Building Kimbundu: Language community reconsidered in West Central Africa, c. 1500--1750

This project aims to contribute to a social history of the people who lived in the area of the present day province of Malanje, Angola from the beginning of the sixteenth century, through the early progression of Portuguese authority in Angola and into the eighteenth century. The research integrates the examination of Kimbundu in its capacity as repository for historical evidence of social changes with documentary sources pertaining to the demographic and economic history of Angola. As the presumed geographic focal point for the contemporary western Akwaluanda dialect of Kimbundu, Luanda was in its origins a multi-lingual community reflecting the social consequences of changing regional economics, demographics and political power. The eastern Ambakista dialect developed around the area of Malanje, somewhat more removed from the metropole and the Atlantic Ocean dynamics, yet inextricably linked to innovations in the conceptualization and practice of power. The dissertation will document the history of the contemporary vernaculars of Kimbundu in their linguistic origins and influences, and examine them as contrasting contributions to the changing socioeconomics of Angola before the effective establishment of Portuguese colonial authority.;In methodology this project challenges the common practice of depicting the historical African landscape as contiguous distinct language communities, and puts forth a model for delineating historical community by the blurred and often erratic boundaries of effective communication. Innovative technological tools have been developed for an unprecedented analysis of the historical relationship between language, demography and economics in order to incorporate the significance of multi-lingualisms in social history. With the further addition of Geographic Information Systems in the analysis, aspatial interpretations of historical meaning derived from evidence of language change are weighed against the physical backdrop. The result is an understanding of language as historical power practiced in space.