The Looting Machine
Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth

Quotes

A Financial Times Best Book of the Year, 2015

“A great scrapbook of exploitation. It is written in a way that will appeal to the general reader, but still interest specialists...Burgis has the good sense not to present [the cruel contrast between individual poverty and national wealth] in an alarmist way, but with an understatement that is far more powerful...The Looting Machine is in part a means of self‑exoneration, a way of making amends to those he ultimately could not help...[In this book he] has done a service to some of the world’s poorest people.”—Financial Times

“A powerful new book.”—Nicholas Kristof, New York Times

“[An] impressive study… It is to Mr. Burgis's tremendous credit that he writes with such tenacity.”—Wall Street Journal

“[Burgis] presents a lively portrait of the rapacious ‘looting machine’...a rich collage of examples showing the links between corrupt companies and African elites.”—Economist

“[Burgis] brings the tools of an investigative reporter and the sensibility of a foreign correspondent. [He] transcends the tired binary debate about the root causes of the continent's misery.”—Howard French, Foreign Affairs

“A brave and defiant book.”—New York Times Sunday Book Review

“A rollercoaster read. Filled with vignettes on spooks, smugglers and kleptocratic warlords with suitcases of cash, it reads like a crime thriller, while at the same time being a well‑researched, accessible account of the extractives industry; the privatisation of power in Africa and its impact on the continent’s people.”—African Arguments

“Brilliant fascinating detail. The book lives up to its colourful subtitle: ‘Warlords, tycoons, smugglers and the systematic theft of Africa's wealth.’ Showing the finesse and determination that has won him awards at the FT, and at considerable risk to his own well‑being, Burgis tracks down and confronts the people at the centre of this plunder.”—African Research Institute

“This fine book...catalogues the grotesque self‑enrichment of the callous rulers of Angola, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria, countries that should be immensely wealthy, but which remain poor, even by African standards. In each case, this theft of national treasure would be impossible without non‑African facilitators. ... Burgis’s book is essential to understanding why poverty, ignorance and conflict persist in Africa.”—Independent Catholic News