heads of state: colonial times edition

As always, click on the image to see the large version. Go on, click it. It took me 2,500 hours in MacPaint to create this image, you can spend 15 seconds looking at it.


1. Lothar von Trotha
Governor, German South-West Africa, 1904-1905
(Present-day Namibia)
Teutonic sadist who made it his life's ambition to exterminate the Hottentot and the Herero. Authorized killings of men, women and children, deported them from the land at gunpoint, razed their villages and poisoned their wells. Enslaved the survivors in concentration camps. The Nazis named a street after him.
Recommended Reading: V., Thomas Pynchon

2. Charles D.B. King
President, Liberia, 1920-1930
Repatriated African-American who led the True Whig party in Liberia. A descendent of escaped slaves, was among the ruling cabal of Liberian families who actually reinstituted slavery among the Liberian natives. Was forced to resign in disgrace after he sold a boatful of 'em to Spanish Guinea. In 1930. Frankly I find this all a little hard to believe, but it says so right here on Wikipedia.
Recommended Reading: Wikipedia

3. King Leopold II
Rubber Baron, Congo Free State, 1885-1908
(Present-day DRC)
Egomaniac who chartered the conquest of the Congo with extreme prejudice, for the greater glory of Belgium, of all places. Turned the colony into the world's largest and most brutal rubber plantation, enslaving the natives and whipping the shit out of them with hippo-hide chicottes. Through his deputized proxies, demanded absurd bounties of rubber from each man, woman and child, and authorized the chopping off of hands and feet when they inevitably failed to deliver. His regime heralded a hundred years of Congolese misery. Never personally set foot in Africa.
Recommended Reading: King Leopold's Ghost, Adam Hochschild

4. Haile Selassie
Emperor, Ethiopia, 1930-1974
Absolute totalitarian who micro-managed every aspect of the state, right down to cattle-grazing disputes. Claimed direct descent from the Queen of Sheba. Fan of pomp and pageantry, and would adorn his outfits with literally hundreds of military medals, all wholly unearned. Fed steaks to his lions while his people were starving. But he opposed Mussolini, and gave a great speech at the UN once.
Recommended Reading: The Emperor, Ryszard Kapuscinski

5. Cecil Rhodes
Monopolist, Rhodesia, 1890-1902
(Present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe)
Founded De Beers, which at its height controlled 90% of the world's diamond supply. Owned the mining concessions to the Kimberley Crater, where uncut fist-sized stones could be picked up right off the ground. Used the proceeds to found Rhodesia, annexed from the natives under his British corporate charter. Believed in the cultural and eugenic supremacy of the caucasian race, and founded the Rhodes Scholarship to that effect. A legend in his own time. Quoth Twain: "There he stands, to this day, upon his dizzy summit under the dome of the sky, an apparent permanency, the marvel of the time, the mystery of the age, an Archangel with wings to half the world, Satan with a tail to the other half."
Recommended Reading: Following the Equator, Mark Twain

6. Thomas Bugeaud
Field Marshal, Algeria, 1840-1848
Celebrated French military leader who cut his teeth fighting pirates off the Barbary Coast. Was appointed governor of Algeria in 1840 and went berserk, conquering vast tracts of desert, killing every Arab in sight, and deliberately targeting their food supply. Famous commentator on American democracy Alexis de Tocqueville looked on with approval, and could even be said to be the intellectual architect of the entire campaign. "It can now be said that war in Africa is a science." Uh-huh.
Recommended Reading: Collected Letters, Alexis de Tocqueville

7. Herbert Kitchener
Various postings too numerous to name
Old-line British military hardass whose career spanned three continents. Scorched the earth in Sudan. Torched the crops in Transvaal. Tussled with Kruger (see 8) and threw his people in concentration camps. Organized the infantry in India. Later served as Governor of Egypt and Secretary of War for the UK in WWI. Also, gay.
Recommended Viewing: Breaker Morant

8. Paul Kruger
President, Transvaal, 1883-1900
(Part of present-day South Africa)
Afrikaaner independence fighter who clashed repeatedly with the Brits. Wore a ridiculous top hat everywhere. Ran Transvaal, an independent micro-state, where Boers were free to farm the African land in peace and tranquility (after kicking off the natives of course, as God and John Calvin certainly intended.) Smacked in the puss with the resource curse when they discovered a fortune in gold under their feet. Finally ousted during the Second Boer War, in a rare example of Africa-based white-on-white violence. Still a beloved figure in his home country
Recommended Reading: Kruger National Park webpage

9. António Salazar
Lusotropicaliast-in-Chief, Portuguese Africa, 1932-1968
(Present day Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau)
Cranky Catholic fuck who ruled Portugal for 30 years. Fighting the inevitable tide of history, he refused to let go of his African holdings, despite three revolutionary wars and a desperately undermanned military. Loved his colonies, but rarely left the metropole. Butt buddies with Ian Smith (see Heads of State, Historical Edition.)
Recommend Reading: Salazar: My Story, by António Salazar (n.b. book does not exist)