With two trucks full of armed men escorting them from front and rear, the Land Cruiser traveled for two hours along a bumpy dirt road, finally reaching a village near the Congo border.
Outside the vehicle was a quintessential African scene. The clear, blue sky stretched endlessly, contrasting sharply with the grass-green horizon. Simple houses, with walls made of yellow mud mixed with cow dung and roofs covered in dried palm leaves, lined both sides of the road, forming a narrow settlement.
Small stalls dotted the roadside, displaying various fruits and large pieces of smoked meat. Women in traditional attire crouched beside the stalls, waving fly-whisks made from animal hair and haggling with buyers. Meanwhile, men lounged in the shade of trees, conversing about topics only they understood. Groups of dark-skinned children, naked and barefoot, ran around the houses and palm trees or chased each other through the dust stirred up by passing vehicles.
Just before noon, the convoy left the main road and entered a large compound surrounded by high walls, stopping in front of a three-story villa. Semler followed Jabba out of the car, where they were greeted by a middle-aged black man accompanied by an armed guard. Semler recognized the face: the man, nearly forty, had trained under him in Soyo and was one of the few from that group who had completed secondary school.
The man greeted Jabba first and then nodded with a smile to Semler. He dismissed the guard and personally led them into the villa, guiding them to a spacious but empty living room. He also ordered a servant to bring two bottles of cold Coca-Cola.
Semler and Jabba sat in the living room for half an hour. Once their clothes, damp from sweat, had dried in the air conditioning, a tall young black man entered the room.
"Hello, Mr. Semler, it’s been a long time. Has it been over a decade since we last met?" The young man greeted him in flawless Portuguese.
Semler recognized him as Jabba’s only son, whom everyone referred to as "Little Jabba." The two had met once in Soyo more than ten years ago when Little Jabba was just eleven. It was said that he left home at twenty to study in the United States and returned to Angola only two years ago after graduating.
"It’s been a while," Semler replied, extending his hand.
"I’ve heard about your situation," Little Jabba said, taking a seat on the sofa. "I think I can help you with this."
The three of them shared a simple lunch, then spent over three hours in heated debate—discussing whether they could hold a recruitment event and arguing over whether transporting people to Soyo would incur additional charges. They finally reached an agreement, after which Little Jabba ordered a car to take Semler and Jabba back to the shore in time to catch the yacht and return to Cape Padrao before sunset.
As they said their goodbyes on the villa's steps, Semler shook Little Jabba's hand again and them walked over to the Land Cruiser that .
"Thank you for your assistance," Semler said.
"I’ll send people to gather them immediately," Little Jabba replied. "I guarantee that you’ll have the people you need within three days."
On the way back, Semler felt a wave of exhaustion. The tension of the past week had kept him awake day and night, and hours of travel by land and sea had depleted his energy. Now that he felt relieved, he soon began to doze in the car, although the bumpy ride prevented him from truly resting. So, once he boarded Jabba’s yacht, he collapsed onto a folding bed in the cabin and fell into a deep sleep.
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When the yacht docked at the private pier in Cape Padrao, Deng Shiyang and Keith were at the villa in Durban, holding a conference call with Harobi.
"There’s some good news regarding the rifle purchase," Harobi said after the usual progress reports. "It’s incredible—I just put out the request last night, and this morning I already got a response. The Zimbabwean government is preparing to buy weapons from Indonesia’s Pindad company."
"Is the information reliable?"
"Absolutely. The intermediary for this deal is a Vienna-based arms brokerage company where I have a contact."
"Interesting," Keith remarked. "Isn’t Mugabe buying from China this time?"
"Who knows," Harobi replied, then added with a hint of schadenfreude, "It might be due to last year’s ‘An Yue Jiang incident.’"
Since Robert Mugabe became president in 1987, Zimbabwe’s human rights record had been widely criticized. Failed land reforms and poor price controls by the central bank had led to a worsening economy, with inflation reaching a staggering 100,500 percent.
In this challenging political and economic climate, Mugabe’s rule, once seen as heroic for leading the fight against Rhodesia’s white government, was increasingly precarious. During the 2008 elections, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change won a parliamentary majority, ending the longstanding dominance of Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front. In the March presidential election, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai claimed a landslide victory, but the Mugabe government repeatedly delayed the release of election results and refused to cede power.
On April 15 of that year, the Chinese ship "An Yue Jiang-Guang Zhou" arrived in Durban with 77 tons of weapons for Zimbabwe. Suspecting the weapons might be used to suppress opposition forces, South African human rights organizations and dock workers initiated a boycott, urging the government to deny the ship docking rights.
Some human rights groups petitioned the court for an injunction, banning the shipment of weapons to Zimbabwe’s border. On April 18, the court ruled that the An Yue Jiang could dock in Durban but prohibited transporting the arms overland through South Africa. Fearing the goods would be impounded, the An Yue Jiang left South African waters before the injunction took effect and headed for Mozambique.
The International Transport Workers’ Federation called for a boycott at African ports, and nations such as Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, and Zambia banned the ship from docking, forcing the An Yue Jiang to return .
In reality, the United Nations had not imposed an arms embargo on Zimbabwe, so neither China nor Zimbabwe had violated international law. But on April 24, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement: "We hope the relevant parties in Zimbabwe can properly address their current differences and maintain national stability and development." later adding, "The Chinese government has always approached military exports cautiously and responsibly, One key principle is non-interference in the internal affairs of the receiving country. We hope that certain parties do not politicize this issue."
Hearing Mugabe’s name reminded Deng Shiyang of two other news stories involving him: one from February 2009, when Mugabe’s daughter, Bona, attending the City University of Hong Kong, had her bodyguard assault two journalists outside her villa in Tai Po; the other, just a month earlier, involved Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, "lesson" the two photographers outside the Shangri-La Hotel in Tsim Sha Tsui East for taking her picture.
Deng Shiyang chimed in, "Another possible reason—perhaps he annoyed the Chinese government with his wife and daughter’s actions in Hong Kong."
"Pfft," Harobi laughed, then said with a touch of irony, "Either way, we should be grateful Mugabe is dealing with the Indonesians and not the Chinese, as it gives us an opportunity."
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Annotations:
- Pindad (PT Pindad): An Indonesian state-owned arms manufacturer.
- Republic of Rhodesia: The former name of Zimbabwe after its unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. It was renamed Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in 1979 and then Zimbabwe in April 1980.
- Lesson: Another word for "beating".