ABSTRACT
‘Can i have your bed when you go?’: our neighbour Jacqueline greeted my partner Alberto on the first day that he arrived in his house in Canchungo, Guinea Bissau, West Africa. She was keen to put herself in line for the spoils from the brancu's (white person's) house on his inevitable departure. In the past other people in the neighbourhood had done well, collecting various electrical and gas appliances, cameras, saucepans, televisions, clothing and other items from the brancus who had preceded us. Who would harvest the fruits of ‘friendship’ with the rich brancu development worker this time?
