Revista Perspectivas Sociais

ISSN 2317-7438
https://doi.org/10.15210/rps.v9i01.24247

Artigo

Structural Violence in Angola

Joel Nemona Mendes*

Abstract
This article aims to analyse the ongoing structural violence in Angola and outline
the theoretical framework that are associated with it. Despite the end of the long
civil war and the glimmer of peace, post-Cold War and political parties´ ideologies
have deeply dived the country up to now. The MPLA government has used brutality
against the opposition and incited physical and symbolic violence against the
Bakongo and Ovimbundu ethnic groups. Indeed, the signing of the ceasefire in 2002
after the death of Jonas Savimbi did not bring true reconciliation in Angola. Political
motivated crimes, the use of excessive force and brutality, kidnapping, mass killing
and human rights abuse are common in Angola. Hence, the following guiding
question arises: How can structural violence be fought in Angola? The theoretical
research was based on Bourdieu's concepts of symbolic violence. Qualitative,
bibliographic, documentary and empirical studies, with the collection of secondary
data were carried out. The results can be fundamental in the search for solutions to
promote reconciliation, tolerance and social cohesion through the peaceful resolution
of conflicts for the progress of Angola and the humanity as well.
Keywords: Structural violence. Physical and symbolic violence. Human rights
abuse in Angola.

Violência Estrutural em Angola

Resumo
Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar a violência estrutural em curso em Angola e
delinear o quadro teórico que lhe está associado. Apesar do fim da longa guerra civil
e do vislumbre da paz, as ideologias do pós-Guerra Fria e dos partidos políticos
mergulharam profundamente o país até agora. O governo do MPLA tem praticado a
brutalidade contra a oposição e incitado a violência física e simbólica contra as etnias
Bakongo e Ovimbundu. De fato, a assinatura do cessar-fogo em 2002, após a morte
de Jonas Savimbi, não trouxe uma verdadeira reconciliação em Angola. Crimes de
motivação política, uso excessivo de força e brutalidade, sequestro, assassinato em
massa e abuso dos direitos humanos são comuns em Angola. Assim, surge a seguinte
questão norteadora: Como combater a violência estrutural em Angola? A pesquisa
teórica baseou-se nos conceitos de violência simbólica, de Bourdieu. Foram realizados
estudos qualitativos, bibliográficos, documentais e empíricos, com coleta de dados
secundários. Os resultados podem ser fundamentais na procura de soluções que
promovam a reconciliação, a tolerância e a coesão social através da resolução pacífica
de conflitos para o progresso de Angola e da humanidade.
Palavras-Chave: Violência estrutural. Violência física e simbólica. Violação dos
direitos humanos em Angola

* Mestre em Ciências Sociais stricto sensu pela Universidade Federal de

Uberlândia, [email protected]

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S
tructural violence manifests itself in situations where “human beings
are being influenced so that their actual somatic and mental
realizations are below their potential realizations” (GALTUNG, 2009,
p. 80). Chroback (2022) argues that:

Structural violence can manifest in three ways: (1) as social injustice

in the absence of any acts of violence in the narrow sense (for
example, lack of access to the education system), (2) as an act of
direct violence caused by an unjust social or institutional system
(brutality of prison- ers, suicide) and (3) as a constant threat,
inscribed somehow in the social system, of launching a reaction
based on violence (docility of the discriminated minority to unjust
law because of fear of possible reprisals). (CHROBACK, 2022, p.
175)

Based on the aforementioned authors, it is possible to state that

structural violence is intrinsically linked to social injustice and the violation
of social, fundamental and human rights. “Therefore, structural violence can
be understood broadly as the intentional or unintentional violation or
limitation of the rights of individuals or groups resulting from systemic
conditions. These conditions might occur within institutional, cultural, and
social systems” (CHROBACK, 2022, p. 175). It is known that Angola was the
bastion of the cold war in Africa, where the United States of America (USA)
and the former Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) were battling
for the control of the territory and aiming to gain geopolitical and economic
interests.
Whereas, few is known about the ideological consequences left by the
two belligerents. Soon after the independence of Angola in 1975, the civil war
started between, on one hand, the government led by the MPLA (Popular
Movement for the Liberation of Angola), and on the other, the UNITA (Union
for the Total Independence of Angola) and the FNLA (National Front for the
Liberation of Angola). In fact, the MPLA was supported by the USSR and
both UNITA and FNLA were Americans allies. In addition, it is important to
underline that the three Angolan main political parties were created on basis

