When eight-year-old Adelino Serras Pires first arrived on a boat from Portugal in 1936, Mozambique was a tropical paradise, where native tribes and Portuguese colonists lived in harmony and where vast wilderness areas held the promise of endless excitement. A few weeks into Adelino's new life, his father took him along on a successful hunt for man-eating lions that had been terrorizing the countryside. From that point on, Adelino's destiny was sealed - he would spend his days in the African bush, hunting for a living and living for adventure.
After a childhood replete with thrilling episodes, Adelino became a major safari organizer with a client list comprising African royalty, European aristocracy and dignitaries, American astronauts and adventurers from around the world. Life in Mozambique, however, came under increasing threat to all its inhabitants as a foreign-incubated mood of violence began to take root. The Frelimo guerrilla movement, bent on ousting the Portuguese and on crushing all internal dissent, began launching attacks throughout the land. Such attacks resulted, amongst other things, in injury and death involving safari clients. This forced Adelino into a war of his own as he fought back to the end in a country that had long since become his permanent home.
What follows is a frightening look at a continent under siege. As Adelino moved through sub-Saharan Africa - each time resuming his life's ambition - he repeatedly witnessed the violence and horror of armed conflict. Like a hunter stalking its prey, it was only a matter of time before the forces of revolution brought him down too.
That day came when Adelino, his son, his nephew and a fellow hunter were abducted in Tanzania and turned over to the secret police in Frelimo-controlled Mozambique. In hair-raising detail, Adelino recounts months of torture and interrogation in Mozambique and in Tanzania, which almost cost him his life, and the treacherous circumstances that landed him in that hell.
The Winds of Havoc is a story of Adelino's steady disillusionment, as the beauty of Africa slowly gave way to political turmoil corruption and decline. But more than that, this book is a moving portrait of a life and time that are now gone forever.
