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Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson
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explore the latest social science book reviews by academics and experts Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson Lara Pawson’s new book focuses on the story behind the horrifying but littleknown massacre in Angola in the late 1970s. Megan Smith finds that this work may be too light on detail and analysis to please academics, but it nonetheless manages to expose an otherwise muted story key to understanding Angola’s political and cultural history. In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre. Lara Pawson. IB Tauris. 2014. Find this book: The violent events on and after 27 May 1977, or vinte e sete, at the height of the Cold War, are often left undiscussed. As Lara Pawson, former BBC correspondent for Angola, argues, this relatively unknown massacre of tens of thousands of protestors in About Latest reviews Events Bookshop Guides Reading Lists Podcasts Home Latest Email updates Architecture and Urban Studies Arts and Literature Development Studies Economics Education Environment Studies Gender Studies Health History International Relations Law and Human Rights Media Studies Methodology and Research Philosophy and Religion Politics Sociology and Anthropology Podcasts Africa and the Middle East Asia Australasia Britain and Ireland Europe Latin America USA and Canada 20 66 12 2
Transcript of Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson
6/22/2015 Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson | LSE Review of Books
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explore the latest social science book
reviews by academics and experts
Book Review: In the Name of the People:Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson
Lara Pawson’s new book focuses on the story behind thehorrifying but littleknown massacre in Angola in the late 1970s.Megan Smith finds that this work may be too light on detail andanalysis to please academics, but it nonetheless manages toexpose an otherwise muted story key to understanding Angola’spolitical and cultural history.
In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre.Lara Pawson. IB Tauris. 2014.
Find this book:
The violent events on and after 27 May 1977, or vinte e sete, atthe height of the Cold War, are often left undiscussed. As LaraPawson, former BBC correspondent for Angola, argues, thisrelatively unknown massacre of tens of thousands of protestors in
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20 66 12 2
6/22/2015 Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson | LSE Review of Books
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/lsereviewofbooks/2014/12/17/book-review-in-the-name-of-the-people-angolas-forgotten-massacre-by-lara-pawson/ 2/8
Angola is a key part ofunderstanding contemporaryAngolan politics and thecountry’s cultura do medo,or culture of fear, withregards to public dissent.
With her book, In the Nameof the People, Pawsonproduces an engagingmosaic of interviewsconducted with residents inLondon, Lisbon, and Angola,alongside her ownindependent research.Pawson seeks to shed lighton such an integral moment in Angolan history, a tragedy whichshe argues is comparable to Robert Mugabe’s Matabelelandmassacres in Zimbabwe in the 1980s, where more than 20,000members of the minority Ndebele ethnic group were wiped out(p.5).
Pawson’s writing style, with its vivid imagery, is captivating. Thenarrative is composed of her personal journey, written in the firstperson, to better understand vinte e sete alongside interviews ofthose who experienced it first hand. It is not an academic text perse; however, Pawson supplies an illuminating account ofAngola’s contemporary history and politics. The book isdigestible, entertaining and informative for those new to the topicand region as well as being indepth enough to cater to thosewith more expertise in the region.
The Popular Movement of the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) hasled the country from its much belated independence fromPortugal in 1975 to this day. Not long after independence, theparty leadership was divided ideologically, eventually culminatingin vinte e sete. We learn that the factionalist splinter groupNitistas, led by former minister Nito Alvez, lead to – dependingwhom you choose to believe – an attempted coup, peaceful
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6/22/2015 Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson | LSE Review of Books
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demonstration, or both. The MPLA’s narrative is the former; whensenior figures within the political party were killed, they soughtrevenge on those it considered responsible. The result was deathcamps, firing squads, and imprisonment without trial. The deathcount of innocent Angolans imputed to be Nitistas is debated tothis day, with figures ranging from 15,000 up to 90,000 (p.221).
Ideology was a key component of the crisis. The country’s firstleader under independence, President Neto was forceful in hisrhetoric:‘we will do what we want in the name of the People’,echoed in the title of Pawson’s book. The People, the party, andthe President became synonymous with each other,consolidating power within Neto’s regime. Pawson illustrates herpoint with a segment from a leader piece in the Jornal de Angolapublished on 8 May 1977, headlined “National Unity”. The piececlaimed that ‘Angolan people are the MPLA. The MPLA are theAngolan people’, a notion that Pawson describes as‘revolutionary parody’ (p.81). Supporting Neto was projected asdefending the nation state and the revolution. The MPLA, with itssupposed socialist principles, shifted from a national liberationmovement to an eventual dictatorship.
