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Angola, promises and lies
Angola's civil war has been the longest and bloodiest in Africa. What was once a proxy conflict between the Cold War superpowers has become an apparently endless ethnic conflict. While the political leaders struggle to control the country's immense reserves of diamonds and oil, ordinary Angolans have been caught in the crossfire of a quarter of a century of conflict. There have been many books written on Angola, either by South Africans or by authors who have favored and/or defended South Africa's involvement. Maier, through unbiased eyes, records perhaps the clearest view. In 1992 the country was supposed to, under UN auspices, hold its first ever democratic election-but it all went wrong. UNITA's Jonas Savimbi rejected his defeat. Pik Botha, for many years one of Savimbi's greatest defenders, went to Angola to help bring peace to the country. UNITA owes much of its current military strength to Pretoria, just as the MPLA had a huge debt to the Cubans and the former Soviet Union. Botha's diplomatic efforts were no more successful than those of other international peacekeepers and the diplomatic community eventually negotiated a new, though fragile, peace agreement. Skeptical of both sides' promises and lies about peace, Maier has written a gripping account of conflict in one of the world's most tragic yet least understood war zones.
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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November 13, 2020
“Ideologies come and go, negotiations are a matter of tactics, the cause of absolute power ever enduring. The old adage that power corrupts people is misplaced. It is people who corrupt power.” (p. 177)
Sometimes there aren’t any good guys. Sometimes both sides in a conflict are equally vicious, incompetent, and predatory. After I read Paul Theroux’s Last Train to Zona Verde, I was interested in learning more about Angola’s history, and found this book. It is a well informed first hand account that makes for sad and depressing reading. Theroux’s book recounts his trip from South Africa to Namibia to Angola. The Angola he visited in 2011 was a ruined nation state of corruption, violence, and seething poverty. To the extent that the country is governed at all, it is ruled by thieving incompetents. “From the immensity of the slums, the disrepair of the roads, and the randomness of the buildings, I could tell that the government was corrupt, predatory, tyrannical, unjust, and utterly uninterested in its people – fearing them for what they saw, hating them for what they said or wrote.” (Last Train to Zona Verde, p. 258)
All of Africa suffered under the depredations of European conquest, which did a little good and a great deal of harm. For anyone interested in the sad story I recommend Lawrence James’ Empires in the Sun. Angola had been a colony of Portugal since the 15th century, which ruled it with convicts, landless peasants, and disgraced officials, with predictable results. The main export was slaves, over four million of whom were sent out from its main port alone, with millions more from other cities and towns.
Karl Maier’s, Angola: Promises and Lies starts with his arrival in the country in 1986, by which time the civil war was already eleven years old, having begun as soon as Portugal granted independence, although like many other African countries, “granted” is a misleading word; in fact, they basically abandoned it, taking as much of its movable wealth with them as they could, and leaving the people to fend for themselves.
There were originally three separate indigenous armies fighting for supremacy, although one of them soon became irrelevant. The other two were primarily ethnically based, one from tribes in the north and one from the central highlands. They nominally possessed ideologies, but their only real ideology was power, and they would align themselves with whoever gave them money and weapons. For instance, Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, the main opposition army, was originally a Maoist trained in China. When the government forces, the MPLA, declared themselves socialists in order to get backing from the Soviet Union, Savimbi renounced his previous beliefs in order to align with and receive support from the United States, where he was cast as a “freedom fighter.” He was welcomed to the White House and met Ronald Reagan in 1986 and George H. W. Bush in 1990.
Angola became a plaything in the superpower game of thrones. UNITA was bolstered by foreign mercenaries and troops from the white South African government, and the MPLA by Cuban soldiers. The land was sown with millions of landmines, which continue to main and kill today. Armed with artillery and combat aircraft from their patrons the two sides inflicted endless misery on the civilians without having much effect militarily. The main tactic of each side was to infiltrate an area, seize the towns and villages in it, kill the leaders appointed by the other side as well as the village elders, because they were respected by their people and might form a basis of opposition. With the new area secured it was stripped of food and resources, more mines were laid around the perimeter to try to hold the ground, and the people were left to starve. Millions fled to the cities and the precarious lives of refugees.
