Overview

Magnificent and Beggar Land is a powerful account of fast-changing dynamics in Angola, an important African state that is a key exporter of oil and diamonds and a growing power on the continent. Based on three years of research and extensive first-hand knowledge of Angola, it documents the rise of a major economy and its insertion in the international system since it emerged in 2002 from one of Africa's longest and deadliest civil wars.The government, backed by a strategic alliance with China and working hand in glove with hundreds of thousands of expatriates, many from the former colonial power, Portugal, has pursued an ambitious agenda of state-led national reconstruction. This has resulted in double-digit growth in Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy and a state budget in excess of total western aid to the entire continent.Scarred by a history of slave trading, colonial plunder and war, Angolans now aspire to the building of a decent society. How has the regime, led by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos since 1979, dealt with these challenges, and can it deliver on popular expectations?Soares de Oliveira's book charts the remarkable course the country has taken in recent years.

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9781849042840

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'This is a stunning book, which takes the lid off Angola in a way that I have never seen equalled for any African state - and does it, moreover, for a state which is both extremely important and very little known. It is superbly written, and draws on a detailed familiarity that gives a feel for the place that no amount of simple fact-gathering could ever convey. It will be absolutely essential for understanding Angola, and will provide a guide well beyond the normal academic readership, especially for the numerous external commercial actors who are doing business with Angola, or who may be tempted to do so. At the same time, it paints a convincing (and indeed horrifying) picture of the African oil state that will have a resonance well beyond Angola, and should bring it to the attention of anyone concerned with African development, and especially the African miracle that has been built largely on the back of temporarily booming commodity prices.' - Christopher Clapham, Professor, Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge 'This is the best study of Angola in English, and one of the best books in any language on what remains a poorly understood country. It also serves to illustrate some of the deeper complexities underlying the Africa Rising narrative that has become so prominent in international business circles.' - Stephen Ellis, Desmond Tutu Professor at the Free University, Amsterdam and author of External Mission: The ANC in Exile, 1960-1990

Author Information

Ricardo Soares de Oliveira is University Lecturer in Comparative Politics, University of Oxford, fellow of St Peter's College, Oxford, and fellow of the Global Public Policy Institute, Berlin. He is the author of Oil and Politics in the Gulf of Guinea and co-editor of China Returns to Africa and The New Protectorates, all of which are published by Hurst.

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