Dictatorland Audiobook By Paul Kenyon cover art

Dictatorland

The Men Who Stole Africa

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Dictatorland

By: Paul Kenyon
Narrated by: Hamilton McLeod
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Bloomsbury presents Dictatorland by Paul Kenyon, read by Hamilton McLeod.

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.

©2023 Paul Kenyon (P)2023 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Politics & Government 20th Century Africa World Modern Middle East War Imperialism Latin America Military Colonial Period

Critic reviews

'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express

'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times

'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish Times
All stars
Most relevant
I've always put off learning about the history of modern Africa because I have always suspected that it would be too horrible to think about. It turns out that I was right. This narrative grinds through a list of some of the worst dictators in history. It is a brutal and powerful story, well told. I will admit that there were times when I had to take a break from the horror for a bit and listen to something else, before coming back to finish.

A deep dive into some really sinister history

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