Thursday 3 May 2007

"THE ANGOLA OF MY DREAMS"


"I would like to explain the context in which I produced the flashmovie "The Angola of My Dreams".

This movie is a tribute to Jorge Sangumba, the first Foreign Secretary of UNITA. Jorge Sangumba and I were married in 1975. I was at the time a graduate student at Harvard, finishing a Ph.D. in African History. Jorge was killed in 1982. Because we frequently communicated by letter, I have in my possession several hundred pages of correspondence from him.

As we scholars sort through the chaos of the Angolan civil war, we must recognize that certain voices with meaningful messages will never be heard. This movie is my attempt to introduce one such voice to those who have an interest in Angola, its history and traumas. I spent a year sifting through Jorge's correspondence and speeches to distill the essence of what he stood for and have tried to convey that essence in his own words with this flash movie."

By Constance Hilliard


(See it here)


"I would like to explain the context in which I produced the flashmovie "The Angola of My Dreams".

This movie is a tribute to Jorge Sangumba, the first Foreign Secretary of UNITA. Jorge Sangumba and I were married in 1975. I was at the time a graduate student at Harvard, finishing a Ph.D. in African History. Jorge was killed in 1982. Because we frequently communicated by letter, I have in my possession several hundred pages of correspondence from him.

As we scholars sort through the chaos of the Angolan civil war, we must recognize that certain voices with meaningful messages will never be heard. This movie is my attempt to introduce one such voice to those who have an interest in Angola, its history and traumas. I spent a year sifting through Jorge's correspondence and speeches to distill the essence of what he stood for and have tried to convey that essence in his own words with this flash movie."

By Constance Hilliard


(See it here)

10 comments:

Raquel Sabino Pereira said...

WOW!!! GOD SAVE ANGOLA!!!!!

Koluki said...

INDEED! GOD SAVE OUR DEAR ANGOLA!!!

By the way: when is our wonderful Luanda Azul coming back?

Anonymous said...

Estou com alguma dificuldade em comentar.....as imagens perturbaram-me muito.....Este país imenso,imponente, belo....cheio de alegria que teima em não morrer, mesmo com a fome, a miséria e a ganância implacável dos senhores do Dinheiro, do Petróleo, dos Diamantes......Mas um povo sem saúde, devido à desnutrição avançada e em massa, falgelado por doenças oportunistas da miséria, DESLOCADO e por isso....desAlmado vai-se exaurindo.E um povo sem saúde.....
Mas tenho ESPERANÇA também....
Abracinho

Fernando Ribeiro said...

Eu tive alguma dificuldade em ver o video, mas finalmente consegui vê-lo, depois de ter actualizado o software do Flash Player.

É um video belíssimo, que transmite uma mensagem de esperança, apesar de tudo. É também um video com gente dentro, coisa rara em imagens sobre Angola, nas quais as pessoas só aparecem como fazendo parte da paisagem ou para darem uma cor local.

Fixemos isto de uma vez por todas: Angola é um país portentoso, com petróleo, diamantes, paisagens grandiosas, uma fauna e uma flora magníficas, poentes de fogo e tudo o mais; mas o que Angola tem de mais belo não são as Quedas de Kalandula nem a Fenda da Tundavala; são as pessoas. Isto é indesmentível.

Gostei muito também da canção do Bonga, Mona ki ngixika, que é uma canção antiga dele. Pessoalmente, prefiro as canções mais antigas do Bonga do que as mais recentes.

Koluki said...

Ontem conheci um portugues que, enquanto davamos uma volta por Maun (Botswana), na companhia de uma Britanica e de um Americano, dizia isto: "Angola tem tudo de mais e de melhor que Mocambique, excepto as pessoas..."!

Anonymous said...

Koluki,
I'm deeply grateful to you for posting this tribute to my late husband, Jorge Sangumba. Your blog is fresh and vibrant. It is also a reminder of what talent Angola has to offer the world.
Best wishes,
Connie

Koluki said...

Dear Connie,

It was an honour to me to have had the opportunity to publish this moving tribute to your late husband. The loss of an Angolan, whatever his/her political affiliation or ethnicity is always a loss for the Angolan nation and is always to be regretted. We have now entered a new era where hopefully PEACE will be a meaningful word for all of us wherever we might be in the world.

Thank you as well for your kind words towards this blog. Please feel free to use it as yours whenever you want!

Anonymous said...

humm...I know that Jorge Sangumba had a relationship with a women and had a child that also calls Jorge Sangumba ...is that true??

Anonymous said...

humm...I know that Jorge Sangumba had a relationship with a women and had a child that also calls Jorge Sangumba ...is that true??

Anonymous said...

In fact it is true that he left a child also called Jorge Sangumba.