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of ethnic groups. In fact, the FNLA is dominated by the “Bakongo” ethnic

group in the northern part of Angola; the MPLA by the “Kimbundu” ethnic
group in the central part, and the UNITA by the “Ovimbundu” ethnic group
in the southern part. After the failed independence process, the MPLA took
power by force and proclaimed the independence, while on the ground troops
and the population from the northern and southern Angola, belonging,
respectively to FNLA and UNITA, were chased, killed and massacred.
The practice of physical and symbolic violence has been inculcated
into the collective consciousness of the ruling class made up of the MPLA
members in order to create ethnic hatred and eliminate opposition members.
As a result, the inculcation of violence in social and mental structures has
become structural violence up to now. Obviously, as highlited ahead, the
Angolan State1, governed by MPLA, forged and inculcated ideological and
political lies in the Angolan collective consciousness, forging and instigating
ethnic violence and slurs. One clear exemple is since 1975 Angolan refugees
from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ex-Zaïre are seen,
considered and called “Zairenses, Langa, Come pessoas” or “Zaireans, Langa”
(refering to the DRC orchestra Zaiko Langa Langa) and “come pessoas” which
means the Angolan refugees from the DR Congo are cannibals.
On the other hand, Angolan people from the southern part, mostly
belonging to UNITA are called “domestic workers, stupid people of Angola”
while the reality is different. Due to this social perception by the ruling party
members, serious atrocities and human rights violations have been
committed in Angola during and after the war. In fact, the Angola society still
suffer from strife and discord.. As a result, the signing of the ceasefire in 2002
did not bring true reconciliation in Angola. The problematic of the research is
the growing violation of human rights against the opposition members. Thus,
the object of study is the structural violence in Angola which is expressed
through the following guiding question: How can structural violence be fought
in Angola? The expected results can be fundamental in the search for
solutions to promote reconciliation, tolerance and social cohesion through the

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 43

peaceful resolution of conflicts for the progress of Angola and the humanity
as well.

Theoretical-methodological framework
Due to its qualitative2 nature of the research, it was necessary to
adopt the constructivist structuralism paradigm of the French sociologist
Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) and the interpretivist epistemology. By
structuralism, Bourdieu (2004) points out that in different social fields, there
are objective mechanisms and structures of the dominant classes that
inculcate the vision of the world to the dominated classes, independent on
their will and consciousness. Pierre Bourdieu understands that it is due to
the individual genesis of patterns of perception, thought and action. These
schemes certainly correspond to the social structures he calls “fields” or social
classes.
However, on the individual scale, he calls them habitus: The
incorporation of objective structures in each social agent. Faced with this
critical observation, the author considers the dominated social agents are
impotent and incapable of changing the order that dominates them in
different social fields. Even more, Bourdieu (2004) recognizes that the
cultural traits embedded in the depths of our individualities are old and
immutable, that is, there is an arbitrary reproduction of practices,
dispositions, beliefs, representations, images, social status and more.
Hence, based on this analysis, Pierre Bourdieu creates his paradigm
"Constructivist Structuralism", that is, in the author's speech, individuals are
born determined (social subjects) and are built to become (social agents), from
objective and arbitrary structures of the dominant ruling class that inculcates
into social and mental structures the habitus which legitimize symbolic
violence and the domination of the dominated social agents, groups or
categories through mechanical accords done by the dominated by accepting
the inculcation of the cultural arbitrariness of the dominants. In relation the

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article, this kind of paradigm required an interpretativist epistemology in

order to nderstand our the ruling party, the MPLA has been dominating the
opposition parties through the inculcation of objective and arbitrary
mechanisms, structures and strategies since the independence of Angola.

Type of research and data collection techniques

Qualitative, bibliographical and documentary research were done,

with secondary data collection in order to describe the perception, feelings
and opinions of the victims of structural violence who, of course, constituted
the sampling of the research from the secondary datasets. However, “the
strictest objectivity passes necessarily by the most intrepid subjectivity”
(ZONABEND, 1985, p. 37). Specifically, the author of this article is one of the
victim and an eye-witness of the structural violence and his experience
enriched the research from an empirical point of view. Regarding the
objectives, the research was descriptive and explanatory, allowing to
investigate in the literature the various types of scientific research and their
set of procedures based on a logical reasoning on the object of study. Finally
about the data collection techniques, books, articles, theses, dissertations,
newspapers, websites, political magazines and jornals online were consulted.

