Africa
I found the former President of Sierra Leone sitting beneath a mango tree outside Freetown. Valentine Strasser wore ragged shorts and nothing else, not even shoes. Sweat streamed down his face like tears. He sipped palm wine from a dirty plastic mug and since it was still morning he was not yet very drunk. He growled, ‘Do you have an appointment?’ ‘No,’ I replied, ‘but I do have a bottle of Jack Daniels.’
I wished to meet Strasser because his story was different. Only in 1990 did the first president in Africa’s independent history concede defeat in an election. Today most of Africa is supposedly democratic. Many people still unfairly imagine that it is in Africa’s nature to be ruled by despots; that the Big Men never retire, but live or die by the gun. If ousted, we think they live out their days on the French Riviera — or in another African state run by a sympathetic chum — with their wives, courtiers and a fleet of Mercedes.
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