Complicated War

Powerful, instructive, and full of humanity, this book challenges the current understanding of the war that has turned Mozambique-a naturally rich country-into the world's poorest nation. Before going to Mozambique, William Finnegan saw the war, like so many foreign observers, through a South African lens, viewing the conflict as apartheid's &quote;forward defense.&quote; This lens was shattered by what he witnessed and what he heard from Mozambicans, especially those who had lived with the bandidos armado, the &quote;armed bandits&quote; otherwise known as the Renamo rebels. The shifting, wrenching, ground-level stories that people told combine to form an account of the war more local and nuanced, more complex, more African-than anything that has been politically convenient to describe.A Complicated War combines frontline reporting, personal narrative, political analysis, and comparative scholarship to present a picture of a Mozambique harrowed by profound local conflicts-ethnic, religious, political and personal. Finnegan writes that South Africa's domination and destabilization are basic elements of Mozambique's plight, but he offers a subtle description and analysis that will allow us to see the post-apartheid region from a new, more realistic, if less comfortable, point of view.Powerful, instructive, and full of humanity, this book challenges the current understanding of the war that has turned Mozambique-a naturally rich country-into the world's poorest nation. Before going to Mozambique, William Finnegan saw the war, like so m</DIV