From Water to Wine

From Water to Wine explores how Angola has changed since the end of its civil war in 2002. Its focus is the middle class - defined in the book as those with a house, a car, and an education - and their consumption, aspirations, and hopes for their families. It is a book that takes as its starting point 'what is working in Angola?' rather than 'what is going wrong?' and makes a deliberate, political choice to give attention to beauty and happiness in everyday life in a country that has had an unusually troubled history.

The book is uniquely structured: each chapter focuses on one of the five senses (smell, touch, taste, hearing, and sight, respectively) with the introduction and conclusion provoking reflection on proprioception (kinesthesia) and empathy respectively. A variety of media are employed - poetry, recipes, photos, comics, and other textual experiments - to engage readers and the senses. Written for a broad audience, this text is an excellent addition to classes on Africa, the Lusophone world, international development, sensory ethnography, and ethnographic writing.