Ostensibly, this book is in two voices: Tamar Golan, Israel's first Ambassador
to Angola, deals with the
political/diplomatic aspects, while the stories on gorillas, the Black giant
sable and Nature are by zoologist/ecologist, Tamar Ron. But in reality, the book
has one voice, one of love for Angola, its long-suffering people,
vast landscapes and wild animals, and their ongoing struggle for survival.
Africa is associated with war, disease, oil,
diamonds, hunger, corruption, destruction, death -- a lost and forlorn world. In
Angola all these are
manifest, yet the authors fell in love with the country, with the wonderful
people, the children and the women, whose daily struggle for survival arouses
both sympathy and admiration, with Angola's enchanting natural beauty,
mysterious cultures, rare biodiversity and fiery sunsets over an endless ocean.
For many years a bloody war of independence raged and, as soon at it ended, the
country was thrown into a terrible civil war, during the height of the Cold War.
Millions were killed, maimed, or lost their homes. The war is now over but the
minefields still claim their gruesome harvest. Everything is interwoven: life
and death, war and peace; children who know no childhood and adults who dream of
a long-lost innocence; men and women, tough warriors who suddenly find softness
and warmth in their souls; betrayal of and return to tradition; man and Nature,
their fates irrevocably intertwined. "Calma, calma!" is the answer for every
problem -- your visa has expired, you are wracked with malaria, there's a power
cut and you're stuck in the elevator between the 15th and 16th floors ... yet
things have a way of working themselves out in Angola. But there is something
pleasant in the air, something calming, warm, comforting. Something that can
only be described as calma, calma!
Thus it happened ... or did it?; In the Shadow of War; The Enchanted
Forest; Children of the Marginal; Great Women; Four Sons; On the Ocean & in
the River; Facts on Angola.
