Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa
    Unavailable
    Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa
    Unavailable
    Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa
    Ebook626 pages11 hours

    Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa

    By Paul Kenyon

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHead of Zeus
    Release dateJan 11, 2018
    ISBN9781784972158
    Unavailable
    Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa
    Author

    Paul Kenyon

    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.

    Related to Dictatorland

    Related ebooks

    African History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      ‘Do Not Disturb’ Should Provoke The Outrage Of Every African

      Apr 11, 2021

      MICHELA Wrong’s new book, Do not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, should provoke the outrage of any African worth their self-respect. The writer – who has made a career trading in demeaning stereotypes of Afric

      2 min read

    • Article

      Ghana Exposes the West’s Toxic Development Model

      Oct 11, 2022

      At first glance, a recent item of business news seemed like a clear economic win from Africa: Ghana, which enjoys a reputation as one of the continent’s most successful nations, had signed a $3.2 billion contract with an international consortium to r

      6 min read

    • Article

      The World Doesn’t Want Beijing’s Fighter Jets

      Oct 19, 2021

      Fighter jet exports represent a unique combination of hard and soft power. If a country can sell fighter jets abroad, that means it can attract customers for sophisticated weapons that can sell for upwards of $100 million, which in turn proves that t

      5 min read

    • Article

      Mining Wrote South Africa’s History. Does It Have A Future?

      May 6, 2019

      The discovery of gold and diamonds transformed South Africa’s trajectory. Today the industry is in decline, and voters are hungry for solutions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Is Africa A Prisoner Of Its Past?

      Jul 16, 2020

      Is Africa A Prisoner Of Its Past?
      8 min read

    • Article

      Welcome TO AFRICA!

      Jun 5, 2018

      Welcome TO AFRICA!
      2 min read

    • Article

      Does the World Really Need Nation-States?

      Sep 6, 2016

      To CHIGOZIE OBIOMA, there is more to writing fiction than crafting engaging characters and plots. Writers, he says, have an opportunity to assess and critique the world in which they live. The 2015 Global Thinker’s debut novel, The Fishermen, is a do

      4 min read

    • Article

      When the Was a Sahara Seaway

      Apr 1, 2022

      When the Was a Sahara Seaway
      5 min read

    • Article

      To The Mainland

      Dec 6, 2020

      To The Mainland
      5 min read

    • Article

      In The Footsteps Of Dinosaurs

      Nov 9, 2022

      In The Footsteps Of Dinosaurs
      6 min read

    • Article

      Giant Delight In De Hoop

      Feb 11, 2022

      Giant Delight In De Hoop
      6 min read

    • Article

      It’s a Fishapod!: The story behind the discovery of the four-legged fish.

      Feb 18, 2016

      In the summer of 1976, Neil Shubin got caught up, along with the rest of the city of Philadelphia, in the celebration of the American Bicentennial. Having grown up in the birthplace of the Revolution, Neil was surrounded by Colonial history. That yea

      19 min read

    • Article

      A Land of Waterways

      Sep 1, 2022

      A Land of Waterways
      1 min read

    • Article

      Running Man Rock

      Nov 5, 2020

      Running Man Rock
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Giant-sized Enigma

      Mar 14, 2024

      A Giant-sized Enigma
      2 min read

    Reviews for Dictatorland

    4.5/5

    23 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Riveting, horrifying account of the rise and sometimes fall of the worst leaders in Africa, the dictators who took mostly newly independent countries and then bled them dry while simultaneously terrorizing any dissent with utter brutality. The usual suspects - Mugabe, Mobutu, Gaddafi are here, as well as lesser-known tyrants - Houphouet-Boigny of Cote d'Ivoire, Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, Abachi of Nigeria, and possibly the least-known of all, Isias Afwerki of Eritrea, who runs possibly the world's most secretive country, which makes North Korea look like a paragon of freedom and openness. Kenyon sheets home a large part of the blame to the West, whose desperation for oil, minerals and even cocoa led to corrupt deals which pumped billions into offshore accounts and turning a blind eye to the most heinous brutality. Kenyon makes free use of eyewitness testimony to the horrendous acts of the dictators, and the book pulls no punches in describing the worst acts. Its is not a comfortable book to read, but compelling, and leaves the reader pondering just what went wrong in Africa and how the consequences of decades of dictatorship can possibly be rectified.