Ondjaki

#ReadAroundTheWorld #Angola

This is a novel set in Luanda, Angola, by Angolan author Ndalu de Almeida, writing under the pen name of Ondjaki. It is a contemporary story set in an apartment block that shifts between many characters, some of them rather quirky.

I’m sure this is a clever book with much to say. It touches on capitalism, exploitation, colonialism, corruption, drugs and poverty. There are elements of humour, or the ludicrous, with an eclipse that is cancelled, a man seeking fame for his huge hernia, and other elements of satyr and the farcical, pointing out the failures of the government, colonial powers, the police and legal system. There is magical realism, with one of the characters progressively becoming transparent, I presume as a metaphor for the invisibility of poverty and hardship. However this was all wasted on me due to the storyline, or more precisely the lack of storyline, which I found unengaging and difficult to wade through. This was probably amplified by an audio-narrator that failed to distinguish between the many characters at all. Sadly although I was excited to read my first book from Angola by a local award-winning author, this was a disappointing read for me.… (more)

I enjoyed Good Morning, Comrades more, but he clearly has a voice and things to say. The story is simple: the Soviets are building a mausoleum to house the remains of the late Comrade President (Agostinho Neto) in Luanda (a true story). The book tells the story through the eyes of a child who lives on the beach near the construction zone; it’s about his life, their lives, and the Soviet presence. It’s fun and funny, whimsical and poignant, and has things to say and things to think about. A powerful writer with a penchant for experiment.… (more)

Numa das muitas noites em que falta a luz em Luanda, dois adolescentes ensaiam o seu primeiro beijo, mas este primeiro beijo precisa de muitos ensaios, de muitos momentos de aproximação e afastamento, de certezas e de inseguranças… o ambiente ajuda e o pretexto surge: estão os dois na varanda da avó Dezanove, às escuras, à espera do cinema bu: um cinema que só acontece (na p. 80) quando um carro passa com a velocidade e os faróis certos para projetar sombras/imagens nas paredes brancas das casas da rua escura.

O beijo acontece mesmo, mas apenas na p. 101. Esta é uma das mais comoventes estórias do narrador infantil do Ondjaki.… (more)

Ndalu, the narrator of this novel, is a schoolboy in Luanda, the capital of Angola, in the spring of 1991, a time in which the country was led by President José Eduardo dos Santos of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), who rode in public in a bulletproof Mercedes surrounded by heavily armed guards, as the country was in civil war against the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), led by Jonas Savimbi. The MPLA was supported by Cuba and, to a lesser extent, the Soviet Union, and between 1975 and 1991 400,000 Cubans served as teachers, physicians and soldiers there. UNITA was mainly supported by the United States, especially during President Ronald Reagan's two terms in office, along with the apartheid South African government, as both feared the spread of Marxism to other sub-Saharan countries, including South Africa itself. The MPLA held control of Luanda and the urbanized coastal areas of Angola and were supported by the Mbundu people, whereas UNITA's power was in the north and less populated interior of the country and were favored by the Ovimbundu, Angola's largest ethnic group. Due to the strength of MPLA and the large presence of disciplined Cuban soldiers Luanda at that time was relatively safe especially after 1988, when the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale repelled a South African/UNITA armed invasion, cemented Cuban/MPLA control of the country, and led to the downfall of South African President P.W. Botha. Guerrilla attacks on schools and other establishments was a constant fear, although a questionable reality.

The title of this novel refers to the use of the word comrade to formally address nearly everyone in the MPLA controlled territory; Ndalu's favorite visitor at home is Comrade António, and his primary teachers are Comrade Teacher Maria, the wife of Comrade Teacher Ángel, both from Cuba. Ndalu and his schoolmates are in the last few days of their classes, and are good kids although somewhat rebellious and apt to get into mild trouble, even though they love the school and their teachers, although they find them and other Cubans to be somewhat inscrutable and overly idealistic. Through Ndalu's eyes the reader views the everyday life in Angola in the early 1990s, which is marked with frequent mass rallies, socialist holidays, and speeches at school in opposition to imperialism, Ronald Reagan and apartheid, along with the use of ration cards to purchase goods. Most of Ndalu's classmates and their families are relatively well off in comparison to their Cuban teachers, and they sit alongside each other in an ethnic melting pot of Blacks, mixed race mestiços, and white Cubans and Portuguese.

At the end of the school year the children are saddened to learn that their teachers would soon return to Cuba, leaving their future education in charge of native Angolans. Soon they would learn that a peace agreement between MPLA and UNITA had been reached, and Cuba withdrew its presence from the country. What they could not foresee is that the presidential election held the following year kept President dos Santos and MPLA in power, and led to a vicious resurgence of the Angolan Civil War after Jonas Savimbi and UNITA, who were assured that they would win the election, lost instead.

'Good Morning Comrades' is a valuable insight into Angola during the end of the Cold War, and what appeared to be the end of the Angolan Civil War, which is mainly drawn from the Ondjaki's own childhood in Luanda. The afterword by the book's translator, Stephen Henighan, provides valuable context to the novel, which is essential for those unfamiliar with the country's history, and his comments bumped my rating of the book from 3½ to 4 stars.… (more)