Both sides forcibly impressed children into their ranks. Separated from their families, illiterate, and growing up in a culture of violence without consequences, they became merciless killers, as much a threat to the people they were nominally protecting as were the enemy forces.
Meier was there in 1992 when, after seventeen years of civil war, it looked for a moment like peace might finally prevail. Elections were held, overseen by international observers who declared that the results were generally fair. Both UNITA and the MPLA had flooded the airwaves with announcements that they were sure to win, and Savimbi, ominously, said that he was so certain UNITA would gain a majority that if the votes showed they did not, that would be a clear sign of fraud, and he would not accept the results. UNITA did not get a majority, and went back into the bush to renew the war.
Both sides behaved like beasts, and Meier’s account of government score-settling with known or suspected UNITA sympathizers is horrific to read, with people dragged out of their homes and shot in the middle of the street, widespread torture, and the inevitable mass graves. UNITA was just as bad, and added indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian areas. Meier recounts that when the MPLA retook a town from UNITA, they found a warehouse filled with American munitions, including thousands of Claymore mines.
Maier visited hospitals, often full of people who had lost limbs to mines, and found that they frequently had no medical supplies at all, not even bandages or aspirin. Foreign aid associations sent large amounts of aid to the country, but once it arrived it was stolen – all of it, every last bit – by government officials to sell on the black market.
The edition of the book which I read ends with the government forces pushing UNITA out of their strongholds in the central highlands. There is a later edition which updates the fighting through 2002, when Savimbi was finally killed in a firefight with soldiers from the FAA (the new name for the government MPLA) forces. After that UNITA disbanded its army and entered the government when its leaders realized that there was more money to be made, with less personal danger, from state-sponsored corruption.
And so it goes. Since the end of the fighting the state’s primary goal has been to steal everything stealable. There is oil in the north, and rich mineral resources in the provinces, but that money goes into the pockets of the government. Theroux’s book mentions that the Chinese have moved into Angola in force, building harbors and industrial sites, but they bring their own workers and have little interaction with the locals. Once the projects are complete the Chinese are not going to leave, as they hold the mortgage on the new infrastructure. Theroux envisions them becoming the new Portuguese masters, ruling over the masses of increasingly angry poor. In the news recently was a story that the daughter of the former president has been charged with stealing a billion dollars from the government. She denies the allegations and lives luxuriously in Portugal.
It is hard to imagine things ending well in Angola. At some point rage and frustration will boil over, and new insurgent groups will take to the bush. The long-suffering people will suffer again.
Sometimes there aren’t any good guys. Sometimes both sides in a conflict are equally vicious, incompetent, and predatory. After I read Paul Theroux’s Last Train to Zona Verde, I was interested in learning more about Angola’s history, and found this book. It is a well informed first hand account that makes for sad and depressing reading. Theroux’s book recounts his trip from South Africa to Namibia to Angola. The Angola he visited in 2011 was a ruined nation state of corruption, violence, and seething poverty. To the extent that the country is governed at all, it is ruled by thieving incompetents. “From the immensity of the slums, the disrepair of the roads, and the randomness of the buildings, I could tell that the government was corrupt, predatory, tyrannical, unjust, and utterly uninterested in its people – fearing them for what they saw, hating them for what they said or wrote.” (Last Train to Zona Verde, p. 258)
All of Africa suffered under the depredations of European conquest, which did a little good and a great deal of harm. For anyone interested in the sad story I recommend Lawrence James’ Empires in the Sun. Angola had been a colony of Portugal since the 15th century, which ruled it with convicts, landless peasants, and disgraced officials, with predictable results. The main export was slaves, over four million of whom were sent out from its main port alone, with millions more from other cities and towns.
Karl Maier’s, Angola: Promises and Lies starts with his arrival in the country in 1986, by which time the civil war was already eleven years old, having begun as soon as Portugal granted independence, although like many other African countries, “granted” is a misleading word; in fact, they basically abandoned it, taking as much of its movable wealth with them as they could, and leaving the people to fend for themselves.
