Ecological conditions of social change in the central highlands of Angola

Abstract

This study is concerned with the Ovimbundu peasants (88% of the inhabitants of the district). During the last sixty years these people have developed an agricultural socioeconomic culture in contrast to the predominantly trading culture prevailing before. Consequently, the evolution and present conditions of this ethnic group are now strongly linked to the state of the agricultural systems. Analyzing recent social change among the rural Ovimbundu of Huambo in terms of ecosystem theory, this study shows how the development of a crash crop economy in the Central Highlands of Angola entailed the usual consequences, i.e. a decrease in the diversity of the rural ecosystem, which in turn provokes a decrease in social diversity, or in other words social regression and decay. Ref., figures, map.