Treatment, data analysis and presentation of results

The empirical (observation and secondary data collection) and

theoretical research permitted the choice of the right database by
highlighting keywords, filtering the results with the discursive analysis,
exploring the key words and saving any important notes. And, the content
analysis was based on the thematic. Finally, it was considered the ways in
which the information were collected; theoretical and empirical datasets were
analysed dialogically before being interpreted and then, the presentation and
explanation of the results were done.

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Ethnic groups based on political parties emergency

As it was already underlinded, one of the causes of civil war, genocide,

atrocities and human right violations in Africa is the fact that most of the
political parties were created on ethnicity bases. In his thesis “The Origins of
the Angolan Civil War“ Guimarães (1992) says:

These major ethno-linguistic groups in Angola are generally seen to

be the main streams from which emerged the nationalist
movements. Marcum's important work on the Angolan movements
constructed their political constituency and historical significance
from their ethno-linguistic origins.11 In this approach, the MPLA
was seen as primarily a Luanda-Mbundu movement in terms of its
ethnic constitution, and as having established links with historical
Mbundu resistance against colonialism. Similarly, UPA, and later
the FNLA, established itself around the modern political issues of
the Kongo kingdom. While UNITA was seen, first and foremost, as
representing the interests of the Ovimbundu and the Lunda-
Chokwe. But while they are undoubtedly significant in tracing the
origins of each movement, the ethno-linguistic foundations of each
movement need not be seen as having been overbearing in the
political conflict that emerged. (GUIMARAES, 1992, p. 152-153)

On this perspective, the civil war in Angola, influenced by the

superpowers became ethnic goups war between Kimbundu (MPLA) and the
opposition Bakongo (FNLA) and UNITA (Ovimbundu) has been caused by the
ethnic hatred incitation of the governing party since the eve of the
independence of Angola.

Angola is one of Africa’s largest oil-producing countries located on

the western coast of Southern Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic
Ocean to the west, Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic
of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo to the north, and Zambia
to the east. It has a total surface area of 1,246,700 sq. km and a
population of over 30 million people. Its ethnic composition is as
follows, Ovimbundu 37%, Kimbundu 25%, Bakongo 13%, Mestiço
(mixed European and native African) 2%, European 1%, and others
22%viii . Due to its colonial history, Portuguese is the official
language (spoken by 71.2%), but it also has several other ethnic
languages, Umbundu (23%), Kikongo (8.2%), Kimbundu (7.8%),
Chokwe (2.1%), Luvale (1%), and other (3.6%). (MIGRANTS
REFUGEES, 2022, p. 1)

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The concept of a political party in africa is intrinsically linked to

ethnicities. Soon after the separation of the African continent by the
European colonialists, with no African present at the Berlin conference in
1878, tribes, ethnicities and clans were mixed without regard to pre-colonial
geopolitical organization. However, the mixture and coexistence of different
tribes, ethnicities and clans have created internal wars for territorial,
political-traditional and economic dominance. Consequently, political parties
influenced by the geopolitical format and pre-colonial governance were
created on the basis of ethnicities. In clear terms, members of the Bakongo
ethnic group, for example, could not accept being led by a president of the
Ovimbundu or Kimbundu ethnic group, and vice versa.

The impact of the Cold War in Angola

Indeed, Angola was the bastion of the Cold War between the United
States of America and the Soviet Union in Africa. The superpowers fought to
control territories for geopolitical and economic control strategies. Of course,
Schmidth (2013) argues that different nations and political forces within
Africa had their own interests, which led them to seek international alliances
and sometimes invite external intervention against domestic enemies.
Foreign Intervention in Africa during the Cold War was a reflection of
polarization of the super powers The USA and the former USSR. However,
after the Cold War, African countries were abandoned and civil wars spread
in the continent, such as in Zaïre (DR Congo), Mozambique, Nigeria and
Angola.
Undoubtedly, the Angolan civil war was influenced by the Cold War
and caused the ethnic hatred. As in many other african countries, political
parties emerged from social groups and categories based on tribes, clans and
ethnicities. This kind of political parties’ formation has contributed to the
collapse of many countries and is one of the causes of national and cross
border structural violence, war and genocide between neighboring countries

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and ethnic groups. One clear example is the Rwanda's genocide between the
Hutu and Tutsi. In the same perspective, James (2017) considers that:

[…] agreed, based on the terms of the Alvor Agreement, to a

tripartite government for the fledging nation. The liberation groups
massed in Luanda, the capital, but […] ideological, and ethnic
conflicts quickly arose. The MPLA, with the Soviet and Cuban
assistance, drove FNLA and UNITA from the Capital and declared
the People´s Republic of Angola on November 11, 1975 […] the
Angolan civil war was the product of personal jealousy, contrasting
ideologies, and ethnic animosities. Fifteen years later, despite the
glimmer of peace signed in Lusaka, the causative elements remain
unchanged. […] the three major Angolan liberation groups depended
on one of the leading ethnic groups for supporters and, during the
liberation struggle, as a solid geographical base of support. (JAMES,
2017, p. 7, 9, 42)

On the other hand, Schmidth (2013, p. 8) still argues that the fourth
proposition suggests that during the period under consideration, foreign
political and military intervention in Africa often did more harm than good.
Actually, the presence of foreign troops, fighting for economic, ideological,
geopolitical and military interests has impacted enormously Angola, after the
failed independence, when the MPLA took power by military force and incited
ethnic hatred among the populations. Undoubtedly, the MPLA took power by
force and desrepecting the Alvor Agreement by committing serious human
rights violations with murder, ethnic hatred and massacre of the Bakongo
and Ovimbundu populations.
Regardless of that, it is important to underline that the super power
countries USA and the former USSR used Angola as a Cold War battlle
ground, as stated by Guimarães, in his thisis “The Origins of the Angolan
Civil War International Politics and Domestic Political Conflict 1961-1976”
defended at the London School of Economics and Political Science, at the
University of London in 1992.

The cold war was very much the context of the Angolan civil war, as
it is for this study. The ideological and political competition between
East and West was one of.the battlefields on 11 which the Angolan
adversaries sought to fight each other. The post-war bipolar
international system formed the background to other levels of
conflict which also played a part in the Angolan civil war. [...] The

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Angolan civil war in the history of the cold war is related to the end
of detente and the beginning of a major Soviet profile in Africa. In
this way, the Angolan civil war became another cold war incident.
What will be considered is the manner in which this competition was
imported into the internal Angolan conflict. (GUIMARÃES, 1992, p.
11, 12, 25)

Due to the impact of the USA and the former Soviet Union during the
Cold War in Angola, the post-Cold War era with the ongoing conflict and war
in Angola was characterized by and as the continuity of structures of the Cold
War, with violent dispute of power, capitalism (UNITA and FNLA) and
communism (MPLA) ideologies framed the conflict and the return to war after
the failed so called democratic elections in 1992. In conclusion, the events of
1975, after the failed “Alvor Agreement” on the independence were repeated
in 1992, after the failed first so called democratic elections. In sequence, all
the elections organized in Angola are characterized by serious human rights
abuse.

Physical and symbolic structural violence in Angola

Soon after the proclamation of the independence by the MPLA, a

genocide took place in Angola, where the “Bakongo” and “Ovimbundu” people,
respectively, from the north (FNLA) and the south (UNITA) were persecuted,
tortured, slaughtered and assassinated by the governing MPLA. The enmity
and ethnic hatred have been ancored in the social and mental structure of
Angola. Furthermore, in 1992, after the failed first general elections, the
same atrocities were committed. Millions of people, among them, the soldiers
and the opposition people were killed and and buried in mass graves. In
addition to that a genocide was commited against Bakongo ethnic group in
1975, after the failure of the Alvor accord of 15 january, 1975.
The resulting platform for power transfer, the Alvor Accord of 15
January 1975, further entrenched their historical divisions. The Alvor Accord
succeeded in setting the date for Angola’s independence – 11 November 1975
– and defined the parameters for achieving this target. It recognized the three

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liberation movements as “the sole legitimate representatives of the people of