There were originally three separate indigenous armies fighting for supremacy, although one of them soon became irrelevant. The other two were primarily ethnically based, one from tribes in the north and one from the central highlands. They nominally possessed ideologies, but their only real ideology was power, and they would align themselves with whoever gave them money and weapons. For instance, Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA, the main opposition army, was originally a Maoist trained in China. When the government forces, the MPLA, declared themselves socialists in order to get backing from the Soviet Union, Savimbi renounced his previous beliefs in order to align with and receive support from the United States, where he was cast as a “freedom fighter.” He was welcomed to the White House and met Ronald Reagan in 1986 and George H. W. Bush in 1990.
Angola became a plaything in the superpower game of thrones. UNITA was bolstered by foreign mercenaries and troops from the white South African government, and the MPLA by Cuban soldiers. The land was sown with millions of landmines, which continue to main and kill today. Armed with artillery and combat aircraft from their patrons the two sides inflicted endless misery on the civilians without having much effect militarily. The main tactic of each side was to infiltrate an area, seize the towns and villages in it, kill the leaders appointed by the other side as well as the village elders, because they were respected by their people and might form a basis of opposition. With the new area secured it was stripped of food and resources, more mines were laid around the perimeter to try to hold the ground, and the people were left to starve. Millions fled to the cities and the precarious lives of refugees.
Both sides forcibly impressed children into their ranks. Separated from their families, illiterate, and growing up in a culture of violence without consequences, they became merciless killers, as much a threat to the people they were nominally protecting as were the enemy forces.
Meier was there in 1992 when, after seventeen years of civil war, it looked for a moment like peace might finally prevail. Elections were held, overseen by international observers who declared that the results were generally fair. Both UNITA and the MPLA had flooded the airwaves with announcements that they were sure to win, and Savimbi, ominously, said that he was so certain UNITA would gain a majority that if the votes showed they did not, that would be a clear sign of fraud, and he would not accept the results. UNITA did not get a majority, and went back into the bush to renew the war.
Both sides behaved like beasts, and Meier’s account of government score-settling with known or suspected UNITA sympathizers is horrific to read, with people dragged out of their homes and shot in the middle of the street, widespread torture, and the inevitable mass graves. UNITA was just as bad, and added indiscriminate bombing and shelling of civilian areas. Meier recounts that when the MPLA retook a town from UNITA, they found a warehouse filled with American munitions, including thousands of Claymore mines.
Maier visited hospitals, often full of people who had lost limbs to mines, and found that they frequently had no medical supplies at all, not even bandages or aspirin. Foreign aid associations sent large amounts of aid to the country, but once it arrived it was stolen – all of it, every last bit – by government officials to sell on the black market.
The edition of the book which I read ends with the government forces pushing UNITA out of their strongholds in the central highlands. There is a later edition which updates the fighting through 2002, when Savimbi was finally killed in a firefight with soldiers from the FAA (the new name for the government MPLA) forces. After that UNITA disbanded its army and entered the government when its leaders realized that there was more money to be made, with less personal danger, from state-sponsored corruption.
And so it goes. Since the end of the fighting the state’s primary goal has been to steal everything stealable. There is oil in the north, and rich mineral resources in the provinces, but that money goes into the pockets of the government. Theroux’s book mentions that the Chinese have moved into Angola in force, building harbors and industrial sites, but they bring their own workers and have little interaction with the locals. Once the projects are complete the Chinese are not going to leave, as they hold the mortgage on the new infrastructure. Theroux envisions them becoming the new Portuguese masters, ruling over the masses of increasingly angry poor. In the news recently was a story that the daughter of the former president has been charged with stealing a billion dollars from the government. She denies the allegations and lives luxuriously in Portugal.
It is hard to imagine things ending well in Angola. At some point rage and frustration will boil over, and new insurgent groups will take to the bush. The long-suffering people will suffer again.
