MIDDLETON, Nick - Kalashnikovs and Zombie Cucumbers : Travels in Mozambique - (Hardcover in Wrapper)

A very neat and clean 1st edition hardcover - Did belong to a library before but was thrown out by them who do not understand before it was ever used or taken out.   >>> Middleton's work falls squarely into travel-writer material.  I found it fascinating as he works at explaining the history of Mozambique, including the reasons behind the Frelimo-Renamo war.  Naturally, he falls on the side of those who see Renamo as simply a rebel organization backed not-so-secretly by rich white countries determined to prevent the further spread of communism in Africa.  But it is clear that the atrocities committed during the long civil war were from both sides, though it's the victor who writes the history books.   Still, it truly was a horrible war played out soon after the war of independence from Portugal.   In each area Nick travels to, we catch a glimpse of the kind of poverty people face every day.  Hopelessness is spelled out in the way the employees of a hotel near Beira, built at the height of Zimbabwean (Rhodesian) tourism, still come to work each day (even though they've not been paid a salary in years as the owners fled to Portugal years before) simply because they have nothing better to do.   We learn of the work of NGOs who spent tons of cash, and have nearly as much stolen by employees on the ground or wasted on food gone bad while the red tape holds up life-giving relief.   I learned a lot from this book, both in history and in getting a better understanding of the resilience of the people.  His chapter dealing with magic and the spirit world was simply fascinating and also enlightening, though obviously he reports as someone not coming from a Christian perspective but simply trying to understand how the locals do it and what kinds of beliefs begin to go into an African understanding of the world around them. 

*N.B.*  Dis natuurlik beter om meer as een boek by my te koop want dan betaal jy net R 6 posgeld vir elk van jou verdere boeke – Kyk wat het ek nog, dis dalk die moeite werd.