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After decades of civil war and instability, the African country of Angola is experiencing a spectacular economic boom thanks to its most valuable natural resource: oil. But oil extraction--both on- and offshore--is a toxic remedy for the country's economic ills, with devastating effects on both the environment and traditional livelihoods. Focusing on the everyday realities of people living in the extraction zones, Kristin Reed explores the exclusion, degradation, and violence that are the fruits of petrocapitalism in Angola. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Original, daring research. Beautifully written.
Oil politics, environmental impacts, civil war, Western oil companies, inequality: these are some of the subjects and themes explored by Dr. Reed in Crude Existence. In the book, Reed describes how both off- and onshore oil drilling has contributed to war, poverty and inequality in Angola. She describes the partnership between Western oil companies and the Angolan government, relating how the profits from oil fueled decades of civil war, and continue to allow a semi-authoritarian leader and his allies to reap copious rewards while the majority of Angolans remain impoverished.

Reed conveys an amazing depth of understanding, drawing on a year's worth of field research that only the most daring researcher could do, in some of the least hospitable situations on the planet. She brings attention to a corner of the globe infrequently visited by Western academics or journalists, Angola, where civil war raged until months before she began research. And within Angola, she focuses on Cabinda, a little-known province that has been attempting to secede from Angola since before its independence in 1975, maintaining constant and continued militarization. (Cabinda is the site of the 2010 Africa Cup killing of several Togolese football players.)

This book should be read by anyone interested in Africa, civil war, the impacts of oil, and the "resource curse." Unlike many academic books, it is a pleasure to read - Reed has a grace with language, and illustrates many of her academic points with vignettes and stories from her many interviews and experiences. ... Read more

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The book is the first comprehensive study of race relations in Angola. It covers the entire five-century-long relationship between the peoples of Angola and Portugal.Portuguese imperial thinkers asserted that they were unique among European colonizers in their ability to establish and maintain egalitarian and non-discriminatory relationships with tropical peoples. This concept was elevated to a philosophical plateau and given the name Luscotropicalism.Propagated with fervor by Portuguese colonial thinkers, Lusotropical doctrines were widely accepted as being valid by twentieth-century diplomats and political thinkers in both Europe and the United States, many of whom believed that Portuguese colonialism in Africa would continue indefinitely.

The evidence presented in this work indicates that Portuguese rule in Angola was deeply racist. This conclusion is based on a considerable body of data gleaned from archival sources, personal collections, and systematic interviewing of racially diverse Angolans and Portuguese functionaries in the colonial administration and the private sector. Special emphasis is placed on devices that the Portuguese used to delude themselves and others about the realities of their attitudes and behavior as ruling elites. The study concludes with an assessment of the impact of Lusotropical myths on independent Angola. ... Read more

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Great price, fast shipping
I had no problems with this product, it came quickly and it was a good price. ... Read more

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Looks at the struggles of Angola and Mozambique against colonialism, South African domination, and superpower confrontations. ... Read more

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A worthwhile read but a bit deceptive
Overall, a good outline of the conflicts within these two nations and the players involved in them. The depth of detail that the author went into was not as thorough as expected, though. The length of the book is deceiving as a considerable percentage of the information is repeated multiple times throughout the course of the book. As well, far too many pages were devoted to describing the colonial era in each country. As the focus of this book was the post colonial period, this task would be better left to the numerous others books dealing solely with the colonial period. Beyond these few limitations, this book was a worthwhile read that did give some interesting insights into this tumultuous period of southern African history. ... Read more

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After more than 20 years of devastating civil war, Angola is slowly moving toward peace and reconciliation. In this accessible introduction to one of the most resource-rich countries in Africa, Norwegian researcher Inge Tvedten traces Angola's turbulent past, with a particular focus on the impact that political and economic upheaval has had on the Angolan people. ... Read more

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Nineteen with a Bullet - A Paratrooper in Angola is a fast-moving, action-packed account of Granger Korff's two years' service during 1980-81 with the elite 1 Parachute Battalion at the height of the South African 'bush war' in South West Africa (Namibia) and Angola. Apart from the normal counter-insurgency activities of Fireforce operations, ambushing and patrols, to contact and destroy SWAPO guerrillas, he was involved in several massive South African Defence Force (SADF) conventional cross-border operations, such as Protea, Daisy and Carnation, into Angola to take on FAPLA (Angolan MPLA troops) and their Cuban and Soviet allies.

