The latest addition to my website is Mia Couto‘s Mulheres de Cinzas (Woman of the Ashes). This is the first book in a trilogy about Portugal’s colonisation of the part of Africa that came to be Mozambique, at the end of the nineteenth century. We follow a village, Nkokolani, inhabited by the Chopi people. They are occupied by the Portuguese but are pro-Portuguese as their main enemies are the the Gaza Empire, led by Gungunhana. We follow Imani, a fifteen-year old girl and Sergeant Germano de Melo, appointed captain of the garrison at Nkokolani. Imani, who speaks excellent Portuguese becomes close to the Sergeant, who fears that he does not have the resources to resist the enemy and who gradually, in part because of Imani, becomes close to the Chopi. The Nguni of the Gaza Empire are making more and more incursions into Chopi territory while the Chopi and the Portuguese are awaiting the arrival of Mouzinho de Albuquerque and his army. While the history is interesting it is the cultural issues that make this a fascinating book.