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The Diamond Company of Angola (Diamang) shaped the regional environments of North-eastern Angola (1917–1975) with its industrial mining and urbanization process. The contract with the state made it responsible for the Lunda region, including health and public works. Biomedical and hygienic considerations extended to spatial occupation, urban planning, design, and construction. Its modernist ‘dream’ was to build a healthy society, but this was not without its downfall. Its occupational and development practices inadvertently contributed to the spread of a then-unknown virus: HIV-1. By the late 1980s, Dundo, the old administrative town, had the highest HIV-1 prevalence in Angola. The chapter examines how industrial development, labor policies, and medical practices created conditions for the virus’s spread. The narrative moves beyond traditional explanations of epidemics to reveal how colonial practices unintentionally facilitated the epidemic. By combining phylogenetic data, historical analysis, and social anthropology, this study rethinks the standard view of early viral spread linked to urbanization, providing a nuanced understanding of the relationship between colonial modernism and epidemic processes.

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Dreams of a Hygienic Healthy Society on the Colonial Mining Angola—Urbanization and Health Services of Diamang, 1910s–1970s

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  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Jorge Varanda

摘要

The Diamond Company of Angola (Diamang) shaped the regional environments of North-eastern Angola (1917–1975) with its industrial mining and urbanization process. The contract with the state made it responsible for the Lunda region, including health and public works. Biomedical and hygienic considerations extended to spatial occupation, urban planning, design, and construction. Its modernist ‘dream’ was to build a healthy society, but this was not without its downfall. Its occupational and development practices inadvertently contributed to the spread of a then-unknown virus: HIV-1. By the late 1980s, Dundo, the old administrative town, had the highest HIV-1 prevalence in Angola. The chapter examines how industrial development, labor policies, and medical practices created conditions for the virus’s spread. The narrative moves beyond traditional explanations of epidemics to reveal how colonial practices unintentionally facilitated the epidemic. By combining phylogenetic data, historical analysis, and social anthropology, this study rethinks the standard view of early viral spread linked to urbanization, providing a nuanced understanding of the relationship between colonial modernism and epidemic processes.