Great African Reads discussion

Chapter 8....

Of all the countries featured in the book, the one I knew the least about was probably Angola. I had a vague idea of Portugal being involved. . .

This is one of the shortest country profiles in the book, but a descriptive overview of Angola past and present: the lasting impact of the Portuguese in Angola, Angola after the Portuguese, and the ruling class that 'doesn't see' race (it is made up of black, white, and mixed) - though the poor are all black.

The most intriguing part of this chapter for me was actually not Angola-specific, however. The author talks about there being 4 types of European engagement with Africa:

1) The settler trader, perched on the coast, acting as go-between for overseas businesses
2) The settler farmer, who took land and became self-sufficient [The Portuguese in Angola were these - plus traders - that actually took wives of the locals and mixed the communities. Sounds more promising than other colonialists, but their primary trade was, of course, slaving]
3) The imperial European administrator who ruled over Africans but neither traded nor took land
4) The missionaries, teachers, and aid workers who come to African to implant their faith or impart their knowledge

And what's with the title of the chapter? As a Zimbabwean economist said:

"We imagine corruption to be like a tick on a dog. There are some places in Africa where the tick is bigger than the dog."