In the Name of the People by Pawson Lara

Author:Pawson, Lara
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: I.B.Tauris
Published: 2014-04-28T00:00:00+00:00

It’s past midday when I arrive back in my room, shining in sweat. In my absence, I’ve received some invitations. One is from a Brazilian man, a friend of a friend I’ve never met. He’s having a barbecue on a balcony when the sun goes down. He’d like me to be there.

At eight, a South African photographer picks me up. I don’t know him either, but we chatter away in the car about our different experiences here. He says he’s only got a few days in Luanda, then he needs to get back home. Next week, he’s going straight to Congo, he tells me, ‘to capture Kinshasa’. He says he finds the rush conducive to taking decent pictures, but by the time we arrive at the party he’s convinced me he’s probably wrong. Several beers later, I’m in conversation with a large man who introduces himself as a poet. When I tell him my full name he says he knows who I am. He remembers my reporting from Malanje, he says, in 1999, when the town was being bombed for weeks and weeks by UNITA rebels. He tells me I was brave and embraces me and even now, all these years on, I’m overwhelmed to learn that someone somewhere noticed the work. At the time, I was certain no one had heard. ‘And now?’ asks the poet. ‘What’s brought you back?’ I tell him about my current research into the vinte e sete and his response is stunning. ‘I have a car,’ he says, ‘and a few good contacts. If you will allow it, I’d like to help.’ His name is Aloisio Serrano.

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