Performance Art in Angola

Angola.

One of the important aspects of the postcolonial contemporary performance is its natural relationship to religious worship. This is because during the 1970s traditional religion and worship was a dominant practice in rural areas amongst such tribes as the Chokwe, Mumuila, Herero, Mbundu, Bakongo, Ngangela and Ovimbundu. In Luanda, people migrated from all parts of the country seeking a better life and social conditions. The migrants carried with them their customs, including traditional practices of bodily performance in worship, ritual and dance, manifested in festivals, funerals and carnival celebrations. I am using the term tribes in a more general and imperialistic way of looking at the cultures and ethnicities in Angola. This term carries weight and it gives an inaccurate position of the Angolan people and cultural tradition, because they have to define their own reality, based on their way of life in relation to the natural environment and the universe.  -Chikukwango Cuxima-Zwa