Angola

Angola was in the news in 1997 when Princess Diana walked through a mine field to bring the attention of the world to the plight of the people. Angola was in the news again when her son, Prince Harry, repeated her trip last fall. I checked Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War by Philip Winslow out of the library at that time to learn more about the history of the mines in Angola.

I also read Paul Theroux's The Last Train to Zona Verde which chronicles his travels in South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Angola. He concludes that he doesn't enjoy traveling through the same urban poverty over and over and he cuts off his further planned travel through the Congo, Nigeria, and Mali as too dangerous and too depressing. He reminds the reader that we have poverty we can deal with in our own country. I didn't want to go to Angola after finishing Theroux's book, but my next book, Good Morning Comrades reminded me of the humanity of the people. As much as possible, I will try to find the value in each culture and not spend time complaining about the politics.

After that, I read Nzingha Warrior Queen of Mantamba by Patricia McKissack. This book could almost fit into history because most of the characters are real, but the story has been fictionalized. It could fit into the children's book category, but it's long enough that it took a couple of hours to read.

PBS Africa's Great Civilizations: The Atlantic Age episode also refers to The Kingdom of Kongo and Queen Njinga (spelled differently, but the same person). This whole series is so well done and I highly recommend it. You can find it at https://www.pbs.org/show/africas-great-civilizations/

To hear recent music and learn about contemporary thought in Angola, check out Fonko: Contemporary Africa through its Urban Music: Episode 6 Angola (Kuduro) on Amazon.

If you were actually in Angola you might see some of the things at these links: https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-to-visit-in-angola/ or https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-things-luanda-angola/

(Photo credit to thecrazytourist.com for the picture attached to this blog.)

Google Books has quite a bit about Angola's time under the Portuguese and Angola's conflicts.

When this pandemic is over, it might be possible to plan a trip to Angola using your local travel advisor. Shout out to my favorite travel advisor, Kaitlin Darnell at Laura's Travel in Redlands. May the travel industry survive and thrive - may we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace and health to flourish in Angola and throughout the world.