Eagle, I don't want to form an alliance anymore.

South Africa withdrew its troops, UNITA retreated to the south and east of Zimbabwe to wage guerrilla warfare, while the Anglo-Chinese Liberation Army (ANLI) gained a foothold in Cuba.

But UNITA was not destroyed. Savinbi led the remnants to a remote area in the southeast corner, and in less than ten years rebuilt a defeated army of a few thousand men into an organized military force.

To date, UNITA claims to have more than 60,000 members, including guerrillas, semi-regular battalions, and regular battalions. They are equipped with Soviet-made tanks captured from the Anglo-Chinese Liberation Army, war booty donated by South Africa, and Stinger missiles provided by the United States.

It occupies the southeast corner, and with the support of South Africa, it has become a thorn in the side of the Angolan regime that it cannot remove.

Castro wanted Griffin to fight against this UNITA.

Prigozin has no intention of fighting there.

UNITA had been operating in the southeast corner for over a decade, possessing a thorough understanding of the terrain, strong fortifications, and the backing of South Africa. Just recently, Angola, under the command of Soviet generals, launched a massive offensive—Operation Tribute in October—aimed at completely destroying UNITA.

The result? Tens of thousands of Soviet troops, equipped with the best Soviet weaponry, were routed by a few thousand South African soldiers! In one day, more than 600 government soldiers were killed, and more than 100 tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed or captured, while South Africa suffered only double-digit casualties.

This crushing defeat was the direct reason why Slava Hongwen decided to take down Griffin.

Prigozin knew all too well: going southeast to fight UNITA was simply sending more lives into a meat grinder that had just swallowed tens of thousands. Even if Griffin was capable, it would be sending his elite troops to gnaw on a tough nut to crack.

He was looking for a place where he could achieve great results with minimal effort—Namibia, located in southwestern Angola.

South Africa's motivation for intervening in the Angolan civil war was never to serve the United States, but to protect Namibia.

Namibia was then called Southwest Africa. In the 19th century, it was a German colony. After Germany's defeat in World War I, the colonies were divided up, and this land was taken over by South Africa.

The international community has long ruled that South Africa’s occupation of Namibia is illegal, and the United Nations has repeatedly demanded that South Africa withdraw, but South Africa stubbornly refuses to leave.

Because Namibia is too important to South Africa—it serves as a buffer zone between South Africa and the hostile black countries to the north.

South Africa always claims to protect itself from threats from hostile countries, but why are there so many hostile countries?

There is an organization in Namibia that opposes South Africa called the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO), whose armed force is the Namibian People's Liberation Army.

The scenario South Africa fears most is Namibia's independence and the rise of the South West African People's Organization (SWAP) – in which case South Africa's northern border would be directly exposed to a hostile regime!

Unfortunately, the Namibian People's Liberation Army's rear base is located in southern Angola. It launched its cross-border attack from Angola into Namibia. For South Africa to pursue it, it would have to cross the border and invade Angola.

This is why the Angolan civil war and the Namibian crisis are so intertwined.

Prigozin immediately grasped the crux of the matter.

If Griffin doesn't engage in a fierce battle with UNITA in southeastern Angola, but instead shifts his forces to the southwest, to Namibia, to support the Namibian People's Liberation Army's offensive against South Africa—that would be tantamount to attacking South Africa from behind, striking at its Achilles' heel.

South Africa's military resources are limited, and it has already committed a large number of troops to Angola. If Namibia, which is behind it, also descends into chaos and fire, South Africa will have to divide its forces and be exhausted.

What's worse is that South Africa has a deadlock that it can't solve on its own.

Prigozin recalled the point Slava had made during their conversation—the Soviet revolutionary methods were unsuitable for impoverished and underdeveloped Africa. And this same principle could, in turn, be applied to South Africa!

As is well known, South Africa was a reactionary apartheid regime.

Its military core must be white, because it dares not let blacks into the inner circle—how could a regime that maintains its rule by oppressing blacks and practicing racial segregation dare to hand over all the guns to blacks? Arming blacks is tantamount to digging its own grave!

At the start of the war, the proportion of white soldiers was still quite high.

However, South Africa wanted to maintain "white racial purity" and "white bloodline must not be contaminated" by practicing apartheid. White people wanted to maintain and defend their material advantages and political and social privileges. However, the reality of a rapidly growing black population, coupled with rising black discontent and the undeniable isolation of the white government, meant that South Africa had to bear a greater cost to defend the existing order.

The conscription system for whites alone is no longer sufficient. The ever-expanding defense budget, the nationwide mandatory military service for all white men aged 18 to 25, and the citizen-military and reserve obligations after service have generated a great deal of resentment.

Therefore, South Africa began to arm its Black population under strict control. The soldiers armed were not South African Black citizens, but rather Angolans, Namibians, or other marginalized ethnic groups. Using foreign Black people to fight foreign wars carried far less political risk than arming its own Black population.

All these predominantly Black units were commanded by white officers, and Black soldiers were excluded from command positions. This ensured that ultimate control of the armed forces remained firmly in the hands of whites. Moreover, these Black troops were primarily deployed overseas, rather than for domestic policing and suppression in South Africa; domestic deployments relied mainly on white conscripts and police.

Namibia is now South Africa's rear area, with a large black population. If more white South African soldiers can be killed and blacks can be incited to resist, South Africa will have to return to defend it.

South Africa is currently fighting on two fronts, Namibia and Angola. The more it fights, the more it is short of troops. Because it is short of troops, it dares not arm large numbers of black people to replenish them. If it dares not use black people, it will be even more short of troops!

This deadlock, Prigozin, can tighten it to the point of no return.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

So in mid-March, Prigozin appeared in the Namibian theater of operations with Griffin.

At first, South Africa didn't take it too seriously, seeing it as just another force supporting Namibian independence. South Africa had been dealing with guerrillas in this area for over twenty years and was experienced.

But they soon realized that this time was different.

Griffin's team is on a completely different level from the guerrillas they've dealt with in the past.

With over a thousand battle-hardened Russian veterans as the backbone, plus African soldiers familiar with the terrain, this was a formidable force that combined the fighting power of a regular army with the flexibility of a guerrilla unit.

Prigozin was ruthless and cunning in his military tactics, always targeting South Africa's weaknesses. Knowing that the Soviet revolutionary methods were not suitable for the local situation, Prigozin even hired a Chinese advisor. Although China had cut off aid to most Third World communist parties, the legacy of Mao's era in terms of combat thinking and methods of building revolutionary forces remained. Prigozin carefully studied Mao's ideas and methods and was greatly impressed.

Although Prigozin was once a street thug, after spending so many years in Afghanistan and Africa, witnessing so much injustice, poverty, oppression, and bloodshed, his conscience compelled him not to stand idly by in the face of these tragedies.

As his team ventured deeper into Namibia, Prigozin gradually transformed from an observer and an executor of orders into a practitioner, and the Black community increasingly welcomed the team that had helped them escape the oppression of the apartheid regime in South Africa.

He seemed to understand the feeling that Slava had described before—the passion for fighting for national liberation with a clear goal in mind—which began to gradually change him.

The cohesion among Griffin's Black followers is growing stronger, and many mercenaries are gradually becoming interested in revolutionary theories. More and more people in Namibia are joining this force, supporting the Namibian Liberation Army, and resisting the white-led repressive forces.

South Africa’s control over Namibia is beginning to deteriorate.

South Africa's response fell right into the same trap Prigozin had foreseen—it could only rely on continuously conscripting white soldiers as its main force. Because it still dared not arm black people, it dared not conscript local Namibian blacks to suppress other blacks. Even when this reactionary apartheid regime was being soundly defeated, it dared not cross that red line!

As a result, the white soldiers in South Africa began to be gradually depleted and drained, and the white repressive forces began to search Namibia and severely hunt down these revolutionaries.

In the eyes of many local Black people, these foreign mercenaries were either Slavic whites or Blacks, and they spoke different languages, but they were all liberators.

Later, Prigozin simply reached a cooperation agreement with the Namibian People's Liberation Army, allowing the two sides to share flags and supplies.

Under the advanced equipment and organization of Griffin, the Namibian Liberation Army gradually encircled the cities from the countryside and mobilized the masses to strengthen its forces. The slogans of "overthrowing the landlords and distributing land" resonated instantly with the Namibian black farmers who had been oppressed for generations, stirring their patriotic fervor.

Because it doesn't talk about the distant industrial proletariat, but about the immediate, living oppression and liberation!

Many farms owned by white South Africans in Namibia were burned down, and black laborers frequently launched rebellions.

Slavery in South Africa was formally abolished in 1834 with the British Abolition Act, but the labor system of the apartheid era merely gave it a new legal guise.

