Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola – a History of Dispossession, Slavery, and Inequality

Join us for a roundtable discussion of Mariana Candido's Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola; A History of Dispossession, Slavery, and Inequality, published by Cambridge University Press in 2022.

Confirmed speakers:

• Mariana Candido, Emory University
• Toby Green, Kings College London
• José Lingna Nafafé, University of Bristol

Wealth, Land, and Property in Angola; A History of Dispossession, Slavery, and Inequality, Cambridge University Press, 2022. Exploring the multifaceted history of dispossession, consumption, and inequality in West Central Africa, Mariana P. Candido presents a bold revisionist history of Angola from the sixteenth century until the Berlin Conference of 1884–5. Synthesising disparate strands of scholarship, including the histories of slavery, land tenure, and gender in West Central Africa, Candido makes a significant contribution to ongoing historical debates. She demonstrates how ideas about dominion and land rights eventually came to inform the appropriation and enslavement of free people and their labour. By centring the experiences of West Central Africans, and especially African women, this book challenges dominant historical narratives, and shows that securing property was a gendered process. Drawing attention to how archives obscure African forms of knowledge and normalize conquest, Candido interrogates simplistic interpretations of ownership and pushes for the decolonization of African history.

The book launch will be followed by a wine reception.