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Is This Story Based on ...

posted 17 years ago by HijodelCid
5 replies | jump to latest

... real life characters and events? The military guy whom the British want to put in power resembles Idi Amin a little.

God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

[–] georgist-1 17 years ago

Based on real life events? Sort of, maybe. Forsyth "pretended" to plot a coup in the African nation of Equatorial Guinea before writing the book. I put pretended in parentheses because supposedly some have argued he truly was plotting a coup against the country's then awful leader. Forsyth simply claims to have conducted thorough research in the mercenary/gun running world.
Forsyth also covered the Biafra war as a journalist. That may have also given him food for thought.

[–] HijodelCid 17 years ago

Masie, the devil disguised as an human who turned Equatorial Guinea into the Auschwitz of Africa.
God is subtle, but He is not malicious. (Albert Einstein)

[–] MrPie7 16 years ago

It's BARELY based on Forsythe's book!

[–] hoov-4 16 years ago

Seems to me that it's kind of like what happened to Rhodesia after Ian Smith was replaced by Mugabe. At first many thought Joshua Nkomo would become the leader of Zimbabwe and not Mugabe....but Mugabe and his people outsmarted Nkomo in the end. Of course now look at Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and South Africa after the black man took over...it's a crumbling land. Crime is way out of control and inflation hovers around 1,000%. Blacks lived a far better life under white control.

[–] grendelkhan 14 years ago

Uh, hunh. And what about Kenya?

Characters in the book were based on mercenaries who fought in the Biafra war. The general was Ojukwu, the Biafran leader. In the film, Okoye has more in common with Winston Ntshona's other role, Limbani, in the Wild Geese (who was based on Tshombe, though certainly not in personality or ideology)). Bobi seems a bit like Mobutu. Kimba bears a bit of resemblance to Amin, who was fresh in minds when the film was developed.