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Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa Hardcover – October 1, 2018

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 709 ratings

The dictator who grew so rich on his country's cocoa crop that he built a 35-story-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 savior of Africa and waged a campaign of terror against his own people. Behind these stories of violence and excess lie the dark secrets of Western greed and complicity, the insatiable taste for chocolate, oil, diamonds and gold that have 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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Editorial Reviews

Review

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

"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

"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

"A jaw-dropping tale of greed, corruption and brutality." —
Daily Express

"illuminating."—
Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Paul Kenyon is a BBC correspondent and BAFTA award-winning journalist and author.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Head of Zeus; First Edition (October 1, 2018)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 432 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1784972134
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1784972134
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.6 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 709 ratings

About the author

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Paul Kenyon
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Paul Kenyon is a best-selling author and BAFTA winning journalist. He has reported from danger zones around the world for the BBC, making more than fifty documentaries and writing widely about his experiences. He reported from Ukraine in 2022/23 and 2014, and on the Libyan Civil War throughout 2011. He famously travelled the most dangerous migration route in the world, from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe, giving a compassionate insight into the lives of young Africans risking all for a better life. His film-making is noted for its irreverent style and his confrontations with the rich and powerful. During the Libyan Civil War, he tackled Gaddafi's son as he fed his pet lions. In Haiti he faked his own death and funeral to expose a gang of fraudsters. As well as Africa, Kenyon has travelled extensively in Eastern Europe, and describes Romania as his spiritual home after having met his wife there shortly after the revolution.

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4.6 out of 5 stars
709 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book informative and fascinating. They appreciate the well-researched and detailed account of the corruption in Africa. The narrative is described as compelling and wrenching, with a journalistic ability to tell a good story. Readers consider it a worthwhile read and an eye-opening look into the suffering of the African continent.

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9 customers mention "Information quality"9 positive0 negative

Customers find the book informative and fascinating. They appreciate the well-researched account that puts names to facts. Overall, they describe it as an excellent insight into Africa and the best book they've read about tyrants.

"...The book was often shocking, but it is also very informative." Read more

"...of Kenyon's book is that he depicts the intertwining of forces, put names to facts creating a convincing narrative." Read more

"...All in all, a terrific read, carefully put together with detail and facts, and a worthy entry into the record of the atrocities in the continent..." Read more

"This book is a fast-paced, fascinating, informative, and utterly wrenching description of many African countries struggling after gaining their..." Read more

6 customers mention "Narrative quality"6 positive0 negative

Customers find the narrative convincing and detailed. They appreciate the journalistic ability to tell a good story. The book provides an informative and wrenching description of many African countries struggling.

"...Kenyon is a BBC reporter and he has the journalist’s ability to tell a good story...." Read more

"In a breathtaking narrative Kenyon tells the story of African nations in the making as dictatorships, from the European Scramble to Independence and..." Read more

"...about its history, but this book managed to surprise me with its detailed account of the staggering scale of the corruption, over and over again by..." Read more

"This book is a fast-paced, fascinating, informative, and utterly wrenching description of many African countries struggling after gaining their..." Read more

4 customers mention "Value for money"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the book an excellent and worthwhile read. They say it's well-researched and provides a compelling account of African tyrants.

"...terrific read, carefully put together with detail and facts, and a worthy entry into the record of the atrocities in the continent that continue..." Read more

"Excellent book!..." Read more

"Worth the read." Read more

"Well worth a read...." Read more

3 customers mention "Eye opening"3 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides an eye-opening view of how the African continent has suffered.

"I have not finished reading the book yet. What I have read so far is eye opening having grown up in South Africa...." Read more

"Good view into how the African continent suffered more in the post Colonial era than during the time of exploitation...." Read more

"A very complete view ...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2020
    'Dictatorland’ tells a shocking story of greed, corruption, and brutality. The book is highly readable. Kenyon is a BBC reporter and he has the journalist’s ability to tell a good story. Kenyon focuses on seven kleptocratic postcolonial African dictators: the Congo’s Mobutu (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).

    Africa has produced many monstrous dictators, not just these seven. Kenyon doesn’t explain why it has produced so many. The book helps you understand why so many Africans risk their lives trying to flee to the West and why members of my family left in the 1960s. Kenyon has a liberal disposition and believes that the West must share some/most of the blame for decisions made by Africans. He doesn’t fully confront uncomfortable issues like ethnic cleansing and genocide. Tribal violence has been a problem everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1960s. That one-time saint Winnie Mandela was caught torturing and killing people she disliked. The brutality shown to white colonists, who stayed on after independence, hasn't helped countries like Zimbabwe attract investment and has dissuaded skilled foreigners from living there.

    The first two sections cover the Democratic Republic of Congo (“Congo”) and Zimbabwe. These countries were colonies of Belgium and Britain. However, most of their white populations left after independence and they are now an insignificant presence. Mobutu ruled the Congo for 32 years. Congo is about the same size as Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Oklahoma combined. Today it has a population of 101 million. Mobutu was the poster boy of African dictators and he stole billions. Belgium was only interested in extracting/stealing the Congo's mineral wealth. The Congo was granted independence in 1960 and then the chaos began. The white population was 115,000 in 1959, it is now about 10,000. Mobutu was educated by a white Belgian judge’s wife. He owed his political career to Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba became the country’s first democratically elected prime minister in 1960. Mobutu had worked as Lumumba’s secretary and was put in charge of the army. Mobutu had impressed American diplomats with his intelligence when they met him in Brussels in 1960. They saw him as someone they could do business with.

    Mobutu gained power thanks to the CIA. They helped him to depose Lumumba and then take power in a coup. The CIA was convinced that Lumumba was a communist. Mobutu arrested Lumumba and watched while his thugs beat him up. Lumumba was executed in 1961. Mobutu was a Machiavellian character who didn’t seem to believe in any particular political ideology, instead, he behaved more like a Roman emperor. Mobutu wanted power and wealth and used fear and torture to maintain control. When opponents became troublesome, he killed them. Local tribes presented him with virgins.

    During the Cold War Henry Kissinger gave Mobutu whatever he wanted, especially after he started having meetings with Chairman Mao. U.S. taxpayer money helped Mobutu accumulate 20 grand homes in Europe and an ornate palace in the jungle with a runway long enough to accommodate Concorde. He also siphoned away $5 billion into offshore bank accounts. He wasn't a Marxist. Mobutu hosted the Ali-Foreman ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ and put up the $10 million prize money. Congo is rich in mineral wealth, but Mobutu’s people did not see the benefits, they continued to live in poverty. Mobutu’s misrule led to economic collapse and civil war. The West believed it needed Mobutu during the Cold War but he had become an embarrassment. Invaders from Rwanda overthrew him in 1997 and replaced him with their local ally, Laurent Kabila. Mobutu died of cancer months later. Things got worse after he was gone. Estimates of the death toll in Congo between 1998 and 2003 range from 1m to 5m. The Congo's problems are too complex for outsiders to fix. It has often had brutal rulers, from its pre-colonial kings who sold slaves, to Belgian King Leopold II in the 19th century. The Cold War power struggle with the Soviet Union meant that Congo became a pawn in a bigger game.

    Robert Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years. The colonization of the country by whites began in the 1880s, Zimbabwe is of a similar size to California. The British used the same model they had used in North America. A British based company received a royal charter and then duped local tribal leaders into signing over the fertile land to white settlers. Most of the settlers were farmers. In 1923, the territory became a self-governing colony. The British settlers had a segregated society and this built-up resentment in the black community. Mugabe was educated at a Catholic school and his mentor was an Irish priest who didn't like the British.

    In the early 1960s, 200,000 whites owned two-thirds of the land, while 3 million blacks owned the rest. Kenyon claims that the black population didn’t have enough good land to make a decent living. The black population is now 15 million. By the 1960s, the British government wanted to hand control of the country to the black majority, and walk away, just as it had done elsewhere in Africa. Its colonies did not pay their way. The white settlers rebelled and declared independence from Britain in 1965, just like the settlers in 1776. A guerilla war ensued, with Joshua Nkomo's ZAPU and Robert Mugabe's ZANU fighting the white settlers. Nkomo and Mugabe came from different tribes and disliked each other.

    Mugabe’s men initially received weapons and training from China, then the North Koreans helped out. Mugabe claimed to be a Marxist and later established one-party rule in the country. The guerillas would kill white farmers and the government forces would retaliate by shooting the guerillas on sight. Britain did not intervene militarily and the whites eventually lost the civil war. Zimbabwe was created in 1980 and Mugabe was internationally acclaimed as a revolutionary hero who was embracing racial reconciliation. The white settlers who had tried to stop black majority rule were condemned internationally as racists.

    Mugabe won a national election and became the country’s president in 1980. He then began killing his black political opponents. In 2000, he launched “fast-track” land reform which involved ethnic cleansing. He encouraged a violent takeover of white-owned farms, then the backbone of the country’s farming sector. Most of the seized land was given to black farmers who lacked experience with modern farming methods. Farms seemed to be allocated on the basis of their connections to Mugabe and they were often neglected. Agricultural production collapsed and the country could no longer feed itself. Kenyon describes the murder of Martin Olds who was a prosperous white farmer. In 2000, Olds was beaten to a pulp and shot in the face by a gang of thugs, while the police looked on. A few months later his 68-year-old mother was murdered. Mugabe said he would not prosecute those who killed white farmers during the evictions. Photos of the incident show that Olds' farmhouse and trucks were torched.

    As in the Congo, the white population voted with their feet and left. The 2012 census lists the total white population at 29,000 (roughly 0.2% of the total population) most of them were elderly and had nowhere to go. The white population dropped from a peak of around 278,000 or 4.3% of the population in 1975. Mugabe even plunged his country into a war in the Congo that was none of its business, just so he could join in the looting of that country’s mineral wealth. His regime became increasingly brutal and repressive. Media freedom was curtailed, the opposition was harassed and beaten. Mugabe was removed in a military coup in 2017 and died in 2019. Today, Zimbabwe always seems in the grip of an economic crisis. There is currently a shortage of fuel, water, power, and food. Inflation is over 900 percent. By 2017, 72% of the population lived in poverty. Mugabe left Zimbabwe in a mess.

    Kenyon interviews a woman in Ghana, whose young son was sold by her husband. Apparently, child slave labor still exists in Ghana. Kenyon wants Western companies to police the hiring practices of African companies. Apparently, the Ghanaian government cannot be trusted to abolish slavery. Members of my family left Ghana in the 1960s when strange things started to happen. Their next-door neighbor was executed, probably on the orders of somebody in government, and the family was evicted from their house. Many Western banks and investors avoid Africa, it is too messy and corrupt. The book was often shocking, but it is also very informative.
    20 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2019
    In a breathtaking narrative Kenyon tells the story of African nations in the making as dictatorships, from the European Scramble to Independence and its contemporary aftermath. It will be a long journey worth taking for us readers from the end of XIXth century to early XXIst century.
    The book is organized around main economic production, from cocoa to oil and diamonds to slavery, which makes the selection of 7 countries straightforward because they are the main producers in Africa of these commodities. The story of each country in not linear, sometimes it takes the excuse of a contemporary anecdote to trace its origin in the past, very much in the style of very good journalism (Kapuscinski and his successors), but always will put at display the forces that have shaped contemporary Africa according to Kenyon: Colonialist European countries, the knights of the Cold War (USA/USSR), their African apprentices and their companies. The European Colonialist partitioned Africa according to their trade interests and those of their companies (this is known in history as the Scramble for Africa in the XIXth century). They needed locals as laborers for exports and to run those laborers on their behalf. Sometimes the latter were already local chieftains to whom the Colonizers bestowed small powers, some education and were allowed to make petty business with exporting companies. Not surprisingly among these elites stirred nationalist sentiment and after the demise of Europe in WWII they took chances at Independence . And because independence took place mostly in the Cold War, to the former Colonizers and its companies were added USA/USSR and their economic and political interests. Also, Cuba, North Korea and China, as providers of guerrilla know how. After WWII, commodities experienced high prices leaving a glut of money in the hands of local elites which was mostly used to amass dictatorial power and personal fortunes with the support of former colonizers, cold war warriors. international companies and the UN.
    The relation between commodities production and dictatorships had been established by academia since long. What is extraordinarily of Kenyon's book is that he depicts the intertwining of forces, put names to facts creating a convincing narrative.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2019
    I worked in Africa for almost two decades, knew a lot about its history, but this book managed to surprise me with its detailed account of the staggering scale of the corruption, over and over again by African leaders whose brutality in their treatment of fellow Africans has no equal in history. Left still to understand for me is why this characteristic pattern of exploitation and savagery along with accumulation of wealth that is just about inestimable, mind blowing. Tyrants in So America where I also lived and worked in the 70's were also corrupt and brutal but not on the same scale as these African dictators by orders of magnitude. All in all, a terrific read, carefully put together with detail and facts, and a worthy entry into the record of the atrocities in the continent that continue today. Highly recommend this book.
    JEFF WILLIAMS
    9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Paolo
    5.0 out of 5 stars interesting reading to understand some African geo political dynamics
    Reviewed in Italy on July 1, 2024
    interesting reading to understand some African geo-political dynamics and post-colonial rearrangement
  • Ricki Whiteaway
    5.0 out of 5 stars Tremendous and absorbing
    Reviewed in Germany on December 17, 2023
    I finished reading this only five minutes ago and came straight here to write a review. Brilliantly researched yet simply told. In-depth accounts of the resource pillage in Zimbabwe, Libya, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, among others are provided skillfully.

    I particularly appreciated the biographies of these despots and thieves, enabling me to understand their motives and how absolute power really did corrupt so absolutely in these unfortunate instances.

    If you're into geopolitics and fancy a walk down an avenue you perhaps haven't ventured down prior, give this a go, it's one of the finest I've read.
  • Lucia
    5.0 out of 5 stars Good Narrative.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 23, 2021
    Well it arrived the next day.
    My son was reading his copy and I commented that it looked like a daunting read.
    When he told me that it was written in Bite Size Chapters. I gave it a go on his book before deciding that this Author had indeed, very cleverly done this. Making it an Interesting and not Overwhelming read.
  • Merlin
    5.0 out of 5 stars journalist authors, when they manage to finish a book......
    Reviewed in India on January 15, 2020
    I was first mesmerized by the beauty of the written word when i read Garcia Marquez. Since then i have looked out for books by journalists and it has almost always been more than worth it. This book is a gem. It is about some of the worst tragedies that humankind has been through and it would have been very easy and forgivable for the author to have lost focus. Paul Kenyon has kept his focus on what he wanted to get across,razor sharp. Very well researched and balanced. Hats off.
  • Ross
    5.0 out of 5 stars Sad reflection on Africa today
    Reviewed in Australia on February 27, 2021
    At a time when issues such as Black Lives Matter arises it is a good time to read a book like this which not only describes the abuse of Africa by colonial powers but the sad but seemingly endless rounds of violence and coups often involving one tribe or group against another. It is still an unfolding tragedy and I would make this book a must read for anyone interested in Africa today.