Death in africa - ColdType

FRED BRIDGLAND
course. She had, in fact, been sent on a mission by Savimbi to
seduce and spy on Tito. How willingly he succumbed I do not
know, but succumb he did. Raquel told Tito what Savimbi had
done to her and the nature of her assignment. She begged him
to take her or she would, at best, return to concubinage with
Savimbi, or, in extremis, be killed like her parents.
Raquel, by all accounts, fell in love with Tito. It was hardly
surprising. Tito had effortless charm. He was young and intelligent
and the hero of a whole younger generation back in the
Angolan grasslands and forests.
“Tito was never in love with Raquel,” according to his
nephew, Eduardo Chingunji. “But he was intensely lonely and
felt compassion for her. He was also in a classic Catch-22 situation.
It spelled danger for him if he spurned her, and he
realised that for her it was clearly a matter of life or death.”
In 1983 Raquel became pregnant and at the end of the year
visited Jamba. She and her son by Tito, Kalei, born in 1984,
were not allowed out again. Tito continued to live abroad, in
London and then Washington, continuing his work as foreign
secretary.
It was after Raquel’s return to Jamba that Savimbi began
publicly burning women and children to death.
On 7 September 1983 he summoned everybody to a “very
important rally” on the central parade ground at Jamba.
Commandos were ordered to ensure that no one missed the
event. As the crowds flowed towards the arena – where television
crews had filmed senior American and British politicians
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