Creating extractive provinces

Abstract

Historical accounts have so far overlooked the impact of the extractive sector in Angola’s territorial organization. This is particularly visible in the cases of diamond-rich Lunda and oil-rich Cabinda. A regrettable lacuna that this paper partially seeks to fill with an account of the role of the diamond sector in the creation of Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul provinces. It posits that an analysis that places the extractive sector at its centre represents an important contribution to our understanding of the territorial formation of colonial and postcolonial Angola and African states more generally.