Korff s military 'career' is marred with controversy. He is always in trouble - going AWOL on the eve of battle; into battle; facing a court martial for beating up, and reducing to tears, a sergeant-major in front of the troops; fist-fighting with Drug Squad agents; arrested at gunpoint after the grueling seven-week, 700km Recce selection endurance march - are but some of the colorful anecdotes that lace this account of service in the SADF. Korff's writing is 'frontline' - punchy, brutal, self-deprecating and at times humorous - but always honest, providing the reader with what it was like to be one of apartheid's 'grunt' soldiers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Very real and therefore scary and intense
This is a very real book.If you are looking for cartoon violence and false heroes, this book is not for you.If you want to know how it feels to be in real combat, with your life on the line, then this is a must read.It takes you through the full gamut of emotions from fear to bravery and from pride to revulsion.You get a first person view from an elite paratrooper who is doing his utmost to be the best soldier possible in impossible situations.

Must read
Granger Korff captures all that is good and bad of war. From the camaraderie of a trained combat unit in the bush surrounded by enemy soldiers to the senseless killing of civilians caught in the crossfire.There are very few books that can make you feel a part of the story, Granger does it, the same as Chickenhawk, 13th Valley and Forgotten soldier does. Highly recommended.

Great Title and A Great Book!
Korff does a great job of chronicling his time in the SADF Airborne 1980-1981 and his deployments into Angola to fight SWAPO.Along the way Korff gets into trouble with drugs, fighting, and my favorite when he beats the hell out of a leg SGM for killing his cats while they are in the bush.If you are into reading about guerrilla warfare in SA this is definitely the book to read.

19 With a Bullet
This is a kick ass, right on the money account of military service and combat on (and across) the Angolan border. Congratulations to the author on writing a first class, harrowing account of life in an elite front line unit. Without a doubt the most entertaining book I've read in a while. ... Read more

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This book examines the history of the colonial conquest of a neglected region of Angola from an alternative perspective. Dr Clarence-Smith has used advances in Marxist theory to develop a model of the early colonial period which differs greatly from the established historiography of `African resistance'. Although the main focus is on local socio-economic structures, one chapter places the region in the wider context of the political economy of the partition of Africa, with strong emphasis on the economic motivations of Portugal. A brief epilogue brings the story in outline to the end of Portuguese colonialism. The rest of the book analyses colonial society and African peasant societies in turn. Capitalist relations of production were generally predominant in local colonial society, but slavery persisted into the 1910s and was followed by a system of forced labour. ... Read more

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'The colonel talked to me about the women coming back to look for their husbands. What if a woman came back with a child fathered by someone from the other side, would they welcome her,' I asked. He gave me that non-smile. 'To accept a woman who is carrying another man's child - that's all part of national reconciliation.' (Chapter 12, "War and Peace in Angola", February 2003) The Angolan story is only another in the fantastic web of indulgence, misery, absurdity and suffering beyond expression that is bred in peace no less than war in 'situations' the world over. The story told in this book involves an understanding of what is particular to Angola, but it goes far beyond that. It is a story of the extremes of the human condition and, as such, its relevance is timeless. Combining reportage and analysis, Justin Pearce shows the human face of Angola at a critical juncture in its history. Jonas Savimbi, leader of the rebel movement UNITA, was killed in February 2002.Crippled by the large imbalance between its resources and those of the MPLA government and the death of its messianic leader, UNITA collapsed, giving Angola its first extended period of peace since the nationalist uprising against Portuguese rule in the 1960s. Working as the BBC correspondent based in Luanda, Justin Pearce was the only English-speaking journalist based in Angola in 2001 and 2002. He travelled extensively in Angola, hearing the testimonies of those whose lives were shaped by political divisions and war. He was also able to observe how Angola was governed in a manner which had little in common with the ideals professed by the government since independence. This is an important book. It speaks to the non-specialist reader with an interest in African affairs; or people who have a particular interest in Angola, be it through business, humanitarian or policy development work, and who are looking for a perspective on the country's recent social history. ... Read more

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The dark years of European fascism left their indelible mark on Africa. As late as the 1970s, Angola was still ruled by white autocrats, whose dictatorship was eventually overthrown by black nationalists who had never experienced either the rule of law or participatory democracy. Empire in Africa takes the long view of history and asks whether the colonizing ventures of the Portuguese can bear comparison with those of the Mediterranean Ottomans or those experienced by Angola’s neighbors in the Belgian Congo, French Equatorial Africa, or the Dutch colonies at the Cape of Good Hope and in the Transvaal. David Birmingham takes the reader through Angola’s troubled past, which included endemic warfare for the first twenty-five years of independence, and examines the fact that in the absence of a viable neocolonial referee such as Britain or France, the warring parties turned to Cold War superpowers for a supply of guns. For a decade Angola replaced Vietnam as a field in which an international war by proxy was conducted. Empire in Africa explains how this African nation went from colony to independence, how in the 1990s the Cold War legacy turned to civil war, and how peace finally dawned in 2002. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

