Placed September 3, 2008 in Media and Public sphere:
Download full version of article on Angola published in:
Justino Pinto de Andrade and Nuno Vidal: Civil Society, Democracy and Human Rights in Angola (Luanda & Lisbon: Angolan Catholic University and University of Coimbra, 2008)
I spent August 2008 in Luanda, Angola’s capital. First participating in a seminar where we presented for civil society and politics the book Sociedade civil e política em Angola (edited by Justino Pinto de Andrade and Nuno Vidal, and with an article on Civil Society of David Sogge, René Roemersma and me). Later delivering two workshops on communication and presentation for small Civil Society Organizations and people from Development Workshop, an Angolan NGO of Canadian descent, that commissioned the workshops.
Life is slightly improving…
Downtown Luanda is booming: everywhere building of skyscrapers is going on, roads are repaired and traffic is a nightmare: I’ve seen more new 4x4’s than anywhere else.
The good news is indeed that even in the poorest parts of the city (the musseques) life is little by little becoming a bit better for people. The family I described in A family of the musseque (1996) and which I visited again, so many years later, has now after 20 year finally access to electricity in their neighborhood. Also 3 instead of 1 members now have jobs in the formal economy. See also ‘publications’ on this website.
A feudal, rather than a failing state…
You don’t know what you’re voting for…
MPLA is going to win…
Still, I’m an optimist…
Support a culture of debate and responsiveness!
Finally the Civil society (in the broad sense, see article in ‘Media and public sphere on this website) is here to stay: Catholic universities, headmen’s (Souba’s) organizations, all kind of churches, small village papers, they are all contributing to the public space.
We, the writers of this article, plead for more investments in those groups and organizations that are willing to promote and push responsiveness of the rulers to citizens’ needs, for instance by expanding and making transparent the public arena including the media).
MPLA will win this elections, I bet on that, but democracy will not follow from these elections: it will have to be conquered after, in a public space where the issues at stake are debated and transparency and responsiveness can be demanded from ruling parties, whoever they are.
Luanda, Amsterdam, September 1, 2008
Placed July 2, 2008 in 'publications':
1986: Comalapa - a village in Nicaragua
With Hans van Heijningen: describing every day life in a war torn province.
This book was undertaken because both Hans and me wanted to show how life goes on in a war zone - or how also normal life comes to an abrupt end.....
As Bismarc Nunez Jiron (14 years old then) says in his interview: "The last weeks I go around in my uniform and I'm armed, because they can come here. May be that we can stop the contras. because it's dangerous now I carry arms, to defend my village. Without talking to anyone I went with my brother in law, Bertoldo, to the village command post, when we came back from the cooperative. In the command post they gave me my fire arm...
Because of the revolution our life has become better. Before then we were always afraid at home. In earlier days there were often party's of the liberals of Somoza. My father and brothers never went there... Later my brothers Aldo and Ronaldo joined the Sandinistas...
My place is at the river with Adonis and my cousin Hugo... What will happen if the contra's manage to enter the village? I don't know... Perhaps they will kill the revolutionary people..."
And indeed during the months we worked on this book 68 people in and around Comalapa were killed, including several we interviewed. At that time we dedicated our book to them, and although this is now over 20 years ago, they are still engraved in our minds.
Bismarc himself now lives in Miami: he managed to get smuggled into the United States and is a succesful builder there, keeping alive economically a large part of his family that stayed in Nicaragua...
CV Bob van der Winden
