A burgeoning literature is looking into the processes and actors involved in the adoption and emulation of best practices and models of urban policy and development in aspiring world-class cities across the globe. It shows how over the past decades cities have become increasingly entrepreneurial, outward-looking and plugged into transnational networks of urban policymaking. This has resulted in the fast-paced circulation of policies, often with the aim of attracting investment and making cities more competitive (McCann and Ward, 2011; Peck and Theodore, 2015). In this article we consider the case of the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda, in the capital of Angola, to shed light on the local dynamics of global urban policymaking in Africa.1 The first phase of this redevelopment was inaugurated in 2012, ten years after the end of nearly three decades of civil war. Since its inauguration, the redeveloped waterfront has become the postcard image of the government’s efforts to transform Luanda from a war-torn and slum-ridden town into a ‘livable’, ‘beautiful’ and ‘international’ ‘world-class capital city’ (GoA, 2015). The second phase of the project, launched in 2013, includes office and residential developments and presents the Bay of Luanda as ‘the mirror of the modern economy’ and an attractive investment destination (Baía de Luanda, 2013).2 With its focus on leisure, tourism and global capital, the redevelopment of the Bay of Luanda echoes the rhetoric, policies and projects underpinning the adoption and promotion of global urban policies by local authorities across the world. It is also in line with an emerging drive across the African continent towards ‘world-class cityness’ through the planning and implementation of mega urban development projects, ranging from large-scale urban renewal to the construction of new towns in the image of cities such as Dubai, Shanghai and Singapore (Watson, 2014). Yet a deeper interrogation of the case of Luanda reveals that the redevelopment forms part of a predominantly inward-looking project driven by the highest echelons of the national government and ruling party. While these actors mimic and appropriate the language and tools of entrepreneurial cities, their aim is not necessarily to make the city more internationally competitive but to achieve domestic political legitimacy and stability.