January 18, 2020
There are few subjects that encourage the cynicism of the Western reader more than reading about a messed up African country, and this book delivers plenty of food for cynicism. How so? Well, it is the memoir of sorts of a WaPo/Independent journalist and his experiences over the years in dealing with Angola while cataloging the brave determination of its people and the abject failures of its leaders to provide peace and well-being for those people. It is sometimes said that people get the government that they deserve but the author clearly believes that Angolans deserve a better government than the leaders that they have and there appears to be little reason to argue with him. A one-time head of state in Africa once said that independence offered the people of Africa one person, one vote, one time and that is a cynical judgment that has frequently been borne out in the fate of the continent. The author, for all of his desire to use this particular story to put blame on South African apartheid forces and American bumbling abroad, cannot help but note that Angola's problems amount to a fundamental inability on the part of the nation's leaders to provide for the well-being of the people.
This book is a relatively short one at about 200 pages and it is divided into sixteen chapters. We find the author dealing with the time of civil war between the socialist MPLA and the UNITA, whose anti-foreign rhetoric hardly seems much of an improvement (1). The author does some legwork in trying to visit a city under siege (2) while looking at the destructiveness that can be seen on the road to Huambo (3) as he struggles with the views of different people as to what the right future is (4). He talks about having to beg for one's life in an area filled with violence (5), and discusses as well the final countdown to an election that was supposed to settle matters (6), but which does not as a lack of trust leads to another breakdown (7). The author then discusses the meaning of people power in Angola (8), the shout to the heavens about the death and corruption all around (9), as well as the struggle for people to enjoy the good life (10). The author discusses meeting a man named Jesus (11), his own struggles to avoid angry military figures who dislike his articles (12), what the New Angola means for its people (13), and the madness present in Kuito (14). Finally the book ends with a discussion of the promises and lies that Angola has faced (15) as well as a postscript (16), bibliography, and index.
The failure of Angola's leaders appears to be total in the eyes of the author. Whether he is looking at the people in charge of rebel groups or those who represent the socialist MPLA, the author comments on their attempts to silent journalists writing about their efforts at causing bloodshed to Angolans, including their own supporters. The book is peppered with Portuguese expressions that demonstrate the leftist penchant for political correctness, whether it is referring to a stressful and uncertain time as a situação or political murder as limpieza. The author shows how it is that Angola gets a lot of oil wealth from an exclave that somehow is the most undeveloped part of a rather undeveloped country, points out that oil wealth has done little but make Angola an expensive place to visit without providing any of the infrastrucutre that mineral wealth could provide were it received by people who were not entirely corrupt, and still tries to blame whitey for it. If the author's aim is not very true, at least he does have righteous indignation on behalf of the Angolan people, who have suffered for decades because of the inability of their political elites to behave properly and work towards building a strong society.
This book is a relatively short one at about 200 pages and it is divided into sixteen chapters. We find the author dealing with the time of civil war between the socialist MPLA and the UNITA, whose anti-foreign rhetoric hardly seems much of an improvement (1). The author does some legwork in trying to visit a city under siege (2) while looking at the destructiveness that can be seen on the road to Huambo (3) as he struggles with the views of different people as to what the right future is (4). He talks about having to beg for one's life in an area filled with violence (5), and discusses as well the final countdown to an election that was supposed to settle matters (6), but which does not as a lack of trust leads to another breakdown (7). The author then discusses the meaning of people power in Angola (8), the shout to the heavens about the death and corruption all around (9), as well as the struggle for people to enjoy the good life (10). The author discusses meeting a man named Jesus (11), his own struggles to avoid angry military figures who dislike his articles (12), what the New Angola means for its people (13), and the madness present in Kuito (14). Finally the book ends with a discussion of the promises and lies that Angola has faced (15) as well as a postscript (16), bibliography, and index.
