His Eternity, His Eccentricity, or His Exemplarity? A Further Contribution to the Study of H. E. the African Head of State
Author(s)
Kirk-Greene, A. H. M.
Abstract
Examines several persistent misconceptions about influential African heads of state of the second half of the 20th century. Rulers such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta, Nigeria’s Ahmadu Bello, and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe have represented different things to different groups of people. Sometimes associated with specific ideologies, other times championing certain cultural groups, these leaders often identified themselves as symbols of the state’s absolute power. While many recent African rulers have exhibited bizarre and impulsive behavior, as a whole the group has proved to be no more eccentric than a similar list of European leaders.
