RADIO AND THE COLD WAR IN ANGOLA: Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931–2002. By Marissa J. Moorman,. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2019. Pp. 240. $32.95, paperback (ISBN: 978-0-8214-2370-7 ); $80.00, hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-8214-2369-1 ).

Powerful Frequencies: Radio, State Power, and the Cold War in Angola, 1931–2002. By Marissa J. Moorman. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2019. Pp. 240. $32.95, paperback (ISBN: 978-0-8214-2370-7); $80.00, hardcover (ISBN: 978-0-8214-2369-1).

Powerful Frequencies presents a detailed and well-researched history of the role played by radio in late Portuguese colonial era and in the formation of the state of Angola. The book focuses on the relations between broadcasting and various political actors in twentieth-century Angola, namely the Portuguese colonial state, the nationalist movements, and the postcolonial state controlled by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Marissa Moorman's work reveals how sound and radio were essential to the creation of collective identities and the dissemination of different political agendas. For readers interested in broadcasting history, the book offers unique insights into the intertwined connections between sound and politics, while also providing novel information on listening practices and on the institutionalization of the audio medium in western Africa. Radio's material and immaterial dimensions are both dealt with in an elegant fashion that demonstrates how the medium of audio helped create a sense of connection between communities spread across a large territory with a low population density.

The book is structured in six main chapters. The first three deal with the colonial period while the others focus on the transition to independence and the transformation...