I'm not born yesterday. I know that Kapuscinski played a deeper role in the MPLA than he would've liked to admit, and that much of his writing works as state propaganda. If you take his point of view with a grain of salt, you still have a memorable, fascinating look at the beginnings of the Angolan Civil War. Oddly enough, a good companion piece/rebuttal might be the Jack Abramoff produced Dolph Lundgren action film "Red Scorpion". A brilliant account of journalist and writer Ryszard Kapuscinski's journey into the heart of darkness of Angola 1975. At the end of colonial rule Angola was left to fend for itself and from the woodwork spread madness, hatred and violence. Civil war, state war, international war a bedlam of weapons, boy soldiers and death like pin ball machine scores. Kapuscinski travels where people are leaving, he arrives and lives in hotel rooms with no water, no room service, no cable. The pool is filled with bodies and his neighbours are waiting for just the right moment to get out. He pushes the extremes of his luck going deeper into the war than he should, yet he manages to come through physically unscathed but we are not given an update of his mental outcomes. A serious and devoted journalist who does everything in his power to get something out. Sadly like most of the horror feeding in who really givers a shit. This is the dichotomy of have and have nots. There is no way to reconcile the terror and madness of war, be it civil or global unless of course you are in it. And this is what I feel Kapuscinski desired. Great read.
As always, Kapuscinski writes with immediacy and vulnerability while providing a lot of context. As one of the only foreign journalists in Angola in the last days before independence, he travels to fronts that are less lines on a map than pockets of a few soldiers in a truck.Some of the most vivid descriptions are of the handful of people upon whom much depends; the octogenarian baker making daily bread at the front, the pilot who has no radio, no spare parts and no knowledge of who holds the airports he plans to land in daily; the engineer who keeps water flowing to the capital city under siege. Kapuscinski's fear, regret and hunger to report are palpable on every page.
—jmbats
This book, published in 2001, is about an uprising in Angola. Our author, a foreign correspondent for a Polish communist newspaper, takes us on his travels, to the front line and surrounding areas. Danger always seems imminent but Kapuscinski grounds us with wit and the mundane of daily life at a time when everything seems impossible. It's an incredible book and I'm looking forward to reading more by him.
—mesalter
I read it in Portuguese. It was really an amazing and strong emotional experience
—Nora
A must-read for everbody remotely interested in Angola.
—waths4523
