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Description
From the bestselling author of Dictatorland, this is the long and turbulent history of China's growing influence over African states.
People are increasingly fascinated by – and terrified of – the role of China in the modern world. In Africa, this role has become something akin to a new colonial power. With unique insight into how China operates overseas, Paul Kenyon charts the country's extraordinary success in exploiting Africa's natural resources, consumers, workforce and political institutions.
In the 1950s African states gained independence from one set of colonisers and quickly struck up deals with a new, more insidious kind. Kenyon tells of how Mao and his comrades cultivated new African leaders – Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Julius Nyerere in Tanzania and a young Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe – in exchange for lucrative deals and political influence that has never left. Now, Chinese power is built into the very structures of the continent, from roads to jobs to internet access.
Today China's presence is ubiquitous in Africa, both visibly and invisibly. Whilst Xi Jinping offers huge building projects, joint exploitation of mineral wealth and easy credit to African states still struggling to develop, Chinese tech companies have gained control over the continent's data, technological infrastructure and social media. This is a terrifying and ever more important story about the new economic and political hierarchies that shape our modern world.
Praise for Dictatorland - A Financial Times Book of the Year:
'Jaw-dropping' Daily Express
'Grimly fascinating' Financial Times
'Humane, timely, accessible and well-researched' Irish Times
'It is [the] minute observations that make Mr Kenyon's book so hard to put down' Economist
Accessibility Information
Additional accessibility information
- EPUB 3.0
- Conforms with the requirements of EPUB Accessibility Spec v1.1
- WCAG level AA
- WCAG v2.2 compliant
- accessibility@bloomsbury.com
Hazards
The publication contains no hazards
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- No accessibility features offered by the reading system, device or reading software are disabled or otherwise unusable with the product
- Has alternative text descriptions for images
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Appearance of the text and page layout can be modified according to the capabilities of the reading system (font family and size, spaces, as well as color of background and text)
Navigation
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- Elements such as headings, tables, etc for structured navigation
- All or substantially all textual matter is arranged in a single logical reading order
- Content is enhanced with ARIA roles to optimize organization and facilitate navigation
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Rich content
Language tagging provided
Product details
| Published | 15 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Pages | 416 |
| ISBN | 9781803285368 |
| Imprint | Apollo |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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