Black people were required to carry a pass book with them, which recorded which "white areas" they were allowed to be in and for whom they worked. Those without a pass or with an expired pass would be arrested, effectively binding their personal and freedom of movement to an employment relationship with white people.

White farmers had near-absolute power over Black farm workers, who were paid very little or even in kind. Workers were bound to the farm and unable to leave, and corporal punishment was not uncommon.

South Africa also relegated the "citizenship" of Black people to their impoverished homelands, making them foreign laborers without political rights in South Africa and assigning them to mines, farms, and factories as needed.

Essentially, South Africa's apartheid system utilized a complete set of modern legal and administrative machinery to achieve the economic functions of slavery—a cheap and controllable supply of labor—while maintaining the outward appearance of capitalist "free employment." This is why the international community often refers to apartheid as a variant of modern slavery.

Prigozin meticulously documented the reactionary nature of this ideology, explaining to Black people why they were oppressed, why there was Black-on-Black oppression, why societal progress had no impact on them, and why their lives as "citizens" were essentially no different from those of the Age of Exploration centuries earlier...

He told the Black people the source of their suffering, the methodology, the action plan, and the kind of society they wanted to build if they wanted to fight for independence.

The previously weak South West African People's Organization simply hired all of Griffin's staff and was willing to send representatives to help Griffin cooperate with the Namibian People's Liberation Army. Prigozin took this opportunity to seek support from Moscow, cultivate genuine Marxists-Leninists in SWAPO, and gradually integrate the Namibian People's Liberation Army.

As time went on, the Namibian Liberation Army's presence was no longer simply about fighting. They mobilized the masses, distributing land seized by the apartheid regime and white colonists to local Black communities. They established grassroots governments in the liberated areas. Prigozin demanded strict military discipline, forbidding any harassment or oppression of the local people by the troops—the army and the people should be like fish and water.

He also recruited a large number of local Black people, placing them in the command structure and making the team truly their own.

This move was incredibly effective.

In the past, support for SWAPO among Namibian blacks was limited. But now, when the Namibian People's Liberation Army arrived with the slogan "Redistribute land, fight the oppressors, and become masters of our own destiny," for the first time, those blacks who had been oppressed for generations felt that this force was fighting for them.

More and more local Black people in the liberated areas began to actively join and help the Namibian People's Liberation Army. Some delivered intelligence, some delivered food, and some directly took up arms and joined the ranks, or joined the Griffin.

The people's support grew like a snowball.

Many cadres who came from other Third World countries said that such teams had appeared twenty years ago.

Veterans who excelled in combat and gained experience were sent to the Soviet Union or East Germany for special training. Once trained, they returned to become even stronger core members. This cycle continued, and the force grew stronger day by day.

Prigozin's move reached Castro, who greatly admired it.

Castro, who had previously harbored reservations about Griffin's "lack of purity," was now genuinely moved. Because what Prigozin had done—mobilizing the masses, relying on the people, and enabling the oppressed to rise up—wasn't that the very embodiment of international revolutionary spirit?

Isn't this exactly what Castro believed in and wanted to do his whole life?

Castro never expected that a mercenary leader he initially thought was just a profit-driven individual would do something more impressive and revolutionary than many regular soldiers.

His initial awkwardness and disdain for Prigozin turned into genuine admiration.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

By August 1988, the situation had completely changed.

The spark that ignited was not just burning in Namibia.

Riots began to erupt frequently in many black segregation areas in western and northern South Africa, and similar uprisings began to appear in Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. The apartheid system itself, already burdened with the blood and tears of countless black people, was a tinderbox ready to burst!

The fire that broke out in Namibia became the spark that ignited this pile of dry tinder, and riots broke out one after another.

The South African government is in dire straits. Its military strength has been stretched too thin – it has to confront Angola head-on, fight fires in Namibia, maintain its intervention in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and now its own black segregation zones are on fire everywhere.

It could only attend to one thing at a time, and eventually, the situation worsened to the point that even small numbers of South African troops dared not enter those segregated black towns during the day.

Because once you go in, there's a chance you might never come back.

South Africa faced more than just military difficulties. Europe and the Soviet Union imposed a comprehensive economic blockade on South Africa, which was part of Slavana's grand strategy—as Soviet influence in Europe grew, Western European countries, in order to curry favor with Moscow and demonstrate a détente with the Soviet Union, actively pushed for sanctions against South Africa.

