As a young Reuters correspondent, Bridgland revealed the secret invasion in 1975 of post-independence Angola by apartheid South Africa’s armed forces in support of UNITA rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi.

Bridgland befriended Tito Chingunji, a guerrilla officer before he became UNITA foreign secretary, who persuaded Bridgland to walk hundreds of kilometres across Angola to watch UNITA’s fighters go into combat.

Later, Chingunji and Bridgland worked on a sympathetic biography of the charismatic Savimbi – then the great hope of the ‘free West’. Following the book’s publication, Chingunji told Bridgland how he and his family were under constant threat from Savimbi.

Bridgland started to uncover atrocities revealing Savimbi not as a champion of his people, but a murderous tyrant. Chingunji went missing, having risked his life to help Bridgland tell this behind-thescenes true story. Bridgland journeyed into the Angolan jungle to plead his friend’s case and was himself put before a kangaroo court by an enraged Savimbi.

This account illustrates the friendship that developed between a guerrilla fighter and a journalist and the terrifying challenges they faced as they revealed Savimbi’s true face.