José Eduardo dos Santos, who plundered Angola, has died
But the former president’s corrupt legacy lives on
AFRICA HAS endured more than its share of grotesque dictators. Mobutu Sese Seko guzzled pink champagne in a jungle Versailles built from his plundering of Congo. Sani Abacha, who looted Nigeria’s oil money, was allegedly poisoned while in the company of three prostitutes. Jean-Bédel Bokassa, the self-proclaimed Emperor of Central Africa, fed his opponents to animals. Robert Mugabe, reserved by comparison, dressed in Savile Row suits while decrying the perfidious British, and brought in North Koreans to train his soldiers to massacre his opponents.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “A legacy of looting”
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