Steppin' Out Of Babylon: Radio Interviews

Marissa Moorman is Asssistant Professor of African History at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana. Her particular area of expertize is Angola and the formation of an Angolan culture during the end of Portuguese control of this African country. She pursued this subject in Angola where she has lived because there was so much happening with music during the struggle for independence from Portugal. Little had been written in English about this phenomenon of music and political struggle. Moorman talks about the history of the long and violent struggle for independence and how the country is, since the Peace Accords in 2002, finally free of war and able to focus on re-building and healing. She also mentions how she thinks that-- even though it has that much desired resource of oil -- Angola will not be attacked by the countries that need oil since, unlike in Nigeria, the oil sources are very difficult for protestors to reach since they are far off shore and technologically difficult to bring up the oi