1. The Rise of Dictators

2. Throughout history countries around the world have experienced strife, turmoil, peace and prosperity. During periods of unrest and transitions of leadership different types of rulers have risen to power through military force, democratic election and succession.

4. Traits of a Dictator Suspension of elections and civil liberties
They use secret police and spy on the citizens of their state
Repression of political opponents
They usually rule autocracies (governments with a single self-appointed leader and no governing body to check his power)
Control of the mass media
Many of these dictators foster cults of personality, a form of hero worship in which the masses are fed propaganda declaring their leader to be flawless (and in some cases, divine or divinely appointed).
Often a state of emergency or a coup d'etat results in a dictator coming to power. However, there have been dictators who got there legally.

5. African Dictators
As most of the countries of Africa were gaining their independence in the mid 20th century, often the leaders of the independence movements were the first Presidents of the new country
Hailed at first as heroes, many of them then stayed in power for decades, unwilling to give up power
Or if they did, they passed it on only to someone else in their family like a son or nephew

6. 3 Reasons Why Post-Colonial African leaders cling to power
1) They are known as “liberators”, and they come to believe that their countries belonged to them.
Many took on grand titles and plastered their presence on currency, portraits, streets and buildings.
Examples were Uganda’s Idi Amin, DRC’s Mobutu Sese Seko and Guinea’s Ahmed Sékou Touré.
Many of the next generation, some of them coup leaders, were worse than those they ousted: Liberia’s Charles Taylor and DRC’s Kabila being just two.
2) Insecure leaders surround themselves with loyal supporters, often from their own tribes.
‘Even when the head of state is contemplating stepping down, these supporters and lackeys fiercely resist any cutbacks in government largesse or any attempt to open up the political system – for fear of losing the jobs, perks and privileges.’
3) Fear
Dictators know they have done bad things, and fear reprisal. For example, Omar al-Bashir of Sudan is wanted by the ICC.

7. Why does Africa have so many dictators?
The arbitrary, artificial borders created without properly considering the many differences among tribes, history and culture
The people inside a given country have no real collective identity, and so there’s a huge amount of favouritism and self-interest
As soon as a new government takes over most government workers lose their jobs and are replaced with members of the new government’s inner circle or tribal group
Non-existent or weak state institutions and infrastructure
The uneven distribution of natural resource
leaders are likely to sell the resources to line their own pockets
In unrestrained environments where wealth is there for the taking and one’s time in office is uncertain, the incentives to plunder are often too strong to resist.

8. For the most part, dictators tend to stay in power for a very long time. Or they're deposed only to be replaced by another dictator. It takes a long time to change an entire governmental structure, and often it doesn't happen without the intervention of the United Nations, or other governmental organizations. Currently, more than 70 countries in the world are ruled by dictators. Many of them are guilty of atrocities against their own people.