Coffee Frontier in Proto-Colonial and Colonial Angola

Coffee plantations were unquestionably one of the defining features Angola’s colonial landscape. From 1870s to independence, coffee was main export this former Portuguese colony, barring a couple intervals during which rubber and diamonds held first place. During time, Angola ranked consistently among world’s largest robusta producers, it might still have been today had country’s civil war (1975-2002) not made commercial farming all but impossible. In Angolan popular memory, occupies an ambivalent position: for some people brings up memories forced labor, while others recollect stories successful family farms. My research project, “Coffee Colonialism in Angola, 1820-1960,” aims reconstruct multiple, intertwined realities behind these contrasting memories. Focusing on northern where smallholding estate always coexisted, investigates how African farmers, settlers, foreign traders, global consumers shaped oldest frontiers sub-Saharan Africa. doing so, reflects question what extent “colonialism” is proper lens through study history cultivation Angola.