Candido offers a critical revision of the history of African societies’ relationship to land use and rights. In the process, she delivers an insightful and fascinating narrative about the contested process of wealth accumulation underpinning the colonial dynamics of dispossession. Candido demonstrates her impressive command of the historiographies of pre-colonial and colonial Africa and the Portuguese Atlantic, as well as her deep familiarity and skillful treatment of Angolan archival sources. The richness of the book, and Candido’s generous and detailed sharing of her archival findings, make this an essential read for scholars of Africa and the Portuguese Atlantic. Candido’s analysis of the integral role of nineteenth-century Western liberalism in the continued enslavement, displacement, and impoverishment of African peoples—through its legal, judicial, and archival promotion of individual property rights—also makes this a crucial work of global economic and political history.
The book traces the history of West Central African land regimes...