Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa
£9.60£10.40 (-8%)
A Financial Times Book of the Year
‘Jaw-dropping’ Daily Express
‘Grimly fascinating’ Financial Times
‘Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched’ Irish Times
The dictator who grew so rich on his country’s cocoa crop that he built a 35-storey-high basilica in the jungles of the Ivory Coast. The austere, incorruptible leader who has shut Eritrea off from the world in a permanent state of war and conscripted every adult into the armed forces. In Equatorial Guinea, the paranoid despot who thought Hitler was the saviour of Africa and waged a relentless campaign of terror against his own people. The Libyan army officer who authored a new work of political philosophy, The Green Book, and lived in a tent with a harem of female soldiers, running his country like a mafia family business.
And behind these almost incredible stories of fantastic violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that has encouraged dictators to rule with an iron hand, siphoning off their share of the action into mansions in Paris and banks in Zurich and keeping their people in dire poverty.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Head of Zeus, Illustrated edition (1 Nov. 2018) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 480 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 1784972142 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1784972141 |
| Dimensions | 12.7 x 3.05 x 19.69 cm |
by Mr. G. Horsewood
I bought this book on Kindle first but was so taken with the content and the writing that I bought it in paper form to add to my library. An excellent book; extremely well written, and totally absorbing
by M W Johnston
This book is both easy to read, thanks to Mr Kenyon’s clear and effective writing, and very difficult to read, due to the unfolding evidence of repeated inhumanity inflicted on far too many people.
However, what it lacks for me is any explanation as to why the dictators profiled are as they are. What makes them such nasty pieces of work? Why, for example, does Mobutu go from a journalist and junior politician to a “military strongman…all prowling sneers and dead eyes” in less than a month? What on earth happened in that month? The answer isn’t here.
So many of the despots here came up through the route of Marxism; is that philosophy to blame? The answer isn’t here.
When the leader of Cote d’Ivoire has done well for his people, and the local culture (at least as described here) is for everyone to take advantage of their position to make their position more comfortable, is he oppressing his country? Was it just inheriting his family’s cocoa estate that turned Houphouet into a one-man state? The answer isn’t here.
So, an intriguing book that sets out the “who”, “what”, “where” and “when”, touches a little on the “how”, but misses the chance to explore the “why”.
by Amazon Customer
I have always been told Africa was a place that is to written off for the next several generations due to the corruption and the dictatorship allowed to flourish. Now having read this book I know this to be true. All appeared to have started with the best of intentions and then decided that the money was more important than their people. The Foreign Governments and big companies, particularly oil companies have aided in this corruption and allowed wholesale slaughter. Definitely read to grasp the impact money and foreign power has on societies.
by James
Fascinating and accessible. One of my all time favourite non fiction reads, along with Children of the Night. I learned so much.
by E Wood
Informative and good read. Does not try to be a complete survey and draws on author’s personal experience and encounters from the past. But none the less, a essential read that is backed up by others. The last section around Ethiopia seems, at first, rather out of context and not driven clearly by greed – but, on reflection, provides a different angle to the argument presented. Recommend.
by Jules
Brilliantly told stories of the rise to power, and absolute abuse of it, by a series of extraordinary characters who have not for the better helped define many of the troubles experienced across the great continent of Africa.
His writing style is instantly engaging and his story-telling simplifies the monstrosities about which he writes – and I was thoroughly engrossed in these slices of history about which I knew so little, but should have been more aware.
A most excellent read throwing light onto many dark corners of world history.
by michael Billington
How much do the issues which affect african nations stem from the legacy of colonialism and how much weight should be given to the actions of the men who took control of certain countires after independence was achieved?
This book uses the stories of individuals such as Robert Mugabee look at what followed the winning of independence and how both internal and external factors led to the endemic levels of corruption and the sheer brutality of these regimes. I learned so much about the sheer wealth of natural resources and the diversity of cultures within the African continent that I found myself wishing for fewer chapters on Zimbabwe and maybe a a couple on Uganda for example.
This is a good book but it is very much about individual leaders and their actions, so some of the wider events such as the spread of AIDS in the continent are given relativly little space. I only wish i had a greater depth of understanding about the nations covered so as make a better judgement on some of the conclusions reached.
by edward marlow
I was gripped throughout. Beautifully written and gave me a new perspective on many countries that I thought I knew pretty well.