If you happen to have the book I recommend you re-read chapter six, titled, ‘The Good, The Bad, The Greedy’ in which he dissects three former African presidents: Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, Samuel Doe of Liberia and Daniel arap Moi of Kenya.
Although in the chapter, Kaunda symbolises the Good, Harden characterises him in these words, “His amiable mendacity dramatises the logic of personal rule in Africa. For him to remain in power, as his misrule continues to coddle a tiny elite and beggar the rest of the populace, the gap must continue to widen between Kaunda the God-fearing humanist who insists he is a ‘democrat through and through’ and Kaunda the steely-eyed Big Man who brooks no challenge…” Of Samuel Doe he writes: “What the Americans ended up buying was neither stability nor democracy. They paid, instead, for Doe’s legitimacy: weapons to coerce loyalty, money to rent it. The skinny backwoods sergeant was more cunning than he looked. Repeatedly, he outfoxed the State Department. He promised to return to his barracks, …he did not. He promised a free and fair election which he rigged. He promised financial discipline, which he faked. For his every promise, the US government rewarded him with aid….” “…Moi is not a buffoon like Doe or a dreamer like Kaunda. He does not sanction the public mutilation of his enemies, nor does he write books about African utopia. Instead he is a stolid, slow-speaking, not-very-dynamic Big Man who deftly uses the tools of his trade – payoffs and coercion – to stay in power. At first blush this does not seem so destructive….”
