African Stalin

Outside of South Africa is there any sub saharan dictator that could industrialize his nation and turn it into a communist power similar to Cuba.
 
Dos Santos of Angola if he doesn't succumb to the lure of capitalism and corruption.

He'd need a few lucky breaks to end the civil war earlier too.
 
Maybe Nyerere, if his Ujamaa (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ujamaa) initiative worked. Maybe more focus on the establishment of national factories to convert Tanzania's agricultural and mineral wealth into globally competitive products, not going to war with Uganda and less corruption could have made Tanzania and industrialized socialist power.
 
Outside of South Africa is there any sub saharan dictator that could industrialize his nation and turn it into a communist power similar to Cuba.

Hey! What have you got against us? May the ghost of the "Ou Krokodil" Botha haunt you (just kidding. But he might be the closest - I know Willie Brandt among foreign heads of state (apparently Maggie Thatcher wasn't a fan either) didn't have a high opinion of him either as a statesman or a person. - if you HADN'T excluded South Africa).

But have you looked at Uncle Bob over in Zim? Ethnic cleansing (sorta, many of the white farmers were murdered or left in fear of being murdered), one party politics and driving the economy to Hell , among his many achievements. (IDK if Bob did this all single-handedly or not. My gf's father (a former Zim tobacco farmer) seems to think so)
 
Mobutu?

Zaire had tons of resources, and he had a sort of "African Stalinism" to his domestic nationalism

The key is to avoid corruption until you can actually afford it
 
Maybe Siad Barre of Somalia? Rather than being fixated on the idea of Greater Somalia or better yet, using it to fuel nationalism he tries to kick the economy into high gear rather than just the army?
 
IOTL Mengistu was often called Ethiopian Stalin or Black Stalin.

He had the "targetted famine" thing down cold, so he's close enough. But Mengistu never stabilised his country, as he left it a starving wreck in the midst of a massive civil war. I don't know how you could make Mengistu's regime successful. Maybe if the Soviet Union never fell and kept up foreign support, plus more stability (probably more deaths in the process), maybe Mengistu could do something good for his country.

Scary thing is he's still alive and well in Zimbabwe. He allegedly was one of the key planners behind a series of slum clearings which displaced hundreds of thousands of people.

But have you looked at Uncle Bob over in Zim? Ethnic cleansing (sorta, many of the white farmers were murdered or left in fear of being murdered), one party politics and driving the economy to Hell , among his many achievements. (IDK if Bob did this all single-handedly or not. My gf's father (a former Zim tobacco farmer) seems to think so)

Not just whites there, also the Ndebele, who in the 80s were subject to repression, torture, and mass murder by Mugabe's North Korean-trained soldiers due to their support of Mugabe's political rivals.

Mobutu?

Zaire had tons of resources, and he had a sort of "African Stalinism" to his domestic nationalism

The key is to avoid corruption until you can actually afford it

He had the resources, he just didn't have the infrastructure or anything else to exploit them, nor the will to do much but keep himself in power and enrich himself and his associates.
 
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