An excellent primer on the history of Angola
The history of European imperial behavior in Africa is not a pleasant one. However, the behavior of some powers in the administration of their territories was much worse than others. Belgium and Portugal are considered to be the two worst offenders, Portugal largely due to the fact that they kept their African empire until 1975, long after nearly all other African nations achieved independence. Furthermore, unlike some of the other colonial powers, Portugal did little to prepare the way for self-government. For example, in Nigeria the British government legislated a series of constitutions that led up to the granting of independence in 1960. Furthermore, Angola has many natural resources that can provide money to whatever group controls them.
With independent Africans states on its' borders it was inevitable that there would be an armed independence movement that would receive support from the neighboring states. To make the situation even more complicated, militarily powerful South Africa had an interest in the situation in Angola and the means and will to intervene. Finally, one of the worst complications of all was the development of the proxy war in Angola between the United States and the Soviet Union, where each side armed and supported a local faction.
This five-sided conflict between the Soviet Union, South Africa, the United States, indigenous Angolans and free African states on the border led to years of civil war. During the seventies the war in Angola was the major flash point of conflict in the Cold War. All of this is explained in detail in this set of eleven essays about the history of this troubled country. It is a complex history and no one book can possibly cover all of the nuances in sufficient depth. Nevertheless, this book is an excellent primer on the history of Angola with an emphasis on the events of the last 150 years.

The Missing Bits Are Still Missing
My wife and I were given a free copy of this book as part of a cultural awareness session before we moved to Luanda last year. The book was well written but it didn't give a clear picture of the culture and history and several gaps existed. I felt if I had read a similar-titled book on an ex-British or a French colony, or a good translation of an existing Portuguese book, then it wouldn't have had these gaps.

The reason that this book gets only two stars from me is I suspect Birmingham had pulled together several discourses from previous reports/lectures and called it a "book" purporting to explain the full picture. Previous knowledge is required to fully appreciate this book and would be of more value to a Lusophone historian. ... Read more

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Angola is a large and populous African country, well endowed with natural resources such as petroleum and diamonds, but a country whose people have experienced long and destructive domination and civil war, resulting in tremendous political, economic, and social struggle. Now, however, Angola is at peace and making progress, and this Dictionary presents the history of this land and its people, and its potential for the future through more than 500 entries. This resource features a detailed chronology of the significant events that have taken place throughout the centuries; an extensive list of acronyms and abbreviations, in both English and Portuguese; maps; and an introductory essay that explains the richness of the land; its early history; and the current political, social, and economic conditions of its people. The more than 500 dictionary entries profile the significant persons, places, and events, as well as the political institutions and the economic and social achievements that are important to understanding Angola's history. For additional information, three appendices provide the name changes of places in Angola, the portfolios of the government, and an overview of Angola's oil production. The comprehensive bibliography concludes and complements this work with a selection of older works, and an emphasis on newer works written after 1990, as well as a useful selection of Internet sources, private sources, newspapers, and journals. ... Read more

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This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from GeneralBooksClub.com. You can also preview excerpts from the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Volume: 1; Original Published by: Macmillan in 1876 in 493 pages; Subjects: Angola; Congo River; History / General; History / Africa / General; History / Africa / Central; History / Africa / South / General; Nature / Rivers; Travel / Africa / General; ... Read more

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mine children
the book is about an organization in Angola that take care of pepople who was hurt by mines ... Read more

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This volume examines the history of Angola since independence in 1975, and in particular the fact that the country has known only one year of peace in that time. The contributions come from a conference held in Cambridge. ... Read more

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A detailed, historiographical examination of the Ovimbundu people in Angola from 1840s through to the present day. The book focuses on the relationship between the Ovimbundu and the colonial regime and the efforts they made to gain and wield influence in the colony. The book concludes with an interesting look at the role the Ovimbundu played in the post-independence civil was and its aftermath. ... Read more

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A Definitive History of Central Angola
Linda Heywood has written a very fine study of a critical region of Angola.Her particular contribution is to trace the background of the area back into the pre-colonial period and to carry the history of the Ovimbundu up to the present day, including the formation of the UNITA party and the history of Jonas Savimbi.This book should be read by anyone wanting to understand the Angolan civil war, especially as it is cool headed and impartial.Careful readers might note the extraordinary documentary material that Heywood has used, from archives all over the world in several languages.A monument to scholarship ... Read more

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This is a first-hand record of the history of the developing relationship between the Nordic countries and the liberation movements in southern Africa. The book presents 80 interviews with leaders of the freedom struggle.' ... Read more