Reviews for Big Men, Little People: The Leaders Who Defined Africa

The average rating for Big Men, Little People: The Leaders Who Defined Africa based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-05-27 00:00:00 Keith Jernquist At the turn of 20th century, Africa was also swept under the wave of democratization caused by the end of the Cold War. The author of this book is a seasoned journalist who managed to gain opportunity to interview some of the Big Men, who ruled over Africa. After reeling under colonial powers for so long, the wind of change brought opportunities for Africans to rule their destinies by themselves. However, some of them are definitely more hungry for power than anybody else. Set in the 1990s, this book discussed about how the Big Men, from Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire and Hastings Banda of Malawi to Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe dealt with the wave of democratization, to see their rule of the game suddenly change and how the deal with it. Throughout the book, three main problems of Big Men's rule of Africa are discussed, that is Corruption, Cult of personality, and Tribalism.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-04-27 00:00:00 Gary Stover Good overview of African political events in the 1990's and the "Big Men" who ruled over specific countries.