José Eduardo dos Santos, who was announced dead in a Barcelona hospital on July 8th, ruled for longer than any of these men. He was president of Angola from 1979 to 2017. His manner was restrained, he rarely gave interviews, and when he did he said little of interest. He was also ruthless, repressive and staggeringly corrupt. He was arguably the master of the neo-patrimonial, or clientelistic, style of African politics that emerged after decolonisation, using vast oil rents to run his own dictatorship.
