Riccardo Orizio found them in Sri Lanka, Jamaica, Namibia, Guadeloupe, Haiti and Brazil: the poor whites (some poorer than others), descendants of those who went - or were sent - to oil the wheels of colonialism and, in the wake of the abolition of slavery and independence, ended up impoverished and forgotten. Some married into the local black population, some fixed themselves up with other white people, while others engaged in a little incest in order to keep it all in the family. All feel ostracised and neglected, as indeed they are, for no group is more suspect - to both black and white - as the poor whites. They themselves have constantly to affirm their identity as white Jamaicans or white Haitians, as French in Guadeloupe or, in Sri Lanka, as the Dutch Burghers - so lovingly and hilariously portrayed in Michael Ondaatje's Running in the Family.
Take the Haitian Poles. When Orizio, a journalist, went in search of them four years ago, he found a group of people living down a mule-track, their fair hair and slavonic features testament to the Polish soldiers sent to Haiti in 1720, by Napoleon. The deal was that they would put down the slave uprising and Napoleon would liberate Poland from Prussian and Russian rule. Promises, promises. Now they scratch a living in a village that is without electricity, running water, doctor or priest. Which is why the local builder says Mass and hears confessions and why they all live in hope that their most famous compatriot - the Pope - will one day send help.
In Brazil, there are the descendants of the Confederates who were invited down by the Portuguese emperor Dom Pedro the Second, after their southern states were lost to the Yankees. Some 10,000 of them travelled to Brazil, where they hoped they would find land to farm and where they knew they would find slaves. With them they brought the iron plough, kerosene and peanuts, and every year their descendants and their children dress up in the uniform of the confederate army and march through the streets of Santa Barbara.
Riccardo Orizio is a self-confessed Peeping Tom, but then what journalist isn't? He talks his way into people's houses to see what they're like and persists when they shout at him to go away. There are times when I felt like shouting at him myself. He coughs up $200 for the hire of a jeep but haggles with an impoverished preacher who asks for the same amount to act as guide, finally beating him down to $50. He expresses astonishment that there are few cell phones in Haiti and refers to his wife - English and a doctor - as a "girl", though I don't know why I expect an Italian to be any less sexist than an Irishman.
All that aside, this is a fascinating book, not least because Orizio has done a vast amount of research, cutting and pasting together the whole sorry story of European colonialism. First, the Venetians controlled the seas and points east. Then the Portuguese got hold of the maps and set sail, heading round Cape Town for the East Indies and the spice trail. Followed by the Dutch, the English and the French, the deals took off. When the English fleet bagged a bit of the Spice Islands, the Dutch swapped it for New Amsterdam - now Manhattan. Britain "gave" Guadeloupe back to France in exchange for France renouncing all claims to Canada. Sweden "sold" the island of Saint-Barthelemy to France for 320,00 francs.
Orizio is annoyed because he has to pay $50 for an unofficial taxi in Haiti. Small price to pay really. These people's has been much bigger.
Mary Russell is an author and journalist