Angola” and stipulated that they and representatives from the departing
colonial authorities form a transitional government to lead the colony to
independence.
But the Alvor Agreement failed disastrously because it was founded
upon the erroneous premise that the nationalist movements would be willing
to work cooperatively for the benefit of the soon-to-be independent state.
Instead, shortly after it was signed, the agreement and the transitional
government it brought into being were rendered irrelevant because MPLA
expelled FNLA and UNITA from Luanda as the country descended quickly
and irretrievably into civil war. True to form, the nationalist leaders, placed
personal and group interests – not national aspiration – at the top of their
political calculations as MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA engaged in a zero-sum
fratricidal struggle for supremacy, articulates Malaquias (2007). The failure
of the Alvor independence process was caused by MPLA when the party
armed troops and civilians to attack and kill millions of FNLA and UNITA
members, uncluding civilians. This was the first Angola´s genocide in 1975.
Soon after the first democratic elections in 1992, MPLA killed
politicians, soldiers and members of the opposition parties: Jeremias
Chitunda (Vice-President of UNITA), Salupeto Pena (UNITA representative
in the joint political-military commission), Alicerces Mago (UNITA Secretary-
General), Eliseu Chimbili (head of the political organization's administrative
services) among others politicians, militaries and civilians. In 1993, another
genocide was again commited against Bakongo (FNLA) and Ovimbundu
(UNITA) people in Luanda.

Military, national police and civilians massacre civilians, mostly

Bakongo, in several cities. Reports suggest this is a deliberate
attempt to destroy the Bakongo (ethnic cleansing) who are referred
to as "Zaireans" in Angola. The number of dead is thought to be in
the thousands (most reports suggest between 4000-6000 dead).
Some Ovimbundu were also killed. Following this massacre, known
as "Bloody Friday," (UNHCR-MINORITY AT RISK PROJECT,
2004, p. 1)

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Despite the so-called democratic elections, frauds, political

kidnapping, police and military excessive use of force and brutality, post-
elections killing is recurrent in Angola. For instance, during the 2022 general
elections, utters Muchena (2022), “Amnesty International´s Director for East
and Southern Africa: “Angola has been characterized by an increase in brutal
crackdowns on human rights in recent years, including repression of any form
of dissent”. Nowadays, despite the cease fire of 2002, the governmentality of
the MPLA has not changed. Ethnic slurs against the Bakongo and
Ovimbundu people, forged in 1975 during the Russian and Cuban
intervention are still being used in the Angolan society.
Slurs like: “Bakongo people are canibals”, they are not Angolans and
must go back to their country the DR Congo and the population from the south
are called: “stupid domestic workers”, Ovimbundu ethnic group. These facts
sutsain, on one hand, that the signing of the ceasefire in 2002, after the death
of Jonas Savimbi, did not bring true reconciliation in Angola and on the other,
the structural physical and symbolic violence in the country keeps growing.
Furthermore, the MPLA has ruled the country by force since the
independence as a ruling dominant party by imposing and insiting physical
and symbolic violence against the Bakongo and Ovimbundu ethnic groups.

When the Portuguese African empire fell and liberation was secured
in 1974, the three groups – Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola
(FNLA), the Movimento Popular pela Libertação de Angola (MPLA)
and UNITA- agreed, based on the terms of the Alvor Agreement, to
a tripartite government for the fledging nation. The liberation
groups massed in Luanda, the Capital, but personality, ideological,
and ethnic conflicts quickly arose. The MPLA, with the Soviet and
Cuban assistance, drove FNLA and UNITA from the Capital and
declared the People´s Republic of Angola on November 11, 1975.
(JAMES, 2017, p. 7)

The Capital Luanda was the natural base of support for MPLA, but
other factors also played a decisive role, the portuguese armed forces
continued to aid and abet MPLA activities, and MPLA had armed large
numbers of civilians with weapons obtained from the Soviet Union and the
Cuban troops. All non-MPLA Members belonging to Bakongo were chased,

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killed and victims of ethnic slurs. This practice goes along with Bourdieu´s
argument saying that symbolic violence serves to legitimize domination, it is
the principle of effectiveness of all obedience.
In fact, ethnic slurs have been anchored in the Angolan colective
consciousness and considered by many victims as legitimate and normal due
to the imposition of the ideology, political and social objective structures of
the members of the dominant political party the MPLA. Soon after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, a so called democratic election was organized in
Angola. Due to elections contest by the opposition led by the late Dr. Jonas
Malheiro Savimbi of UNITA, thousands of militaries, police officers,
politicians and civilians were assassinated by the MPLA; as stated by Jornal
de Angola:
The ‘massacre’, which both UNITA and the FNLA attribute to
government forces, arose in the wake of the peace phase that followed the
Bicesse agreements, signed by the parties on May 31, 1991, and would trigger
a new escalation of violence in Angola, with the extension of the civil war until
the death of Savimbi, in February 2002 - peace was officially declared on April
4, 2002 (JORNAL DE ANGOLA, 2019). Years later, on Friday January 23,
1993, the Angolan Government killed thousands of Bakongo people in Luanda
and the date is still remembered and called “Sexta feira sangreta” -the bloody
Friday-, says Quino (2016). In the same year, on January 5th, 1993, more
than 600 people (250 in Namibe and 360 in Tombwa) were killed by the MPLA
Government for political motivations, declares VOA Angola (2015). In short,
the mass killing of the opposition has started since the independence of the
country.
In addition to that, symbolic violence envolving ethnic slurs against
Bakongo and Ovimbundu population is common in Angola. The French
sociologist, still agues that, symbolic violence is [...] a soft, insensitive
violence, invisible to its own victims, which is exercised essentially through
the purely symbolic means of communication and knowledge, or, more
precisely, of ignorance, recognition or, ultimately, of feeling. This

