African elites should align themselves with their countries’ needs

In 2017 Claudio Silva, who a few years earlier returned to Angola after growing up in America, was optimistic that the country of his birth was turning a corner. That year João Lourenço became president, replacing José Eduardo dos Santos, the corrupt autocrat who ran sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest oil producer for 38 years. The new president pledged to reform the economy and to cut graft.