Nic Cheeseman is a Professor of Democracy at the University of Birmingham and was formerly the Director of the African Studies Centre at Oxford University. He is the recipient of the GIGA award for the best article in Comparative Area Studies (2013) and the Frank Cass Award for the best article in Democratization (2015). He is also the author or editor of ten books, including Democracy in Africa(2015), Institutions and Democracy in Africa (2017) and How to Rig Election (2018), among others.

This new book- "Authoritarian Africa"- explores the history and legacy of authoritarianism in Africa-from the colonial era until the onset of democracy in the early 1990s. This unique text also provides essential new insights, revising the traditional "story" of African authoritarianism by drawing on primary source materials(from songs to statistics) to provide a fresh, original perspective. Looking at what sustained authoritarian rule in Africa over more than a century, the authors consider the phenomenon on its own terms- not simply as a way station on the road to democracy and in the context of the continent's social, political, intellectual and economic history.

Dr. Radha Upadhyaya

Institute for Development Studies

University of Nairobi