Recently published, this fascinating, insightful yet sobering book is for anyone who is interested in Africa. Kenyon has thoroughly researched many of the extreme dictatorships in Africa over the past half century, also drawing on earlier history, and describes interviews with people from all levels of society. He also describes some of the events witnessed by himself and others into what are sometimes horrific human atrocities.
Despite its length (400+ pages) I found this book compulsive reading as the author moved from one nation to another describing the antics and resulting consequences of dictators who have dominated so many African nations. Corruption, of course, featured prominently but he also reported on the repression to their own people groups and, in many cases, the willingness of the international community to ‘turn a blind eye’, often in the interests of trade and commerce, that should shame us all.
Kenyon focuses primarily on just seven of the 50+ African nations – Congo, Zimbabwe, Libya, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire and Eritrea – but he also makes reference to others which have been the topic of many books already, such as Rwanda.
The book has four sections which major on some of the underlying issues that have propped up so many dictatorship: the mining of gold and diamonds, the exploration and drilling for oil, and the growing and production of chocolate. His final section exposes modern day slavery which underpins some of these regimes.
For those who love Africa I strongly recommend this book. It will give you helpful insights into some of the background history and culture in different parts of that vast continent, and will increase your understanding of some of the complexities that many of us, as visitors, find confusing, being so different from our ‘norms’. Dictatorland is a good book for your ‘summer’ reading (if you live in the northern hemisphere!).