Silk Road Books & Photos

Afghanistan Travel Literature (Page 5 of 8)

1980s

During each year of the Soviet occupation intrepid journalists made the difficult journey by land into all parts of Afghanistan. Some travelled with nationalist groups others with Islamist groups, all accounts detail the massive civilian cost to the Afghan people in terms of massacres, abductions of teenage girls, killing for ‘fun’ and helicopter gunship raids on refugee columns. The different accounts by the Journalists over the years build up a comprehensive picture of what the war was like in Afghanistan during each year of the conflict.

Sandy Gall’s Books

The first book written by  the famous Scottish News Presenter Sandy Gall on Afghanistan was published in 1983. Gall visited the Mujahedin in the Panjshir Valley. Indeed Gall had undertaken the journey at the suggestion of British Intelligence who realized that the war in Afghanistan was getting very little by way of coverage and regarded Ahmed Shah Massoud, the resistance leader in Panjshir as an Afghan Tito. Gall regarded the  Panjshiris quite highly. Gall traveled through Nuristan to make his way to the Panjshir valley. As a result, Gall not only produced this book but also a splendid documentary which was shown on the British channel ITN. Note also the different take Nigel Ryan, author of Hitch or two in Afghanistan who travelled with Gall had on the Afghans. Ryan says Gall would brook no criticism of the Afghans. Ryan fell prey to some cultural misunderstandings, He told the Mujahedin on the march to Panjshir that they should not lie to him and tell him it was half an hour to the next destination. Since the destination was often several hours march away and Ryan said he only expected the Soviets to lie to him, not the Mujahedin. Sadly Ryan did not appreciate that not all people have the same appreciation of time as himself.

Gall’s Memoirs, News from the Front a Television Reporter’s life  written in  1994 detail  his 1984 trip to Afghanistan, along the route into Afghanistan he met four young Pashtun women all four of whom had been raped by Soviet troops and were as a consequence pregnant and travelling to Pakistan, so as to give birth there. Gall was accompanied on his 1984 trip by Pakistani Military to protect him, courtesy of his friend General Zia. Zia had arranged for Gall to go and meet with Pashtun Mujahedin because Zia felt that Masood was being too much prominence.However, an ambush that the Pashtun Mujahedin were setting up for a Soviet convoy failed directly due to the intereference of the Pakistanis. The Mujahedin ahd wanted to wait for the convoy to appear and fire a rocket propelled grenade at the front and rear vehicle which would have brought the convoy to a halt and allowed the Pashtuns to finish off the remaining vehicles. However the Pakistanis wanted the Mujahedin to plant a mine into the concrete road. As the Mujahedin were trying to smash the concrete of the road to lay the mine, the noise alerted Soviet troops in their check post further down the road.  Soon a helicopter was flying in the direction of the Mujahedin who were forced to retreat. Gall wrote that the Pakistanis should simply have allowed the Pashtuns to fight as they saw fit and they certainly would then have had greater success against the convoy. Needless to say the 1984 trip did not result in a travelogue.

Gall’s third trip to Afghanistan was in 1986 and was entitled ‘Afghanistan Agony of a Nation’ and he again travelled out to the Panjshir Valley to meet with Massoud and produce a documentary on Massoud’s struggle against the Soviets.