“Informal trading, identity and law: the case of Luanda’s zungueiras (2021)” by Vera Santana Luz & Áurea Bianca Vasconcelos André

Abstract: “Zungueiras is the term given that designates street vendor women in the Angolan informal market, who travel for miles in hoping of selling various products such as food, accessories, and clothing. The word zungueira derives from the term zunga from the Angolan national language kimbundu. Zunga means to circle, walkaround, rotate and in Luanda refers to informal vendors, particularly streethawkers. This practice of selling on the go is a product of social, political, and economic changes in the country, and it is unfortunately marginalized by public bodies. Police inspectors often pursue those people by force and violence to expel them from public areas, which often carries the death of those women. Based on bibliographic and documentary research methodology, we aim to analyse aspects of the zungueiras‘ informal trade in Luanda, given the State’s position, the rights of these women to the city and the cultural identity they carry. The results point at the need of reinforcing horizontal relationships that are less hierarchical or conditioned by the imperatives of hegemonic capital, which can be seen in analogous situations in the Global South. In the context of Global South, we understand this case study as a valid reference. The urban dynamics of survival, with ancestral socio-cultural roots and permeated by contradictions between precariousness and rights reveal the local knowledge and a resistance to the intentions of hegemonic alignment to globalization patterns conducted by the State.”

 

This article, written by Vera Santana Luz & Áurea Bianca Vasconcelos André, is available in English and in Open Access through V!RUS Journal, from USP – University of São Paulo.

ANO

2021

AUTORES

Vera Santana Luz & Áurea Bianca Vasconcelos André

EDITORES

USP