The syndrome of assimilated provincialism: education in Angola, from colonialism to colonialities

Using qualitative research, bibliographic research, and critical document analysis, this article analyzes the adversities that permeate Angolan society, which, having experienced unprecedented cultural repression carried out by the Portuguese colonial-fascist regime, currently faces the dilemma of colonialities that, directly or indirectly, influence the functioning of institutions that, once alien to the ethnic-cultural practices that characterize the Bantu way of being and doing in the world, lead to widespread sociocultural alienation. Unsurprisingly, one of the central institutions most affected by this phenomenon is academic and educational institutions, particularly in specific areas of the social sciences and humanities. Given their nature, it is these institutions that should be at the forefront of such an important and unavoidable task for a state that values itself and truly wants to be sovereign and independent: the “decolonization of minds and, consequently, of institutions”. The results indicate that, as it is a historically and socially constructed phenomenon that affects all spheres of society, it can be deciphered and combated only through a historically and socially oriented analysis based on a specific concept for the context in question, the Assimilated Provincialism Syndrome.