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Dictatorland

The Men Who Stole Africa

Paul Kenyon

$22.99

Paperback

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English
Head of Zeus
01 November 2018
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.

By:  
Imprint:   Head of Zeus
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 198mm,  Width: 129mm, 
ISBN:   9781784972141
ISBN 10:   1784972142
Pages:   480
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  ELT Advanced
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active

Paul Kenyon has travelled in almost every African country in the footsteps of the dictators. He is a distinguished BBC correspondent and BAFTA award-winning journalist and author.

Reviews for Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa

'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 Felix Houphouet-Boigny is especially vivid' * The Times * 'A familiar story, but still shocking' * Sunday Times *


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