Refugees and migrants at contemporary Luanda

Abstract

This paper addresses the discussion on refugees and migrations to depict population displacements in Angola. We examine Luanda, considered the most expensive capital of the world. The city was designed by the Portuguese conquerors to be a summer resort town and have a maximum of 500,000 inhabitants. However it has more than six million people today. Most are internal migrants from rural areas, refugees from the independence and civil wars, speakers of six major native languages and more than thirty language variants originating from the national territory. In this sense, the Portuguese language also becomes a challenge and an achievement for refugees who do not master the language, but need it in Luanda. The capital has also received African foreigners of French and English languages, such as the Namibians, Congolese, Zambians, Senegalese, and from other regions of the world, especially Brazilians, Portuguese, Cubans and Chinese.