"A fascinating look at modern merc actions in the Middle East and Africa. From brushfire wars in the Congo to outright genocides in Biafra, highly skilled mercenaries were called upon to fight for order, and also for a living. Whether facing fanatics in Somalia or revolutionaries in Rhodesia, staving off cannibals in Sierra Leone or assisting a civil war in Angola the mercs put their lives on the line for a cause." -- book cover.
Set against the back-drop of the Cold War, Al Venter examines the Soviet-led
guerrilla conflict in Portuguese Guinea which sought to expel the Portuguese
colonials over a brutal 10-year war. Insight in to one of the African
conflicts of the Cold War frontier.
Shortlisted for the Sunday TimesFiction Award 2014 How should a man be? Mattie Duiker is trying very hard to live up to his dying father's wishes. He is putting aside childish things, starting his first business serving healthy take-away food to the workers in his district of Cape Town. His Pa is proud. At the same time, Mattie is pulled toward an altogether different version of masculinity, in which oiled and toned bodies cavort for him at the click of a mouse. His porn addiction both threatens his relationship with his boyfriend, Jack, and imperils his inheritance. Pa's peacocking days as a swaggering businessman are done, but even as the cancer shrivels and crisps him, the old man's ancient authority intensifies as it shrinks, like Mattie's own signature sauce. Pa haltingly prepares his son for life without him, and himself for life without a male heir. And, while the family wrestles with matters of entitlement and inheritance, around them a new South Africa is quietly but persistently nudging its way forwards. Wolf, Wolf is a novel of old rigid states and new unfinished forms, of stiff tolerance and mournful nostalgia. With uncommon sensitivity to place, time, and sex, Eben Venter reveals himself to the world outside his homeland as one of its most astute and acute observers, giving shape in story to some of the sea-changes of our time, in the manner of Coetzee and Roth.
This book describes the full career of this storied aerial warrior, from the
bush and jungles of Africa to the forests of the Balkans and the merciless
mountains of today's Afghanistan.
A detailed examination of the events before and after the Battle of Angola,
with several chapters covering the colonial struggle between Africa and
Portugal.