The failure of Angola's leaders appears to be total in the eyes of the author. Whether he is looking at the people in charge of rebel groups or those who represent the socialist MPLA, the author comments on their attempts to silent journalists writing about their efforts at causing bloodshed to Angolans, including their own supporters. The book is peppered with Portuguese expressions that demonstrate the leftist penchant for political correctness, whether it is referring to a stressful and uncertain time as a situação or political murder as limpieza. The author shows how it is that Angola gets a lot of oil wealth from an exclave that somehow is the most undeveloped part of a rather undeveloped country, points out that oil wealth has done little but make Angola an expensive place to visit without providing any of the infrastrucutre that mineral wealth could provide were it received by people who were not entirely corrupt, and still tries to blame whitey for it. If the author's aim is not very true, at least he does have righteous indignation on behalf of the Angolan people, who have suffered for decades because of the inability of their political elites to behave properly and work towards building a strong society.
May 18, 2022
The book is very informative, but unfortunately, it jumps around a lot and it's hard to keep track of the timeline. Maier also does not go into detail on the history of Angola, so I suggest going into this book with at least knowledge about some background as well as the sequence of events.
There are a lot of spelling and grammar errors, something I can accept to a certain extent in a self-published book, but not in this extent and not so much from a journalist. This book is in need of editing, or at least a handful of friends who will take the time to read it and point out errors. I also suggest adding dates to the chapter titles, to make following the content easier for readers without much knowledge of the Angolan civil war.
What I do appreciate is the author's approach to the sides of the political conflict: Everybody gets called out and criticized, he gives explanation when needed and points out lies, half truths, broken promises and hypocrisy when he encounters it - and that includes parties outside of Angola.
He firmly takes the side of the Angolan people who just wanted freedom from colonisers and were caught in the crossfire of a conflict that destroyed their country and their lives, and he always comes back to focussing on the civilians and how they are impacted by all of it. It is extremely hard to read at times, but very important.
Because of the jumbled timeline and the many errors, I can not give this book more than 3.5 stars, but I still recommend reading it.
“By all accounts the Angolan people, the great majority of them poor, illiterate and living in isolated villages or urban slums, carry out their civic responsibilities with great dignity and patience. The two voting days in Angola are another confirmation that anyone who mouths the cliché that Africans are not ready for democracy is simply ignorant of the facts. African politicians, however, are a different matter.”
There are a lot of spelling and grammar errors, something I can accept to a certain extent in a self-published book, but not in this extent and not so much from a journalist. This book is in need of editing, or at least a handful of friends who will take the time to read it and point out errors. I also suggest adding dates to the chapter titles, to make following the content easier for readers without much knowledge of the Angolan civil war.
What I do appreciate is the author's approach to the sides of the political conflict: Everybody gets called out and criticized, he gives explanation when needed and points out lies, half truths, broken promises and hypocrisy when he encounters it - and that includes parties outside of Angola.
He firmly takes the side of the Angolan people who just wanted freedom from colonisers and were caught in the crossfire of a conflict that destroyed their country and their lives, and he always comes back to focussing on the civilians and how they are impacted by all of it. It is extremely hard to read at times, but very important.
Because of the jumbled timeline and the many errors, I can not give this book more than 3.5 stars, but I still recommend reading it.
“By all accounts the Angolan people, the great majority of them poor, illiterate and living in isolated villages or urban slums, carry out their civic responsibilities with great dignity and patience. The two voting days in Angola are another confirmation that anyone who mouths the cliché that Africans are not ready for democracy is simply ignorant of the facts. African politicians, however, are a different matter.”
March 25, 2017
2.5 stars.
I'm somewhat torn about this one. So it's about Angola, which is just novel enough to make any book about it worth something. But at the same time , I didn't thing it was a great book as far as writing and whatnot.
Don't get me wrong, it was fascinating to read a journalists account of Angola in the mid 1990s when the country went from war to peace and hope right back to war. It really was an interesting time in the politics and civil war of Angola, and Maier was there.
Way he wrote it, the timeline was confusing often - where you think you're reading about onetime, and then it changes a day out don't find out you're reading about an event that is not in sequence until a page or two later. So that was a bit frustrating. So too, the stories were something of a jumble at times, which makes me think that someone who isn't a follower of Angola with at least smoke baseline knowledge might get somewhat confused. But then again, maybe lay readers aren't clamoring for books about Angola and it's just us Africa nerds.
