Dictatorland

This book reads like a thriller.

Crime at the highest level, heart pounding plot twists, and a satisfying end - well, if it were merely fiction. But it is not. It is the tale[s] of our Africa. From Libya to Zaire [now DRC], to Zimbabwe… it all sounds fictional until it is not. The worst part for me was feeling like I was reading the story of Uganda.

Dictatorland: The Men Who Stole Africa by Paul Kenyon is a non-fiction tale of greed, corruption, ignorance, dicey deals, and ultimately how leaders continue to sabotage the bright future of so many people. It is personal for me because this story is so common: Libya, Zimbabwe, DRC are in shambles for many reasons, chief among which is a failure of leadership. Being from Uganda, I felt very anxious about the direction our country was taking because we have a strongman who refuses to put the people before his greed.

Anyway, the book is brilliantly written [enriched by a journalistic background] and lays bare the events we may have come to assume so much about. It also touches on the role of the West, unavoidably, given that there are interesting natural resources at stake: diamonds, gold, cocoa, oil.

It is a hard-to-put-down read for sure, and I wish every Ugandan could read it, if only to see where we are headed - and just maybe, maybe, we will get vigilant about ridding Uganda of the current regime.