writes under the name Pepetela. A Portuguese Angolan, Pepetela was born in Benguela, Portuguese Angola, and fought as a member of the MPLA in the long guerrilla...

economy. It built no roads until the mid-1920s, and the first railroad, the Benguela railway, was not completed until 1929. Between 1900 and 1940, only 35,000...

involved tacking against the southeasterly trade winds and the contrary Benguela Current, a particularly tiresome task for heavy square rigged carracks...