A dictator’s ghost haunts Angola’s upcoming elections

is a dead dictator worth? Quite a lot, judging by the squabble over the corpse of José Eduardo dos Santos, the kleptocratic ruler of Angola from 1979 to 2017, who died in a hospital in Barcelona on July 8th. João Lourenço, current president of the southern African country, wants to bring his predecessor’s body home for a state funeral ahead of a general election on August 24th. He hopes that a grand ceremony would unite supporters of the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola ().But Mr dos Santos’s children have other ideas. They say it is a matter for the family; one daughter, Welwitschia dos Santos, popularly known as Tchizé, insists that the burial should be in Spain. She denies that the family is using the body as a bargaining chip to seek amnesty for the various corruption charges faced by its members.