]), pp. 16–46.6 Luandino Vieira, "Cancao Para Luanda," see Peres (2004 Peres, P. (2004). Angola's lost city. Foreign Policy, 141, 86.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), p. 86.7 Land-based conflict is noted in Angola's breakaway region of Cabinda, where much of the onshore infrastructure is based. However, as James Ferguson argues, Angolan oil has been socially "very thin" in terms of both its employment opportunities for Angolans and its visible presence during some of Angola's most traumatic moments (Ferguson, 2006 Ferguson, J. (2006). Governing extraction: New spatializations of order and disorder in neoliberal Africa. In Global shadows: Africa in the neoliberal world order (pp. 195–204). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).8 In summer 2010 there were protests against BP "greenwash" sponsorship of British art institutions as a result of the Deepwater Horizon spill. Given the extent of poverty and the failure of oil money to "trickle down," the stakes in Angola are much higher. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.artnotoil.org.uk/9 Maja and Reuben Fowkes force awareness of global art's ecological impact. See "The ecological impact of contemporary art", retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.translocal.org/footprint/index.htm10 Mahdavy, quoted in Yates (1996 Yates, D.A. (1996). The rentier state in Africa: Oil rent dependency and neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon. Trenton, Asmara: Africa World Press. [Google Scholar]), p. 11.11 The notion of "extractive enclaving" and Angola's specific version of it was unpacked by Ferguson (2005 Ferguson, J. (2005). Seeing like an oil company: Space, security and global capital in neoliberal Africa. American Anthrpologist, 107(3), 377–382.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]).12 Omar Bongo's deeply impractical plans for the Transgabonaise Railroad and his belief that modernization could be purchased, no matter the price, is a classic "rentier prestige project." See "The Transgabonaise Railroad and the modern sector," in Yates (1996 Yates, D.A. (1996). The rentier state in Africa: Oil rent dependency and neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon. Trenton, Asmara: Africa World Press. [Google Scholar]), pp. 173–201.13 The "natural resource curse" refers to the belief that having major natural resources can negatively impact political and economic development. Terry Karl remains a leading theorist. See Karl (1997 Karl, T. (1997). The paradox of plenty: Oil booms and petro-states. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], 2007 Karl, T. (2007). The political challenges of escaping the resource curse. In M. Humphreys, J. Sachs, & J. Stiglitz (Eds.), Escaping the resource curse: Optimal strategies and best practices for oil and gas exporting developing countries, commissioned by the Earth Institute and the Initiative for Policy Dialogue of Columbia University and the Open Society Institute. New York: Columbia University Press. [Google Scholar]). Debate is rife; Stephen Haber and Victor Menaldo made the case in 2011 Haber, S. & Menaldo, V. (2011). Do natural resources fuel authoritarianism: A reappraisal of the resource curse. American Political Science Review, 105(1), 1–26.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] that oil does not necessarily lead to authoritarian governance.14 "Open slate" was Frank Gehry's term, see Kanna (2011 Kanna, A. (2011). Dubai: The city as corporation. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), p. 90.15 Apter (2005 Apter, A. (2005). The Pan-African nation: Oil and the spectacle of culture in Nigeria. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar], pp. 280–281) is drawing from Comaroff and Comaroff's (1999) Comaroff, J. & Comaroff, J. L. (1999). Occult economies and the violence of abstraction: Notes from the South African postcolony. American Ethnologist, 26(2), 279–303.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] observations of countries' ongoing rapid neoliberal reform in which wealth is seen to be "conjured and accumulated."16 Tomas, quoting Achille Mbembe and Sarah Nuttal's discussion of South cities and the "archeology of the future," says that Luanda is "already a global city" (Tomas, 2012 Tomas, A. A. (2012). Refracted governmentality: Space, politics and social structure in contemporary Luanda (PhD dissertation, Columbia University). [Google Scholar], p. 102).17 Oil and diamonds were implicated in disparate exchange for weapons. See Custers (2001 Custers, P. (2001). Systems of disparate exchange: African experiences. Economic and Political Weekly, 36(19), 1594–1599. [Google Scholar]), pp. 1594–1599.18 International Monetary Fund statistics are listed on the Michigan State University, Broad College of Business profile of Angola: http://globaledge.msu.edu/countries/angola/economy. The Angolan economic profile can be found at the CIA Factbook page: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ao.html (accessed January 30, 2013). See also Sharife (2009 Sharife K. (2009, November 19). The battle for Angola's oil. In J. Feffer (Ed.), Foreign policy in focus. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.fpif.org/articles/the_battle_for_angolas_oil [Google Scholar]).19 "The vice president position was introduced in … 2010 to replace the function of Prime Minister. The VP is … the head of the government under the President's direct watch." Retrieved January 30, 2012 fromhttp://www.worldbank.org/en/country/angola/overview20 Soares de Oliveira asserts that Sonangol seeks to keep Angola as a failed state, in which the government is entirely dependent upon it as wealth generator. Angola as failed state is one in which the majority of the population are disempowered and isolated from oil wealth. Sonangol's "enclave" monopoly is, thus, not isolated from the chaos of Angolan society but dependently tied to it (Soares de Oliveira, 2007 Soares de Oliviera, R. (2007). Business success, Angola-style: Postcolonial politics and the rise and rise of Sonangol. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 45(4), 605. [Google Scholar], p. 606).21 Universo is named after the network of global business interests of the Sonangol group. The magazine was thus founded to report on the "complex business world" of the company. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.mstelcom.co.ao/wps/portal/ep/sonangol/publications/universo22 Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.sonangol.co.ao/corp/music_en.shtml23 On the shift to "contemporaneity" in African art and the "legitimization circuits" in which it appears see Mixinge (2009 Mixinge, A. (2009). Autonomy and self-transcendence in contemporary African art: Resilience, change and renewal. Museum International, 61(4), 58–69.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).24 Saskia Sassen characterizes the "Global City" as a major nodal point in the global economy, which has a financial or business center that has more culturally and aesthetically in common with fellow Global Cities than it other national urban centers. See Sassen (1991 Sassen, S. (1991). The global city: New York, London Tokyo. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]).25 Ferguson (2005 Ferguson, J. (2005). Seeing like an oil company: Space, security and global capital in neoliberal Africa. American Anthrpologist, 107(3), 377–382.[Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). See also Ferguson (2006 Ferguson, J. (2006). Governing extraction: New spatializations of order and disorder in neoliberal Africa. In Global shadows: Africa in the neoliberal world order (pp. 195–204). Durham, NC: Duke University Press.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]).26 Lee (2008 Lee, P. (2008). Questionnaire: Lee. October, 98–101. [Google Scholar], pp. 98–101): "In what ways have artists, academics, and cultural institutions responded to the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq?" On the tokenistic "aesthetics" of biennial art, see Verwoert (2010 Verwoert, J. (2010). The case of biennial art. In E. Flipovic, M. Van Hal & S. Øvstebø (Eds.), The biennial reader: An anthology of large-scale exhibitions of contemporary art (pp. 184–197). Bergen: Hatje Cantz. [Google Scholar]).27 On inflated commodity prices and life in Luanda, see Ahrens (2012 Ahrens, L. (2012, November 1). How regular Angolans get by in Angola, world's second most expensive city for expats. This is Africa. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.thisisafrica.me/opinion/detail/19656/How-regular-Angolans-get-by-in-Luanda,-world's-2nd-most-expensive-city-for-expats [Google Scholar]).28 "In Lunda Tchokwe, the removal of Redinha's signature did not erase authorship, neither Redinha's nor its own, but profoundly dispersed it" (Collier, 2012 Collier, D. (2012). Accessing the ancestors: The re-mediation of José Redhina's Paredes Pintadas Da Lunda. Critical Interventions, 9/10, 122–142.[Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar], p. 138).29 There was controversy about the selection process when Okwui Enwezor and Salah Hassan wrote to Robert Storr to criticize the "open submission" format of the competition, believing that more specialized selection should have been undertaken. Olu Oguibe waded into the debate, defending Storr's decision. The debate was originally accessible online, on the African South Art Initiative at http://www.asai.co.za/forum.php?id=40, but (since 2010) this link appears to no longer be working. Kodwo Eshun's (2007 Eshun, K. (2007, September). The African Pavilion, Frieze, 109. Retrieved January 30, 2012 from http://www.frieze.com/issue/article/t/ [Google Scholar]) review of the Africa Pavilion provides a summary of the debates in its preamble.30 There is also some suggestion that MoMA pulled out following the publication of Ben Davis's article accusing Dokolo of corruption (see below).31 Global Witness raised questions about the transparency of oil deals and the state given the familial ties of Sindika Dokolo to the Dos Santos family. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.globalwitness.org/media_library_detail.php/941/en/link_between_angolan_presidents_son_in_law_and_sta32 Ihosvanny is discussed in Eyene (2008 Eyene, C. (2008). Africa at the 52nd Venice Biennale: Exeunt aesthetics and critical discourse. Third Text, 21(6), 784–786. [Google Scholar]).33 The blog has been removed but the action is documented in artnet.com's coverage of the unfolding controversy. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://www.artnet.com/magazineus/news/artnetnews/artnetnews5-18-07.asp34 Retrieved January 30, 2012 from http://www.sharjahart.org/projects/projects-by-date/2009/katchokwe-style-yonamineAdditional informationNotes on contributorsKate E. CowcherKate Crowcher (katecowcher@gmail.com) is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Art and Art History at Stanford University. Her dissertation, entitled "Between Revolutionary Motherland and Death: Art and Visual Culture in Socialist Ethiopia" is jointly supervised by Professor Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz and Professor Pamela Lee. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA) for 2013-15.This work was supported by a 2010 Graduate Fellowship from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University and was supervised by Dr. Barbara Thompson. I thank Dr. Thompson and Prof. Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz for their comments on earlier drafts.