For a Critique of Transatlantic Mestiza Territoriality: Challenging the Angolan-Cuban Revolutionary Community

Abstract

This essay presents the transatlantic confluence of two hegemonic cultural traditions; the ideology of mestizaje and lusotropicalismo in the discourses of the Angolan and Cuban socialist regimes. The shared political utopia during the Angolan Civil War envisioned a South-South community, racially homogeneous. In the last part of the essay I review the works Dulces guerreros cubanos (1999) by Norberto Fuentes, Desconfiemos de los amaneceres apacibles (2011) by Emilio Comas Paret, Geração da Utopía (1992) by Pepetela, and Estação das Chuvas (1996) by José Eduardo Agualusa, in order to demonstrate socio-racial conflicts embedded in the leftist armed struggle. These narratives challenge the homogeneity of official discourses about identity that sustained the transatlantic mestiza territoriality. In doing so, they note a historical continuity of inequality and authoritarianism between colonial and postcolonial, between pre-national and revolutionary nation.