The surprising triumph of “Africa’s Kim Jong Un”

By Michela Wrong

In 1967, at the height of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, a group of young Eritrean students posed for a photo on the outskirts of Nanjing. The Eritreans, whose tiny country had been annexed by Ethiopia five years previously, were training to be guerrilla fighters in order to win it back. Looking at the photo, it’s not hard to guess which student would eventually emerge as a leader. Standing at the back, Issaias Afwerki towers over his comrades and their Chinese tutors, who loyally clutch copies of the Little Red Book. Arms crossed, he looks straight at the camera with a quizzical expression.