17

Angolan presidential power is often seen as the expression of a political oligarchy based on the accumulation of oil revenues. This vision comes from the time when Jose Eduardo dos Santos was living in his palace in Futungo de Belas. When independence came, the country was exhausted by war as well as—indeed, possibly more by—centuries of the most violent mercantile activity. In recent years, Angola has witnessed the emergence of a technocratic handling of economic rents, in tandem with finance-based capitalism. This development is best understood in terms of the remarkable capacity of Angola’s capital to adapt to various forms of extraversion. The challenge, now, for those in power, is as follows: when capital is re-injected into the country, to avoid clashes between key economic stakeholders, so that Angola’s reconstruction can be a matter of housing and roads, not a simulacrum, in time for the next elections.