Dictatorland

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. New Read Books Dictatorland author Paul Kenyon – kino-fada.fr My knowledge of 20th Century history is spotty at best There are things I am reasonably well informed about but large parts of history I have cursory knowledge of The history of Africa is one of those areas and even typing this makes me cringe I have to admit to not knowing a lot about a whole fricking continent and I was very eager to remedy this As a starting point this book is absolutely perfect Paul Kenyon manages to give enough of an overview to situate me to then give enough detail My knowledge of 20th Century history is spotty at best There are things I am reasonably well informed about but large parts of history I have cursory knowledge of The history of Africa is one of those areas and even typing this makes me cringe I have to admit to not knowing a lot about a whole fricking continent and I was very eager to remedy this As a starting point this book is absolutely perfect Paul Kenyon manages to give enough of an overview to situate me to then give enough details to keep my interest.The book is a reasonab...In the 19th century, European countries built their empires that included countries in Africa, but by the mid twentieth century it became time for them to get out and let them have independence This book is an account of the disastrous behaviour of some Africans who, like scum, rose to the top of these countries, together with that of these European countries and the US What the West wanted was to control the vast riches of gold, diamonds, copper, oil, cocoa, and whatever that Africa had, and In the 19th century, European countries built their empires that included countries in Africa, but by the mid twentieth century it became time for them to get out and let them have independence This book is an account of the disastrous behaviour of some Africans who, like scum, rose to the top of these countries, together with that of these European countries and the US What the West wanted was to control the vast riches of gold, diamonds, copper, oil, cocoa, and whatever that Africa had, and to do that they closed their eyes and helped facilitate corruption and the removal of human rights of the so called liberated people on a scale that is almost unbelievable They facilitated the return of slavery, and while it was not called that locally, it might as well have been Political ends also required meddling In the Congo, Lumumba was elected President in what was one of the few democratically legitimate elections ...In this vividly written brutal book, British journalist Paul Kenyon explores the strange and stubborn rule of seven kleptocratic postcolonial African leaders Democratic Republic of Congo s Mobutu Sese Seko 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 Eritrea s Isaias Afwerki since 1993 Kenyon paints a horrific picture of how these In this vividly written brutal book, British journalist Paul Kenyon explores the strange and stubborn rule of seven kleptocratic postcolonial African leaders Democratic Republic of Congo s Mobutu Sese Seko 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 Eritrea s Isaias Afwerki since 1993 Kenyon paints a horrific picture of how these tyrannical leaders accumulated and exploite...An extraordinary book Having struggled to find some books or resources that could sum up Africa s history and it s peoples suffering, I came across this marvel and bought it instantly I am extremely happy that this book is going to be part of my collection The author put great effort in offering most of the important events as interesting stories to read He brought together all the dictators from the continent, their cruelties towards people, the corrupt minds, the greed, indifference towar An extraordinary book Having struggled to find some books or resources that could sum up Africa s history and it s peoples suffering, I came across this marvel and bought it instantly I am extremely happy that this book is going to be part of my collection The author put great effort in offering most of the important events as interesting stories to read He brought together all the dictators from the continent, their cruelties towards people, the corrupt minds, the greed, indifference towards victims, mass killings of innocent and armies alike, slavery, and the colonial powers exploitations of these countries, just as elsewhere, for the massive natural resources.It offers equally great insights into the decision making, priorities of the top lay...It might be impossible to understand Africa without knowing the colonial past But at the same time it is also important what happened immediately afterwards economic mismanagement and dictators who stole like the ravens Mobutu, Mugabe, Gaddafi and many other one even worse than the other.P...Paul Kenyon is a renowned BBC journalist who s worked on various hard hitting current affairs strands, not least the BBC s Panorama He s someone whose work I ve long admired When I saw he had written a book on the dictators who ve wreaked havoc throughout Africa, I was keen to read it.Dictatorland is certainly well written and split into four parts, each corresponding to the resource curses which allowed brutal thugs to seize and keep power gold, oil, chocolate and modern slavery he troo Paul Kenyon is a renowned BBC journalist who s worked on various hard hitting current affairs strands, not least the BBC s Panorama He s someone whose work I ve long admired When I saw he had written a book on the dictators who ve wreaked havoc throughout Africa, I was keen to read it.Dictatorland is certainly well written and split into four parts, each corresponding to the resource curses which allowed brutal thugs to seize and keep power gold, oil, chocolate and modern slavery he troops out a succession of tyrants and their horrific idiosyncrasies for his readership to gawp at.One of the strengths of Dictatorland is how the author demonstrates th...A century back, if you had to define Africa, you would describe its dusty and barren landscapes, scorching weather and hostile tribes There was nothing that could excite