In short, these case studies show that in colonial and post-colonial Luanda the modern tend to also be the foreigner. Admittedly, these are just a small sample and should not be used as representative of Luanda as a whole, yet they are still relevant as they point out that Luanda’s constructed future was, and still is, being built by the ‘other.’ Moreover, the palace, the market, and the apartment buildings exemplify how the relationship between Luandans and the ‘alien’ went from praise and pride to ambivalence, to borderline xenophobia. Thus, reflecting the complexities of Angola’s colonial and post-colonial history. Partha Chatterjee links colonialism to modernity, asserting that “the same historical process that has taught us the value of modernity has also made us the victims of modernity." With this in mind, I suggest that perhaps a genuinely independent future will only be a possibility if Angolans critically reject modernity, putting the new aside and exploring their old.

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