ANGOLA TEN YEARS AFTER WAR AND THE PROSPECTS FOR THE FUTURE with Justin Pearce
Friends of Le Monde Diplomatique Café Diplo at The Gallery, 70/77 Cowcross Street, London EC1M 6EL. Nearest tube station Farringdon. 6.45pm (doors open 6.30). £3, concessions £2, tickets on door. Info 07905 313 759 or see our website www.mondediplofriends.org.uk
The Angolan conflict, which had its roots in the anti-colonial struggles of the 1960s, seemed to defy the efforts of peace mediators as it continued until the beginning of the present century. It ended only when the state, buoyed by its status as an emerging oil power, destroyed its long-time enemy by force of arms. Justin Pearce is a research associate at the SOAS and has spent time in Angola researching the civil war and its aftermath. As a newspaper journalist, southern Africa correspondent for the BBC news website and BBC world service correspondent in Luanda he previously gained extensive experience of the Angolan conflict and the politics of southern Africa. He will talk about the political, economic and social challenges a decade after the end of the conflict, considering the legacy of the war alongside the state's ever more important role as a provider of energy to the China and the United States, and the demands of a post-war generation anxious for an equitable distribution of the country's wealth.
