Sofonie Dala: The Girl Born Between Wars
Sofonie Dala: The Girl Born Between Wars Sofonie Dala was born in Angola in 1991, in the final breath of one civil war and the first heartbeat of another. Before she could even speak, the sound of gunfire had already become the soundtrack of her existence. Her mother used to say that Sofonie entered the world on a night when the sky itself seemed afraid. The electricity had failed again in Luanda, and distant explosions trembled through the dark like angry thunder. Women whispered prayers while fathers listened anxiously to the radio, waiting for news about battles, bombings, and shifting territories. Angola had already suffered for sixteen years. The First Phase of the Angolan Civil War, from 1975 to 1991, had torn the country apart after independence from Portugal. The MPLA, supported by Cuba and the Soviet Union, fought against UNITA and the FNLA, backed by the United States and apartheid South Africa. Entire villages disappeared into smoke. Roads became graveyar...