Overall, it was a very interesting book but I think it could have been written in a more straightforward fashion, which is a bit surprising since a journalist wrote it and they are generally good wt writing coherent timeline narratives. Anyway, worth reading, but not the best book on the Angolan civil war out there, but does provide a really nice snapshot of some areas in the mid nineties.
I'm somewhat torn about this one. So it's about Angola, which is just novel enough to make any book about it worth something. But at the same time , I didn't thing it was a great book as far as writing and whatnot.
Don't get me wrong, it was fascinating to read a journalists account of Angola in the mid 1990s when the country went from war to peace and hope right back to war. It really was an interesting time in the politics and civil war of Angola, and Maier was there.
Way he wrote it, the timeline was confusing often - where you think you're reading about onetime, and then it changes a day out don't find out you're reading about an event that is not in sequence until a page or two later. So that was a bit frustrating. So too, the stories were something of a jumble at times, which makes me think that someone who isn't a follower of Angola with at least smoke baseline knowledge might get somewhat confused. But then again, maybe lay readers aren't clamoring for books about Angola and it's just us Africa nerds.
Overall, it was a very interesting book but I think it could have been written in a more straightforward fashion, which is a bit surprising since a journalist wrote it and they are generally good wt writing coherent timeline narratives. Anyway, worth reading, but not the best book on the Angolan civil war out there, but does provide a really nice snapshot of some areas in the mid nineties.
February 22, 2026
When Angola realized independence from Portugal in 1975, Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuściński was there on the ground as the promise of freedom disintegrated into civil war. His book Another Day of Life describes that collapse and is considered a classic of reportage. With Russian and Cuban support for the ruling party, and American and South African support for the UNITA opposition, the civil war ground through many years and many lives. This book by an American journalist returns to Angola in 1991 as the prospect of open elections teases the potential end to the civil war.
The book covers roughly 1991-95, as the author drops in and out of Angola to report on the leadup to 1992 elections, the brief moment of hope as they happen, and then the return to killing. There's enough historical context about Portuguese colonialism and ethnic schisms to inform the events he recounts, without getting too bogged down in history. One aspect I hadn't been aware of is how, despite each side having multiethnic leadership, the conflict often devolved on the ground into ethnic cleansing by police and militias. And while the book does take you deep into the human side of the conflict as he talks to everyday people, it does sometimes get bogged down in the moment-by-moment reconstruction of political choices and what party said what.
Above all, the book does an excellent job at describing the horror of people trying to survive a civil war. The role of international aid is interesting, as without donors such as the World Food Programme, Concern, Catholic Charities, and others, many more people would have starved to death. However, he also clearly shows that most of that food and medical aid was stolen by armed forces on both sides, often serving as crucial support for those doing the killing. Meanwhile, both sides are able to hand out AK47s and ammunition to pretty much anyone who can carry them. By the end of the book what remains clear is that, as in so much of the world, power, not ideology, is what lies behind the killing and suffering of millions.
The book covers roughly 1991-95, as the author drops in and out of Angola to report on the leadup to 1992 elections, the brief moment of hope as they happen, and then the return to killing. There's enough historical context about Portuguese colonialism and ethnic schisms to inform the events he recounts, without getting too bogged down in history. One aspect I hadn't been aware of is how, despite each side having multiethnic leadership, the conflict often devolved on the ground into ethnic cleansing by police and militias. And while the book does take you deep into the human side of the conflict as he talks to everyday people, it does sometimes get bogged down in the moment-by-moment reconstruction of political choices and what party said what.
Above all, the book does an excellent job at describing the horror of people trying to survive a civil war. The role of international aid is interesting, as without donors such as the World Food Programme, Concern, Catholic Charities, and others, many more people would have starved to death. However, he also clearly shows that most of that food and medical aid was stolen by armed forces on both sides, often serving as crucial support for those doing the killing. Meanwhile, both sides are able to hand out AK47s and ammunition to pretty much anyone who can carry them. By the end of the book what remains clear is that, as in so much of the world, power, not ideology, is what lies behind the killing and suffering of millions.