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extraordinarily ordinary social relationship also offers a unique opportunity

to grasp the logic of domination, exercised in the name of a symbolic principle
known and recognized by both the dominant and the dominated, a language
(or a way of speaking), a way of life. (or a way of thinking, speaking, or acting).
On this perspective, MPLA has governed the country by ancoring fear among
the opposition, and the dominated population (Bakongo and Ovimbundu) has
developped along these years fear, submission and sentiment of inferiority in
relation to the dominant ethnic group (Kimbundu).
In other words, the collective consciousness, the social and the mental
structures of the Angolan society have been built upon the Cold War, the civil
war, the ethnic hatred behavior. This is what Bourdieu (1985) calls habitus -
a structure structured which serves a structuring structure. Besides, on the
eve of the independence in 1975, ethnic cleansing, physical and symbolic
violence were committed simultaneously by the Angolan government for
almost fifty years. Ethnic conflict represents one of the major destabilizing
forces in politics around the world. Linguistics, religious, cultural or racial
differences divide populations in most of world´s states, says Kurian (1990, p.
43-44). In Angola, after the first national elections in 1992 […] UNITA's
rejection of the results and its return to war provoked countermeasures:
waves of ‘ethnic cleansing' of Ovimbundu and Bakongo broke out in several
cities.
It is important to underline that while the MPLA government has
concentrated on remaining in power, the social, economic, cultural,
educational and health conditions of the population have been worsening.
According to the World Health Organization -WHO (2017), Angola is a
country vulnerable to outbreaks, like yellow fever, malaria, cholera, Zika;
registering events that overload the health services and compromise the life
and health of their citizens. Communicable diseases account for more than
50% of deaths recorded within the population. On the other hand, UNICEF
(2021) states that Angola is ranked 148 out of 189 countries in the Human
Development Index. The resulting impact on Angolan children’s health,

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development, and safety threatens the progress made in child survival and
sustainable development over the past several decades. It is putting Angolan
children’s lives at risk today and threatens future generations.
In addition to that, violence against girls and child marriage in Angola
continue to represent major child protection Country Office Annual Report
2021 Angola - 6810 Page 1 of 8 Page 1 of 8 concerns, with almost one in every
four girls between 15 and 18 years old having suffered physical or sexual
violence; almost one in every three girls are married (or in a union) before the
age of 18, and one in every ten before their 15th birthday (UNICEF, 2021). In
fact, it is possible to say that the leading party MPLA has influenced
negatively the social construction of Angola by dividing the country on basis
of former Cold War belligerents: The USA (capitalism) and the former USSR
(communism) and the ethnic groups division. Thus, ethnic hatred,
assassinations, kidnapping and politically motivated violence amongst the
population, mostly against women, have been part of the social construction
of the Angolan society.

Symbolic Violence, Habitus and Cultural Capital and

domination in Pierre Bourdieu
The concepts developped by Pierre Bourdieu are the kernel of his
theory of domination. Bourdieu and Passeron (1970) consider that symbolic
violence aims to perpetuate domination between social categories based on
relations of force and arbitrary power, or that is, through the imposition and
inculcation of a cultural arbitrary. Bourdieu (1992) argues that symbolic
violence is the form of power that manages to impose meanings as legitimate
and natural by hiding the relations of power, the cultural arbitrary and
domination that underlie them, linked to moral constraint. It is a form of
power that dispenses with physical constraint to impose practices or
representations. It allows to legitimize a social order and hides the social

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arbitrary order making it appear normal, natural, legitimate and as the only
possible social order.
Furthermore, symbolic violence is a gentle violence1imperceptible
and invisible even to its victims exerted for the most part through the purely
symbolic channels of communication and cognition (more precisely,
misrecognition), recognition, or even feeling (BOURDIEU, 2007, p. 1-2). The
author still argues that it is a particularity of domination that can happen if
only granted to the dominants through unconscious agreements of the
dominated or the victims of domination. It is “[…] as if, being the product of
an unconscious adjustment to the probabilities associated with an objective
structure of domination, the submissive dispositions [...] (BOURDIEU, 2007, p.
37).
The French sociologist still argues that: “[…] the foundation of symbolic
violence lies not in mystified consciousnesses that only need to be enlightened but in
dispositions attuned to the structure of domination of which they are the product,
the relation of complicity that the victims of symbolic domination grant to the
dominant can only be broken through a radical transformation of the social
conditions of production of the dispositions that lead the dominated to take the point
of view of the dominant on the dominant and on themselves. Symbolic violence is
exercised only through an act of knowledge and practical recognition which takes
place below the level of the consciousness and will and which gives all its
manifestations injunctions, suggestions, seduction, threats, reproaches, orders or
calls to order - their ‘hypnotic power’ (BOURDIEU, 2007, p. 41-42).
On the other hand, Landry (2006, p. 88) states that “Symbolic violence
generates lasting effects” While Bourdieu (2000) states that symbolic violence
serves to legitimize symbolic violence and domination, it is the principle of
effectiveness of all obedience. domination takes place through language or
signs based on the balance of power and seems natural and legitimate from
the inculcation of objective structures and the incorporation of these
structures in social agents. This process shapes and structures the culture of
both the dominant and the dominated. Therefore, within the concept of
symbolic violence, Bourdieu and Passeron (1970) and Bourdieu (2014)

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address the concepts and notions of (i) State; (ii) unconscious agreements and
legitimization of symbolic violence and domination; (iii) cultural capital; and
(iv) habitus.
Regarding the concept of State, Bourdieu (2014) says that “I made an
addition to the famous definition of Max Weber, who defined the state [as the]
'monopoly of legitimate violence', which I corrected by adding 'monopoly of
legitimate physical and symbolic violence', inasmuch as the monopoly of
symbolic violence is the condition for possession of the exercise of the
monopoly of physical violence itself (BOURDIEU, 2014, p. 3-4). By
considering the State as the monopoly of physical and symbolic violence,
Bourdieu shows how power works in both cases: physical and symbolic. The
perception of Bourdieu goes along with the Angolan State with the structural
violence against the opposition parties and members of the Bakongo and
Ovimbundu ethnic groups.
With regard to the unconscious agreements and the legitimization of
symbolic violence and domination made by the dominated, Bourdieu (2014)
says that: symbolic violence, which is exercised thanks to the perfect
unconsciousness of those on whom it exercises is a result of a coercion that
rest on unconscious agreements between objective structures and mental
structures, that compel the dominated to be accomplices of their own
domination. This is the magic of symbolic power when it operates in social
and mental structures and possibly alianate the dominated by accepting the
habitus of the dominant groups.
As for the cultural capital, Silva (1995, p. 124) considers that it “is
more than a class subculture; it is taken as a resource of power that equals
and stands out – in the double sense of separating and having a special
relevance”. Therefore, Bourdieu (1985) establishes a link between the cultural
capital and social reproduction insofar as the transmission of cultural capital
is a extremely efficient factor of reproduction of the social classes and the
establishment of the domination through social, cultural and political
arbitrary. In other words, the cultural arbitrary perpetuate the social and

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cultural reproduction, but also the domination of the opposition parties and
members in Angola.
About the concept of Habitus, Bourdieu (2004, p. 98) considers the
habitus “as a system of dispositions to practice, is an objective basis for
regular conduct, therefore, for the regularity of conduct […] is because the
habitus makes the agents who possess it behave in a different way. “[…] By
constructivism, I mean that there is, on the one hand, a social genesis of the
schemes of perception, thought and action that are constitutive of what I call
habitus […]. Therefore, the State is given the power and monopoly of
structuring and construction of habitus that are structuring structures of
society. In the context of this article, the habitus tructured by the MPLA serve
to pratice symbolic violence and perpetuate the domination.
Finally, to speak of domination or symbolic violence is to say that,
except in the case of a subversive revolt leading to inversion of the categories
of perception and appreciation, the dominated tend to adopt the dominant
point of view on themselves (BOURDIEU, 2007, p. 119). “Symbolic violence is
instituted through the adherence that the dominated cannot fail to grant to
the dominant (and therefore to the domination) […] being no more than the
embodied form of the relation of domination, cause that relation to appear as
natural (BOURDIEU, 2007, p. 35). This can be verified in Angola where most
of Bakongo and Ovimbundu populations tend to naturalize ethnic slurs and
legitimate the MPLA domination by fear of retaliation.

