BAKONGO CUSTOM: KINSHIP, FAMILY, AND SUCCESSION RELATIONS IN THE TENSION BETWEEN MATRILINEAL AND PATRILINEAL SYSTEMS IN LUANDA

Abstract

The article analyzes the Bakongo attire in Luanda, focusing on kinship, family, and succession relations, highlighting the tension between matrilineal principles and patrilineal models promoted by the Angolan state. Drawing on classics of kinship anthropology and the sociology of the state and law, it discusses how matrilineal affiliation structures clan belonging, the authority of maternal relatives, and the transmission of property, while at the same time the Angolan legal system, inherited from colonial frameworks, reinforces an official image of the patrilineal nuclear family, materialized in family laws, succession norms, and civil registry practices. In urban contexts such as Luanda, Bakongo families simultaneously negotiate with traditional authorities, traditions, courts, and state bureaucracies, developing strategies to move between attire and positive law in matters such as marriage, child custody, inheritance, and land use. Methodologically, it is a bibliographic, qualitative, and exploratory research that articulates debates on lineage and affiliation, state production of hegemonic family models, and legal pluralism. The article seeks to build a conceptual basis for future empirical investigations, indicating that the conflictual coexistence between Bakongo matrilineality and state patrilineality produces reconfigurations in kinship and family forms in contemporary Angola.