Why am I passionate about this?

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,

Book cover of Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years

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…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Wizard of the Crow

Anaïs Angelo Why did I love 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. 

By Ngugi Wa Thiong'o,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Wizard of the Crow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Informed by traditional African storytelling, discover Ngugi wa Thiong'o's masterpiece.

To honour the Ruler's birthday, the Free Republic of Aburiria set out to build a tower; a modern wonder of the world that will reach the gates of Heaven. But behind this pillar of unity a battle for control of the Aburirian people rages. Among the contenders: the eponymous Wizard, an avatar of folklore and wisdom; the corrupt Christian Ministry; and the nefarious Global Bank.


Book cover of In Idi Amin's Shadow: Women, Gender, and Militarism in Uganda

Anaïs Angelo Why did I love 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.

By Alicia C. Decker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked In Idi Amin's Shadow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A subtle, important, theoretically innovative, and elegantly written study that centralizes feminist thinking and shows why it matters." -Feminist Africa In Idi Amin's Shadow is a rich social history examining Ugandan women's complex and sometimes paradoxical relationship to Amin's military state. Based on more than one hundred interviews with women who survived the regime, as well as a wide range of primary sources, this book reveals how the violence of Amin's militarism resulted in both opportunities and challenges for women. Some assumed positions of political power or became successful entrepreneurs, while others endured sexual assault or experienced the trauma of…


Book cover of Black, French, and African

Anaïs Angelo Why did I love 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. 

Book cover of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Ohio Short Histories of Africa)

Anaïs Angelo Why did I love 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. 

By Pamela Scully,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (Ohio Short Histories of Africa) as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In this timely addition to the Ohio Short Histories of Africa series, Pamela Scully takes us from the 1938 birth of Nobel Peace Prize winner and two-time Liberian president Ellen Johnson through the Ebola epidemic of 2014-15. Charting her childhood and adolescence, the book covers Sirleaf's relationship with her indigenous grandmother and urban parents, her early marriage, her years studying in the United States, and her career in international development and finance, where she developed her skill as a technocrat. The later chapters cover her years in and out of formal Liberian politics, her support for women's rights, and the…


Book cover of Waiting for Wild Beasts to Vote

Anaïs Angelo Why did I love 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.

By Ahmadou Kourouma,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Waiting for Wild Beasts to Vote as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ahmadou Kourouma's remarkable novel is narrated by Bingo, a West African sora - storyteller and king's fool. Over the course of five nights he tells the life story of Koyaga, President and Dictator of the Gulf Coast. Orphaned at the age of seven, Koyaga grows up to be a terrible hunter; he fights mythical beasts, and is a shape-shifter, capable of changing himself into beasts and birds. He fights in the French colonial armies, in Vietnam and Algeria, but on his return he mounts a coup and becomes ruler and dictator of the Gulf Coast. For thirty years he runs…


Explore my book 😀

Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years

By Anaïs Angelo,

Book cover of Power and the Presidency in Kenya: The Jomo Kenyatta Years

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.

Book cover of Wizard of the Crow
Book cover of In Idi Amin's Shadow: Women, Gender, and Militarism in Uganda
Book cover of Black, French, and African

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Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

Book cover of Elephant Safari

Peter Riva Author Of Kidnapped on Safari

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.

Peter's book list on the otherness that few get to experience

What is my book about?

Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.

Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…

Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

What is this book about?

A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.

Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…


5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Liberia, Uganda, and presidential biography?

Liberia 12 books
Uganda 21 books