The story eclipsing all others in Angola

BBC News Online's Justin Pearce continues his regular column charting life in Angola.

It was all over in four minutes - but it dominated the media for weeks.

On 21 June, the moon blocked the sunlight across the middle of Angola - and in the process shed all sorts of new light on this troubled and intriguing country.

It started with six million pairs of imported eclipse-viewing glasses. Two million of them were meant to be given away free to those most in need - needless to say, they were soon changing hands at $2 a time.

Six million pairs of viewing glasses were imported

Then there was the scandal of the contraband glasses. Newspapers reported that an unnamed foreigner had been apprehended trying to import 5,000 pairs of glasses that did not comply with the regulations.

And there were the posters: "The eclipse is marvellous - your eyes are precious".

Distribution was not helped by the fact that there is a civil war on in this country. The fact that about half the Angolan population cannot read may also have hindered their effectiveness.

I got an anxious phone-call from Morgado, a homeless teenager I'd met a few weeks earlier. "Will we go blind?" he wanted to know.

Jonas Savimbi will probably come out of the bush and tell everybody that he can command the sun

An aid worker on the Angolan rebel leader

If people like Morgado - surrounded by media that they didn't quite understand - were erring on the side of caution, what of the people in the countryside, beyond the reach of the publicity campaign?

One aid worker remarked drily: "Jonas Savimbi will probably come out of the bush and tell everybody that he can command the sun."

The total eclipse may indeed have passed over Savimbi's hideout, believed to be in eastern Angola. But the first and best place to see totality was Sumbe, some 300km south of Luanda.

Organised tours

A friend at the United Nations told me her colleagues had been instructed not to drive to Sumbe for fear of Unita rebel attacks. I heard of someone who was organising tours for $200.

"Is that by air or by road?" I asked. "Either," he said. "You provide your own transport."

I never discovered what his $200 deal included, but found a travel agent who was offering reasonably priced flights.

Vice-Minister Maria de Luz hands out glasses at the Viana refugee camp

Sumbe's tiny airport had been painted pink for the occasion. And the local branch of the ruling MPLA party was warming up to greet President Jose Eduardo dos Santos who was due shortly, singing the praises of Angola, the MPLA, Sumbe and the eclipse, as government officials handed out sunglasses.

Whatever doubts there may have been in the rest of the country, this isolated fishing port had claimed the eclipse as its own.

I asked a boy in the crowd what he could tell me about the eclipse, and got an answer straight out a science textbook. "The eclipse is a natural phenomenon in which the moon passes in front of the sun," he said.

Tourist town

Sumbe's dusty suburbs gave way to a beachfront that looked like something out of a jetsetter cigarette advert, with new hotels, bars and restaurants along the palm-lined beach, and a cruise ship out in the bay.

On the beach I met a bearded 50-something Dutchman who said he had been the one arrested on charges of illegally importing sunglasses.

His glasses complied with European Union regulations, he said, but this had apparently not been good enough for Angolan customs.

An eclipse is one of nature's greatest spectacles

I also met numerous wealthy picnickers who had driven from Luanda in their four-wheel-drive vehicles. The road was fine, they said. So much for the UN warning.

Over the course of an hour, the light faded bit by bit. Then it was as if someone had flicked a switch - the entire beach cheered as the sky turned dark blue, with a black disc surrounded by silver flames where the sun had been.

The journey home involved a broken-down bus and a plane with a flat tyre. But beer and whisky kept flowing, and the presence of fresh ice with no refrigeration in sight was a master-stroke of organisation.

Those who stayed the night in Sumbe didn't get much sleep - the number of visitors far exceeded the number of hotel beds, so the party had to go on.

And there's another eclipse heading this way in December 2002, but whether Sumbe will be able even to half-fill all its new hotels between now and then is much less certain.