Working the System by Jon Schubert

Author:Jon Schubert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cornell University Press

The Basis of Cunhas

More often than not, cunhas have a material foundation that harks back to the extended family networks that make up the upper echelons of Luandan society. Indeed, my informants often told me stories that implied very detailed and intimate knowledge of the family ties of the ruling elite. I retraced the formation of Luanda’s creole elites in chapter 3 when talking about imaginaries and formations of race and class, but there is also a very concrete aspect of functioning family networks to it.25 Depending on which informant (or author) one consults, there are four big families or thirteen, or just one assemblage of constant intermarriage. Indeed, “the powerful Angolan families claim to have ancestors among or to be related to the creole society that flourished in the late nineteenth century” (Tomás 2012, 272). The importance of being from the right branch of a family, with the privileges this entails, is expressed in statements such as “He/She is of the da Silvas” (é dos da Silva) to denote a difference from other people who might have the name da Silva (267). Leila Lopes, the Angolan Miss Universe mentioned in chapter 3, is in fact of the Vieira Lopes from Benguela. And according to Pepetela, “the President of the Republic is a Van-Dúnem. He does not use the name but he is. He’s of the family” (quoted in Henighan 2006, 137). Whether the president is really a Van-Dúnem or not, people certainly perceive the influence of powerful family networks strongly and see these networks as a structuring principle of society (Tomás 2012, 267). They also perceive these families as being a foreign elite, as I discussed in chapter 3. Manuel Vieira, a journalist at Rádio Ecclésia, explained to me in greater detail how these families work:

There are traditional families here. The [here using the plural os] Van-Dúnem and the Dias dos Santos, the Pinto de Andrade, and the Vieira Dias. They have bonds of consanguinity which are very strong—we are talking about African families here. These are proper clans, and the information flows among them. I will give you an example. My name is Manuel Pedro Vieira, but I have nothing to do with these Vieira Dias. Now I was invited to a dinner—as a journalist—when a certain Senhor Vieira Dias appears, a person very high up, with lots of money. He comes up to me and says, “Who is your father? You seem to be one of my nephews.… We could meet and talk in my office, you could be directing my marketing area.” Not for technical competence, mind you, just for the name! I declined politely and left.

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