The state of aid: citizenship and humanitarianism in Angola 2000-2002
Date
2009-02-03T11:21:47Z
Authors
Murphy, Colin
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Abstract
This paper considers the encounter between the concepts and norms of citizenship and
humanitarianism in Angola in the period 2000 to 2002. The thesis considers the context and
circumstances of citizenship in Angola, and the politics of humanitarianism in Angola, as
reflected in humanitarian discourse and in critiques of humanitarianism offered by key
informants. These are considered in the context of the humanitarian crisis during 2000, 2001 and early 2002 which, it is argued, was attributable primarily to the Government’s military
strategy pursued in the ultimately successful war against Jonas Savimbi’s UNITA movement.
These considerations illuminate the conceptual tension between humanitarianism and
citizenship. It is argued that this tension is revealing of the failure of the dominant
operational paradigm of humanitarian intervention, the “complex emergency”, and that an
understanding of this is instructive for attempts to foster citizenship in the wake of
humanitarian crisis and intervention.