These myths and the wrong notion were broken The Europeans were not fool They would invest their resources simply not to colonize the nation Africa was one of major hotspot for slavery Now this cannot be the sole reason for the European powers to scramble for Africa They had sensed long back about the continent s untapped A century back, if you had to define Africa, you would describe its dusty and barren landscapes, scorching weather and hostile tribes There was nothing that could excite These myths and the wrong notion were broken The Europeans were not fool They would invest their resources simply not to colonize the nation Africa was one of major hotspot for slavery Now this cannot be the sole reason for the European powers to scramble for Africa They had sensed long back about the continent s untapped potential During the Berlin Conference of 1884 85, the European powers divided the continent among themselves Later, diamonds were discovered across several places like Belgian occupied Congo, Portuguese occupied Angola and British Colonies Sierra Le...I wasn t sure how good this would be or whether it would be a quasi pornographic look at some of the world s most unfortunate countries Although Kenyon doesn t sugarcoat how vile these regimes are, he draws out both the unique characteristics of each country, as well as what they have in common it s probably the clearest overview I ve read of how catastrophic the Cold War was for many African countries I won t pretend to be an expert in African politics, but I d highly recommend this for any I wasn t sure how good this would be or whether it would be a quasi pornographic look at some of the world s most unfortunate countries Although Kenyon doesn t sugarcoat how vile these regimes are, he draws out both the unique characteristics of each country, as well as what they have in common it s probably the clearest overview I ve read of how catastrophic the Cold War was for many African countries I won t pretend to be an expert in African poli...I really enjoyed reading this fascinating book on African history focused on late colonial and post colonial years Too often similar books are either too detailed requiring good background knowledge of the events described or fairly superficial barely scratching the surface of the problems explored This book is nothing like that It provides sufficient background information and then dwells deep into analysing the regimes of nine African countries The writing itself is great making this book I really enjoyed reading this fascinating book on African history focused on late colonial and post colonial years Too often similar books are either too detailed requiring good background knowledge of the events described or fairly superficial barely scratching the surface of the problems explored This book is nothing like that It provides sufficient background information and then dwells ...I became obsessed with this book almost from page one It s most definitely going on my list of books people should read who want to know about africa And I ve already recommended it to everyone I know Anyway, this book outlines the dictatorial histories of Congo, Zimbabwe, nigeria, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, C te d Ivoire, and Eritrea based on their leaders exploitation of resources gold, diamonds, oil, cocoa, or humans Each chapter is a thorough history of the primary dictator that brou I became obsessed with this book almost from page one It s most definitely going on my list of books people should read who want to know about africa And I ve already recommended it to everyone I know Anyway, this book outlines the dictatorial histories of Congo, Zimbabwe, nigeria, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, C te d Ivoire, and Eritrea based on their leaders exploitation of resources gold, diamonds, oil, cocoa, or humans Each chapter is a thorough history of the primary dictator that brought ruin to his specific country a bit of background, how he came to power, and what he did once he got there And it s amazing, and depressing, a...A solid and well researched tale through some of post colonial Africa s nastiest leaders The core strength of this book is that Kenyon has access to an excellent range of sources, including some well place in both colonial actors and both those close to the dictators and others who were victims Kenyon does not attempt to be exhaustive, but rather focuses his attention around the resources that made these regimes rich oil, chocolate, diamonds, and gold, and then throws in Eritrea in addition, A solid and well researched tale through some of post colonial Africa s nastiest leaders The core strength of this book is that Kenyon has access to an excellent range of sources, including some well place in both colonial actors and both those close to the dictators and others who were victims Kenyon does not attempt to be exhaustive, but rather focuses his attention around the resources that made these regimes rich oil, chocolate, diamonds, and gold, and then throws in Eritrea in addition, presumably because he happens to have some great sources The result is a complex book that doesn t point fingers people in difficult situations can do bad things, colonial governments are rarely good but what came after some of them was worse, and rarely are the dictators themselves clearly bad people That they became so is not in doubt, but Kenyon gives a lot of attention to how mo...A really excellent book Warning don t read it before you go to bed..Great book a primer into the fundamental problems behind a handful of key African countries Depressing, obviously, but good to understand the fundamental problems that plague many countries and where the wealth came from that triggered so muc...Very impressive This book helped me to understand better what the legacy of colonialism really means, and why it was so easy for the leaders of the independent nations to become dictators After explaining so much, the book leaves the reader with the feeling that there are many questions left, and...

• 25 August 2017
Paul Kenyon
• Hardcover
• 432 pages
• 1784972134
• Paul Kenyon
• Dictatorland