Conclusion

The MPLA, after gaining independence by military force with the

foreign military (Cuba, URSS, Congo Brazzaville, Namibia etc.) intervention
in Angola, has governed the country by dividing the population and inciting
structural violence. The ruling party governmentality had fueled the three
decades civil war and has taught ethnic hatred which has resulted to social
inequality based on ethnic groups. The three main political parties and its

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 57

members live like enemies and not opponents; this enmity is a peculiarity of
the former belligerents: The USA and the former USSR. Therefore, structural
violence in Angola is expressed on one hand by the imposition of rules, laws
and social structures in favor of the governing or ruling party (MPLA)and its
members, and on the other hand, by the use of physical force, brutality and
symbolic violence against the opposition.
Since the independence of Angola, the country has faced an
unprecedented crackdown on human rights, including political motivated
killings, social injustice, social discrimination and humiliation based on origin
and ethnicities, arbitrary arrests on daily basis done by the ruling party
(MPLA). Generally, the Bakongo and Ovimbundu ethnic groups are the
victims. However, the United Nations and all the Human Rights
International organizations should consider this human rights violation and
prevent further consequences in Angola. But also, the Angolan governing
party has the responsibility to create a platform of debate in order to reconcile
and reconstruct the country by organizing, for example, the ‘national
Conference”.
All in all, the analysis of the secondary data on the basis of the
bibliographic contents indicates that the MPLA government practice the
structural violence against members of the opposition. In other words,
physical and ethnic slurs are common and there is no social cohesion in
Angola, despite the signing of peace agreement soon after the death of the
late warlord Dr. Jonas Malheiro Savimbi. The results suggest that a ‘National
Conference’ or a ‘Truth and Reconciliation Committee’ be organized in Angola,
in the light of South Africa in order to bring to light all the atrocities and
search for peaceful solutions and reconcile the Angolan populations for the
progress not only of their country but for the progress of the humanity as well.

Joel Nemona Mendes é Assistente Social CRESS, 6ª Região/Uberlândia.

Mestre em Ciências Sociais stricto sensu pela Universidade Federal de
Uberlândia (UFU) e Pós graduado em Docência para Ensino Superior Lato

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 58

sensu pela Universidade Paulista (UNIP). Graduado em Serviço Social pela

Universidade Paulista (UNIP), com experiência e ênfase em Políticas
Públicas Sociais, relações inter-raciais, questões de discriminação,
preconceitos, estereótipo e dominação (estrutural, simbólica, social).
Graduado em Teologia pelo Seminário Teológico Batista Goiano (STBG),
com ênfase na missiologia e ministério pastoral.
Contato: [email protected]

Artigo recebido em: 18/02/2022

Aprovado em: 17/01/2023

Como citar este texto: MENDES. Joel Nemona. Structural Violence in Angola.
Perspectivas Sociais, Pelotas, vol. 09, nº 01, p. 40-61, 2023.

Perspectivas Sociais, Pelotas, vol. 09, nº 01, p. 40-61, 2023.

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Notas
1 The state has the ability to impose in a universal fashion, on the scale of a certain territorial
foundation, principles of vision and division, symbolic forms, principles of classification, what I often
call a nomos - taking up the etymology proposed by Benveniste, in which nomos comes from nemo,
‘share’, ‘divide’, ‘partition’, by a kind of diakrisis, as the Greeks said, meaning ‘original division1.
(BOURDIEU, 2014, p. 166).
2 The strength of qualitative research is its ability to provide complex textual descriptions of how

people experience a given research issue. It provides information about the “human” side of an issue
– that is, the often-contradictory behaviors, beliefs, opinions, emotions, and relationships of
individuals. Qualitative methods are also effective in identifying intangible factors, such as social
norms, socioeconomic status, gender roles, ethnicity, and religion, whose role in the research issue
may not be readily apparent. (MACK Et al., p. 1-2)

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