April 3, 2022
Very interesting and well written book about a lesser known (for me anyway) part of the history of Angola. While tragic to witness the power grab from both sides and the inability of the UN to make a positive difference, it’s heart rendering to read the stories of some of the individuals who never lose hope and who despite immense difficulties keep going.
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March 13, 2014Having recently traveled to Angola, I had an opportunity to see for myself the ravages of war -- and the potential and promise of recovery. War damage is visible everywhere, especially out in the largely depopulated countryside. But Angola has oil, and with oil comes money, and with money comes the possibility of rebuilding. I was told there are now more construction cranes in Luanda than any other city in the world -- an entire city is being built as I write these words. Income inequality is stark and broad, but at least commerce is returning, and the thousands of street vendors are making at least a little bit of money.
Karl Maier's book does an excellent job describing the quarter century of civil war that got Angola where it is today. Especially illuminating is his description of Angola as a Cold War-era proxy war. The Soviets (and Cubans) armed and trained the Angola government forces, and we in the West saw to it that the insurgents -- with the ruthless and determined Jonas Savimbi as their leader -- were always well-armed and well-funded. The war went on long after the Cold War ended -- We'd by that time decided that the Angolan government was staunchly Marxist with or without the Soviet Union, and no one, least of all Savimbi, felt shaking hands and declaring peace for all Angolans. The war ended only when Savimbi was finally hunted down and killed in a hail of gunfire by the government forces who'd pursued him for twenty-five years. Karl Maier's writing is excellent, it's fact-based, and it tells the story (pretty much) objectively. I recommend this book to anyone interested in modern African history, because Angola has such a fascinating, if horrifying, story to tell.
Karl Maier's book does an excellent job describing the quarter century of civil war that got Angola where it is today. Especially illuminating is his description of Angola as a Cold War-era proxy war. The Soviets (and Cubans) armed and trained the Angola government forces, and we in the West saw to it that the insurgents -- with the ruthless and determined Jonas Savimbi as their leader -- were always well-armed and well-funded. The war went on long after the Cold War ended -- We'd by that time decided that the Angolan government was staunchly Marxist with or without the Soviet Union, and no one, least of all Savimbi, felt shaking hands and declaring peace for all Angolans. The war ended only when Savimbi was finally hunted down and killed in a hail of gunfire by the government forces who'd pursued him for twenty-five years. Karl Maier's writing is excellent, it's fact-based, and it tells the story (pretty much) objectively. I recommend this book to anyone interested in modern African history, because Angola has such a fascinating, if horrifying, story to tell.
January 30, 2012
This is not an easy book to read. Karl Maier, an american-born journalist takes us to Angola in the midst of its civil war. The book starts with a trip to Cuito Cuanavale, the "african Stalingrad" and site of the largest battle on african soil since Kasserine. While not going into detail on the history of the country since its independence, Maier does explain the outlines of the conflict, tracing its roots back to colonialism and its consequences.
Most of the rest of the book deals with the Bicesse peace accord and run-up to the elections of 1992, and the horror that resumes as UNITA refuses to accept the results and the fighting starts anew.
Maier describes in vivid detail what it is like to live in the midst of civil war. He takes no sides, except that of those caught in the crossfire. He has the dark humor of one that has seen too much death, and does not shy away from exposing the hypocrisy of all sides, including the "international community".
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the angolan civil war.
Most of the rest of the book deals with the Bicesse peace accord and run-up to the elections of 1992, and the horror that resumes as UNITA refuses to accept the results and the fighting starts anew.
Maier describes in vivid detail what it is like to live in the midst of civil war. He takes no sides, except that of those caught in the crossfire. He has the dark humor of one that has seen too much death, and does not shy away from exposing the hypocrisy of all sides, including the "international community".
I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in understanding the angolan civil war.
February 18, 2025
Not what I expected from this book, but an emotional testimonial from a third party invested in the progress of Angola. A must read for anyone interested in the conflict, specifically after the retreat of the Cubans from the country and after the peace deal failed.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews