When I was a university student, I wanted to know how African presidencies function, not only how African presidents acquire and keep power, but also how they imagine it, how they anticipate political battles, who they trust, and who they fear. All too often, the literature focuses on colonial legacy and neo-colonization and describes African presidents with too little agency. As a doctoral researcher, I stumbled on a biography of Jomo Kenyatta and got caught by the intricacies of his political career. Since then, Kenyan political history has become my area of specialization, and while my background in political science keeps inspiring me, I have a passion for historical writing.
I wrote...
Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years
By
Anaïs Angelo
What is my book about?
Why did, upon independence, almost all African states adopt a presidential system of rule? What are the historical origins of presidential power in postcolonial African countries? This is the question my book, Power and the Presidency in Kenya seeks to answer.
Using various British and Kenyan archival records, I show that nobody expected that the makings of a presidential regime would grand one man almost limitless executive powers; even fewer expected Jomo Kenyatta would remain president until his death in 1978 and to significantly shape Kenya’s presidential rule. With this book, I hope to show that the African presidencies have their own history, one that calls for reconstructing the actors’ agency in negotiating presidential powers, for the worse or the best of their interest, yet always with a refine political intelligence.
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The Books I Picked & Why
Wizard of the Crow
By
Ngugi Wa Thiong'o
Why this book?
The Wizard of the Crow tells the story of an African president who wants to be all-mighty, his body grows and grows and grows to the point that the president is on the verge of blowing up. Ngugi wa Thiong’o is not only one of the greatest Kenyan/African writers of the 20th century, he is also one of the few to have shown that extensive presidential powers can become a threat to the president himself. This idea very much influenced my book and I try to show that a powerful president must rely on alliances with his best and worst enemies.
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In Idi Amin's Shadow: Women, Gender, and Militarism in Uganda
By
Alicia C. Decker
Why this book?
Idi Amin Dada is one of the “best known” African dictators. So many books, documentaries, and films have depicted him as a bloody, megalomaniac leader on the verge of craziness. He was even portrayed by Forest Whitaker in The Last King of Scotland. Alicia Decker shows a different story, starting by asking what if we take Idi Amin’s seriously? What if we explore the way he turned his (brutal) “hyper-masculinity” into a political resource? To me, this book was eye-opening, there are so many ways to write about African presidents, their politics, their ideas, and their resources. And of course, there are many ways to “gender” their histories and look for the women who stand in the president’s shadow.
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Black, French, and African
By
Janet G. Vaillant
Why this book?
This book stands as a reference when it comes to the early life of Senegal’s first president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and it is one of the first biographies of an African president that I read. Beyond the extreme richness of this book, I have always been struck by how little the author wrote about Senghor’s political career as president (which remains quite controversial). For a long time, biographies of African presidents were grounded in an idea of greatness and exceptionality rather than unraveling political intricacies.
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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Ohio Short Histories of Africa)
By
Pamela Scully
Why this book?
When one hears “African president”, one tends to imagine a man in power. What about women in power? This is one of the rare biographies dedicated to an African female president, and one that is easily accessible to a broad readership. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female president of independent Liberia, is a fascinating figure. She is a shrewd politician who understands the gendered dynamics of African politics, but also of the international economic scene (she worked for the World Bank and the United Nations before becoming president). Still too little is known about African women in or around the Office of the President.
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Waiting for Wild Beasts to Vote
By
Ahmadou Kourouma
Why this book?
There is one thing historians cannot always document: the rumors and supernatural beliefs that surround presidential politics. Though Ahmadou Kourouma’s book is inspired by real presidential figures, it transcends them to illustrate how the president’s political (and masculine) authority sometimes turns into a sacred aura. Just like Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s The Wizard of the Crow, Kourouma depicts a violent presidential system built on fragile fundaments.
