Dos Santos in the pudding
The bright light of the Luanda Leaks shines in dark corners left by the Dos Santos family
Dedicated fans of Tintin, the reporter-adventurer, and his dog-sidekick Snowy will know that his last adventure took them to the mythical South American banana republic of San Theodoros on a mission to free his friends detained by the corrupt dictator Gen Tapioca.In one of the illustrations, Tintin’s airliner makes its approach over Tapiocapolis, the capital, watched by two of Tapioca’s military thugs in their World War 2-style German helmets as they patrol a shackland slum. Overlooked by a "Viva Tapioca" billboard, ragged children play in the dirt and a mother cooks in her drainpipe home.Friends who have had the elusive pleasure of being posted to Luanda tell me that the slums of Tapiocapolis look a lot like the Angolan capital’s, where they have seen real children living in actual drains. This in a city lubricated by oil money which tops the list of the world’s most expensive places in which to live.There is a story — perhaps apocryphal — of Ana Paula dos Santos, married to the no...
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