Text by Ned Sublette (from Nedslist)
There’s a nonfiction film playing in NYC this week (and some other cities) that offers a rare view inside Angola, a country that is largely closed to outside reporters.
Jeremy Xido’s Death Metal Angola takes place in Huambo (in the country’s interior, founded as Nova Lisboa, a colonial railroad terminal, in the early 20th century.) Unfortunately for its residents, Huambo was a UNITA stronghold; Jonas Savimbi declared it to be his capital. So it was bombed practically out of existence, from the ground (including street-to-street battles) but mostly from the air, by the MPLA (i.e., by the Angolan government) and was in ruins from about ’94 on. Now the guns are silent; the Angolan Civil War ended in 2002.
