Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa

by Paul Kenyon

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784972141
Publisher:	Bloomsbury USA
Publication date:	06/01/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Paul Kenyon is a distinguished BBC correspondent and BAFTA award-winning journalist and author. He has reported from danger-zones around the world for BBC Panorama, pushing the boundaries of investigative journalism and asking the questions many wouldn't dare – from tackling Gaddafi's son in a cage full of lions, to secretly filming Iran's secret nuclear sites. Kenyon is the recipient of an Association of International Broadcasters Award, three Royal Television Society awards, and is the author of Dictatorland, a Financial Times Book of the Year. He lives in London with his wife, Flavia.

Table of Contents

Introduction xi

Part 1 Gold and Diamonds

1 Congo 3

2 Zimbabwe 63

Part 2 Oil

3 Before the Dictators 125

4 Libya 161

5 Nigeria 211

6 Equatorial Guinea 259

Part 3 Chocolate

7 Before the Dictators 299

8 Cote d'Ivoire 333

Part 4 A Modern Slavery

9 Eritrea 379

Acknowledgements 425

Notes 431

Bibliography 439

Image credits 443

Index 445

Editorial Reviews

The stories it tells of dictators such as Robert Mugabe and Muammer Gaddafi are grimly fascinating and leave the reader to ponder why so many of Africa's liberation heroes turned into villains” —Financial Times, Books of the Year

“A humane, timely, accessible and well-researched book that shines a light on urgent African issues [...] that, when we consider the state of our own societies, can no longer be dismissed as merely somewhere else's problem” —Irish Times

“Paul Kenyon is a brilliant writer who's been there and tells a story of unparalleled greed and western complicity in vivid detail” —Michael Buerk

“It is [the] minute observations that make Mr Kenyon's book so hard to put down” —Economist

“Mr Kenyon narrates a jaw-dropping tale of greed, corruption and brutality” —Daily Express

“Well written and sensibly structured... Some of the most revealing passages are based on interviews with retired expatriate executives and diplomats who were witness to the excesses of the early post-colonial years'” —Sunday Times

“Kenyon's stories of corruption and excess are truly compelling, while his analysis of the West's motivations is astute and illuminating” —Culture Trip

“A heart-breaking and stomach-churning history but also an utterly absorbing one... Kenyon blends in gripping, authenticating first-hand testimonies from those who were behind the carnage and corruption... This book shines a vital light on how Africa was robbed "in broad daylight"'” —UAE National

“Highly readable... A chapter on the rise of Félix Houphouët-Boigny is especially vivid'” —The Times

“A familiar story, but still shocking” —Sunday Times

From the Publisher

09/03/2018
In this colorful and brutal history, British journalist Kenyon (I Am Justice: A Journey out of Africa) explores the stubborn hold on power of seven kleptocratic postcolonial African leaders: the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko (ruled 1965–1997); Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe (1980–2017); Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi (1969–2011); Nigeria’s Sani Abacha (1993–1998); Equatorial Guinea’s Obiang Nguema (since 1979); Ivory Coast’s Felix Houphuet-Boigny (1960–1993); and Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki (since 1993). Kenyon tells how these often tyrannical leaders accumulated and exploited their countries’ vast mineral wealth, which partially explains their ability to buy local support and to prevail for as long as they have. The first of four sections focuses on gold and diamonds, the second on oil, and the third on cocoa. Kenyon recounts how multinational corporations desperate for these commodities turned a blind eye to human rights abuses, as did Western governments fearful of Soviet influence during the Cold War. The book’s inclusion of Eritrea’s president Afwerki in a fourth section subtitled “A Modern Slavery” is puzzling, because no valuable natural resource explains his forceful grip on the country. It is unclear which of these countries Kenyon has visited, but his prose is so artfully descriptive that readers will feel like they are on the ground alongside him. For readers unfamiliar with the ins and outs of African politics, this will be illuminating. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly