A Short History of Modern Angola, David Birmingham (AFRICANA OUT OF PRINT NEW)

A Short History of Modern Angola, David Birmingham(AFRICANA OUT OF PRINT NEW)

David Birmingham, one of the leading scholars of modernAngola has produced a superbly concise but focused and very readable history ofAngola. It is succinct but detailed and discursive at the same time. For me,after decades of studying and observing events in Angola, it is a breath offresh air as it [tells the countrys history] through snapshots ofthe lives of people and the development of trade  slaves, ivory, wildrubber, cocoa, coffee, cotton and latterly diamonds and oil. In telling thestory of Angola, Birmingham brings it to life in a novel and effective way. Itis not a dry, dusty account but a vibrant living one. KeithSomerville, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of CommonwealthStudies, University of London and author of Africas Long Road SinceIndependence: The Many Histories of a Continent

This is a fabulous book, an inspiring work of scholarshipthat reflects the authors deep engagement with Angola for over half a century.With humour and literary skill, Birmingham condenses several hundred years ofcompelling history without skipping detail. By the end, you begin to understandwhy contemporary Angola is like it is. Lara Pawson, author of In theName of the People: Angolas Forgotten Massacre

This is an exciting excursion through Angolas pastconducted by its most authoritative historian. Already in colonial timesas rich as French West Africa and today perhaps the most dynamic economyin Africa, Angola is described through the writings of travellers and the experiencesof its people, with no attempt to disguise the traumas inflicted on themby colonial rulers, dictators and warlords.  Malyn Newitt, Professor ofHistory in the Department of Portuguese and Brazilian Studies, Kings CollegeLondon

Angola is now a key player and power-broker across Africa,and so an understanding of the unique historical forces that have shaped it ismore important than ever. There are few outsiders who know the country betterthan David Birmingham, and he has written a timely and incredibly readable bookon this rising power. His great knowledge and insight shines through on everypage with vignettes and description which tell the tortured story of Angolasrise to nationhood. Toby Green, Lecturer in Lusophone African History andCulture, Kings College London and editor of Guinea-Bissau: Micro-Stateto Narco-State

This history by celebrated Africanist David Birminghambegins in 1820 with the Portuguese attempt to create a third, African, empireafter the virtual loss of Asia and America. In the nineteenth century the mostvaluable resource extracted from Angola was agricultural labour, first asprivately owned slaves and later as conscript workers. The colony was managedby a few marine officers, by several hundred white political convicts, and by acouple of thousand black Angolans who had adopted Portuguese language andculture. The hub was the harbour city of Luanda which grew in the twentieth centuryto be a dynamic metropolis of several million people. The export of labour wasgradually replaced when an agrarian revolution enabled white Portugueseimmigrants to drive black Angolan labourers to produce sugar-cane, cotton,maize and above all coffee.

During the twentieth century this wealth was supplemented byCongo copper, by gem-quality diamonds, and by off-shore oil. Although much of the countryside retained its dollar-a-day peasant economy, new wealthgenerated conflict which pitted white against black, north against south, coastagainst highland, American allies against Russian allies. The generation ofwarfare finally ended in 2002 when national reconstruction could begin onPortuguese colonial foundations.