David Birmingham lived in Switzerland from 1947 to 1954 as a child and returned there in the 1990s as a visiting historian. From 1980 to 2001 he held the chair of Modern History in the University of Kent at Canterbury in England. He is the author of many books, including Portugal and Africa.

"All of these essays are written with an overriding preoccupation to communicate and to present complicated stories in a way that the reader can appreciate and assimilate. As glosses on both Angolan history and the Angolan scene over the last thirty years they are little classics, intelligent, witty, informed, and always enlightening." (Journal of African History) "The author of this fabulous collection of essays is a British historian who began writing about Africa and Portugal over 60 years ago. Beginning in 1488 when the Portuguese mariner Bartolomeu Dias sailed all the way to the Cape of Good Hope, Birmingham takes us through the following five centuries with his customary wit and intelligence." (The I. B. Taurus Blog)

David Birmingham lived in Switzerland from 1947 to 1954 as a child and returned there in the 1990s as a visiting historian. From 1980 to 2001 he held the chair of Modern History in the University of Kent at Canterbury in England. He is the author of many books, including Portugal and Africa.

"All of these essays are written with an overriding preoccupation to communicate and to present complicated stories in a way that the reader can appreciate and assimilate. As glosses on both Angolan history and the Angolan scene over the last thirty years they are little classics, intelligent, witty, informed, and always enlightening." (Journal of African History) "The author of this fabulous collection of essays is a British historian who began writing about Africa and Portugal over 60 years ago. Beginning in 1488 when the Portuguese mariner Bartolomeu Dias sailed all the way to the Cape of Good Hope, Birmingham takes us through the following five centuries with his customary wit and intelligence." (The I. B. Taurus Blog)

David Birmingham lived in Switzerland from 1947 to 1954 as a child and returned there in the 1990s as a visiting historian. From 1980 to 2001 he held the chair of Modern History in the University of Kent at Canterbury in England. He is the author of many books, including Portugal and Africa.

"All of these essays are written with an overriding preoccupation to communicate and to present complicated stories in a way that the reader can appreciate and assimilate. As glosses on both Angolan history and the Angolan scene over the last thirty years they are little classics, intelligent, witty, informed, and always enlightening." (Journal of African History) "The author of this fabulous collection of essays is a British historian who began writing about Africa and Portugal over 60 years ago. Beginning in 1488 when the Portuguese mariner Bartolomeu Dias sailed all the way to the Cape of Good Hope, Birmingham takes us through the following five centuries with his customary wit and intelligence." (The I. B. Taurus Blog)