ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the political consequences of being Ovimbundu in the immediate post-war period. It unpacks the role of ethnicity, one of several identity elements considered to have an impact on social and political integration, social mobility, and access to state resources. The problems of post-war integration are explored through negative stereotypes grounded on ethnic and regional identities, in order to conceptualise three epithets popularly used to connote the Ovimbundu as the “other”: the “Bailundo”, the “Sulano”, and the “Kwacha”. These show that dynamics of generating alterity in relation to the Ovimbundu still exist, and may serve to limit their social mobility. In a country where the regime built a vertical hierarchy of power with the elites at the top and the urban poor and the rural populations at the bottom, the subtleties of political power in post-war Angola are shown to limit the opportunities of Ovimbundu people while adding to their sense of ethno-regional marginalisation.