CubanAngolan relations started in the 1960s as part of FidelCastro’s ‘Second Revolution’ movement. One of Pawson’sinterviewees notes, ‘Living in Luanda was a bit like living inHavana. At school we were made to sing the Cuban nationalanthem, and the Cuban flag went up alongside the Angolan flag’(p.230). In the chapter, “A Cuba Connection”, Pawson interviewsa Cuban doctor who recounts being forced to sign faked deathcertificates – road accidents for those who were executed byfiring squad. Eleven days before Nito Alvez’s uprising, FidelCastro told a US journalist that the primary reason for Cubantroops to be in Angola was to defend the imperialists from SouthAfrica and elsewhere. More than one hundred Angolans weresent to Cuba for intensive military training to then in turn defendAngola from invading forces. Developments in this chapter revealthat the intervention of Cuban troops was pivotal for Neto’sdeclaration of independence and indeed enabled the MPLA toremain in power beyond Angolan independence. One of
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6/22/2015 Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson | LSE Review of Books
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Pawson’s interviewees notes ‘those who are guilty must bejudged, including the Cubans and the Soviet Union.’ (p.26)
In the Name of the People is partially a memoir; the first fewchapters are muddled in sometimesunnecessary personalanecdotes, though these lessen towards the middle of the book.In particular, Pawson’s chapter “Appearances” does not revealmuch on her subject area except a trip to the beauty salon andan unwanted advance from an Angolan man. Furthermore, someof the research observations are a little tenuous at times withinterviews being casual and mostly subjective recreations ofmemory and confession. However, this is a challenging subjectresourcewise, an almost complete lack of archival and officialdocuments on the event leaves much to be desired. Despitethese minor criticisms, Pawson does an effective job ofdeconstructing this event and the issues around the liberationstruggle in Angola though conversations with a varied group ofparticipants that leaves the reader with mostly insightfultestimonies.
Frantz Fanon is everywhere, both implicitly and explicitly, withregards to postcolonial nation building and national liberationstruggles. General issues surrounding the transition from colonialto selfrule are expressed through this period. Pawson quotesFanon, ‘today the party’s mission is to deliver to the people theinstructions, which issue from the summit’ (p.81). This echoeswhat is seen in Angola since independence: a dictatorship, withthe masses at the bottom. The authoritarian character still showsno signs of waning, with José Eduardo Dos Santos, the currentpresident who has ruled for 34 years, securing yet another fiveyear term in the 2012 elections.
Pawson argues that for many Angolans, vinte e sete was, ‘thebeginning of the end… the moment when the MPLA turned on itsown’ (p.86). It was this disproportionate response by the MPLAwhich created a culture of fear. It became taboo to even mentionthe massacre. In regards to Pawson’s admired left leaningjournalists, she notes ‘Either they didn’t write about the vinte esete at all, or if they did, like Basil Davidson, they only told the
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6/22/2015 Book Review: In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre by Lara Pawson | LSE Review of Books
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story from the official MPLA point of view.’ (p.42). Pawson’s finalchapter goes into dissent in contemporary Angola. In 2011,Ikonoklasta, the popular Angolan rapper, attempted to mobiliseAngolans to protest against the government at IndependenceSquare. Only seventeen people (four being journalists) gatheredfor the shortlived protest which saw them all arrested.Furthermore, the government has continued to consolidate thiscultura do medo publicly. After the Arab Spring, the MPLA’s firstprovincial secretary made it clear that protests would not betolerated, and that ‘Angola is not Egypt, Libya or Tunisia’ (p.246).
In the Name of the People: Angola’s Forgotten Massacre guidesthe reader through a very ambiguous historical event that is keyto understanding contemporary Angolan politics. Whether or notthis book can be seen as entirely reliable is another story; it is farfrom academic, but nonetheless Pawson manages to expose anotherwise muted story key to understanding Angola’s political andcultural history.
Megan Smith is completing her MSc in International Relations atthe LSE. She has worked throughout East Africa and the MiddleEast with most recent fieldwork conducted in Egypt with theAfrica and Middle East Refugee Assistance. Her researchfocuses on refugee assistance with a special focus on gender.Follow her on Twitter at @Megan_D_Smith.
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