On Saturday, June 20, authorities came to the home of Observer and Angola activist Luaty Beirão. He was arrested in a sweep that included 14 other activists. Their crime? Reading subversive literature, which the state has linked to “rebellion”, “attempted coup d'état ” and “crimes against national security”. Luaty has been on a hunger strike since Sunday. One of his friends visited him in prison and told us about the conditions and why even Angolan citizens think this arrest is absurd.Most of the young people arrested on June 20 and detained since were pro-democracy activists, who have been organizing peaceful protests against the 35-year-regime of Angolan dictator Eduardo Dos Santos since 2011. These protests were often shut down after only five minutes and protesters were sometimes arrested and tortured , as Luaty shared in several articles he did with the Observers.However, this time, it was the activists’ book club reading list that made the Angolan state worried enough to arrest them. According to the Guardian and Angolan media, authorities took issue with two books in particular: Gene Sharp’s From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation, which describes itself as “a blueprint for nonviolent resistance to repressive regimes” and a book by Angolan journalist Domingos da Cruz, whose title translates as “tools to destroy a dictator and avoid a new dictatorship”. Da Cruz himself was among those arrested.In a statement released shortly after the arrests, Angolan authorities accused the detainees of “preparing acts aimed at disrupting public order and security in the country”.Angolan and international human rights groups, including London-based Amnesty International, have denied these accusations and called on the Angolan government to release the detained activists.The government’s willingness to do that seems unlikely considering statements made on July 2 by President Dos Santos. In a speech at a party meeting, he made a chilling reference to the young activists: “We should not allow the Angolan people to undergo the dramatic events of the May 27, 1977 coup.”The date carries huge weight in Angola. The attempted coup was followed by a two-year purge during which thousands of so-called dissidents were killed by the ruling MPLA party.