Sanctioning South Africa became a pledge of allegiance from Western Europe to the Soviet Union. South Africa's most important card in the past, namely "we are the front line of the West's anti-communist cause," has now become ineffective because the United States, mired in the Great Depression, is no longer able to play it, and South Africa is unprecedentedly isolated on the international stage.

Economic blockade, coupled with troop shortages and growing anti-war sentiment among the white elite... these factors are gradually pushing South Africa to the brink of collapse.

Castro seized this opportunity.

He believed it was time to launch a large-scale counterattack, to bring the war to South Africa, and at least force South Africa to the negotiating table!

In September 1988, the Cuban and Angolan People's Army mobilized 9 troops to launch a large-scale offensive.

South Africa was scrambling to cope. It barely managed to muster 140,000 troops to repel the offensive from the Angolan direction.

But South Africa paid a heavy price.

To halt the 70,000-strong Angolan offensive, South Africa had to redeploy a large number of troops to the front lines. This redeployment left Namibia, its rear base, vulnerable.

Prigozin had been waiting for this moment.

While South Africa's main force was tied up on the front lines in Angola, a nationwide uprising broke out in Namibia.

The forces that had been building up for more than half a year finally erupted at this moment. The People's Liberation Army and the mobilized black masses worked together, and South Africa's remaining defenses in Namibia, which had been depleted, were simply no match for them. The entire country was engulfed in flames of war.

South Africa is completely at its breaking point.

Tactically, it won and blocked Angola's offensive, but strategically it lost miserably and could no longer afford the cost of the war.

On October 21, 1988, the South African government announced that it had successfully repelled the Angolan invasion.

It had to say that it was a proud reactionary regime, and it couldn't admit that it had lost, that it had been cornered by a bunch of mercenaries and guerrillas! So, for appearances' sake, it had to declare that it had successfully repelled the communist invasion.

While South Africa was declaring victory, it quietly sent representatives to seek peace talks with Angola and Namibia.

Prigozin was standing on a high ground in a liberated area of ​​Namibia when he heard the news that South Africa was asking for peace talks.

In the distance lies a newly liberated land. Black farmers are working in the fields—land allocated to them, land that belongs to them. Nearby, a group of soldiers is assembling, many of whom are local Black people who have voluntarily come to join them over the past six months; their faces are filled with the pride of being masters of their own destiny.

Prigozin looked at all this and recalled the scene six months ago when he boarded that plane bound for Angola.

At that time, he thought he was going to fight an ordinary war, to become a local tyrant, and to plant a pawn for the Soviet Union in Africa.

He never expected him to fight like this.

He never imagined that he, a hoodlum who had crawled out of prison, would actually help so many oppressed people turn their lives around.

He didn't know if he could be considered a revolutionary; he probably wasn't—he came here ultimately for money, for the mines and diamonds, and to give Slava an explanation.

Standing on this gleaming land, looking at those gleaming faces, Prigozin felt something he couldn't quite explain.

He wanted to keep fighting; he wanted to go to Mozambique, he wanted to go to Somalia, he wanted to go to Ethiopia, he wanted to go to Zimbabwe, Congo...

Until the day when all the oppressed in this land of suffering are liberated.

Chapter 94: Half of Africa Turned Red

In the southeastern rainforest of Angola, in a place that even American satellites cannot detect, lies the location of the South African delegation.

This is a house on the border without any national flags. Representatives from South Africa, Angola, and Namibia sat around a long table. There were no reporters, no ceremonial guards, and even the water on the table was brought by each of them.

The terms were negotiated quickly. South Africa agreed to withdraw its interventionist forces from Angola and to recognize Namibia's independence. In exchange, Angola and Namibia agreed not to incite black resistance within South Africa and to non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

All three parties readily agreed.

Because nobody intends to seriously follow it.

When South Africa signed this agreement, it was thinking of the Nkomati Agreement four years earlier—that year, the South African civilian government also signed a document to stop supporting the Mozambican rebels, but its military intelligence agency continued to send guns and ammunition to the rebels until the Mozambican government forces captured the rebel headquarters and seized the documents that proved South Africa was lying.

The signing is for show, just like Trump signing a peace agreement with Iran. In any case, the war will still go on. The act of signing is to demonstrate "determination for peace" to the international community and the people.

In October, following a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly and multi-party talks involving the United States, the Soviet Union, South Africa, and Angola, a ceasefire agreement was formally reached.

Newspapers all over the world carried the news—the fighting in southern Africa seemed to be dying down.