Fear and Fainting in Luanda: Paranoid Politics and the Problem of Interpretative Authority in Angola

This article unpacks the events and reactions surrounding a mysterious ‘fainting wave’ that sweptthrough Angolan middle and high schools from early 2011 on. By attending to the historicity andmateriality of the fainting wave, the article investigates why the strong conviction took root of a darkpolitical intentionality behind this inexplicable phenomenon, and why this conspiratorial interpretationprevailed over alternative explanations of a more psychological or spiritual bent. Through this, thearticle contributes to disaggregating the seemingly monolithic, neo-authoritarian Angolan state. Moreimportantly, it points to the limitations of analyses pivoting on an idea of opposing rationalities, whileat the same time demonstrating how historically attuned, deep ethnography can help us overcome thelimits of more ‘scientistic’ psychological explanations.