L´Afrique Profonde: The Impudence of Narcissism

Nganlagi spared Christine the gory details of the days in a refuge, a local Catholic church building on the outskirts of Huambo before 1991. He focused on the day his letter of offer of a scholarship to Australia arrived in Huambo. As he sat on his mother¿s city apartment balcony, thrilled at the offer spelt out in the letter, Nganlagi pondered over the year that was coming to a close. He placed the letter on a side table and walked up to the balustrade, overlooking the main thoroughfare in the city of Huambo. Mount Moco, Angoläs highest mountain lay in the distance, out of sight. From left to right, his eyes met with shattered double brick, abandoned shops of all colonial colours. The residential, three-storey buildings peppered with bullet holes. Yet the island strips in the middle of the wide, asphalt road outside his parents¿ apartment were clean and green. The grass, low and lavish, re-invigorated the battered city.