Powers corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely! In the case of these dictators it also made them go totally crazy. From building an ice palace in the desert, to having one of the largest porn collections in the world or feeding your political rivals to crocodiles, it all features in our list of totalitarian tyrants. Find out what else they have done with the 10 craziest dictators.
10. Jean-Bédel Bokassa (Central African Republic - 1976 to 1979)
Bokassa bankrupted his country by spending one third of the national budget on his own coronation, a replica of Napoleon's 19th century inauguration.
Accused of cannibalism, he fathered 62 children and is believed to have fed political rivals to lions and crocodiles at his personal zoo.
9. Ne Win (Burma - 1962 to 1988)
Win was so dedicated to numerology that he had the national currency, the kyat, issued in denominations of 45 and 90 - as they were divisible by his lucky number: 9. Anyone who had kept savings in 100 kyat notes lost their fortunes.
8. Farouk I (Egypt - 1936 to 1952)
Nicknamed the ‘stomach with a head’ because of his love for food, Farouk reportedly ate 600 oysters a week and had the largest porn collection in the world.
He liked fast cars too and had them painted red. He then forbade everyone from having red cars so that the police would know not to stop him when they saw a red car driving recklessly.
7. Mobutu Sese Seko (Zaire - 1965 to 1997)
Mobutu’s reign saw pro-African cultural reforms that denounced the wearing of ties and the use of Western names.
He changed his own name to ‘the all powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, will go from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake’.
6. Caligula (Rome - 37AD to 41AD)
Despite being married four times, the Roman Emperor is said to have regularly committed incest with his 3 sisters and sold their sexual services to other men.
After running out of criminals to fight in the arena, he allegedly made a group of innocent spectators fight lions and tigers instead.
5. Saparmurat Niyazov (Turkmenistan - 1990 to 2006)
Niyazov enjoyed banning things. Ballet and opera were outlawed as he thought them unnecessary, young men weren’t allowed to grow beards, and because he hated lip syncing, the playing of recorded music on TV was forbidden.
4. François ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier (Haiti - 1957 to 1971)
Papa Doc was a strong believer in voodoo, which led him to claim credit for the assassination of JFK, asserting that he’d placed a curse on him.
3. Idi Amin (Uganda - 1971 to 1979)
Amin gave himself the title ‘"His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of All the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas, and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”. He also claimed to be the uncrowned King of Scotland.
2. Kim Jong-il (North Korea - 1994 to 2011)
A double rainbow and a new star allegedly appeared when Kim was born in a supposedly supernatural birth that changed the season from winter to spring.
1. Charles VI (France - 1380 to 1422)
Nicknamed Charles the Mad, the French monarch would regularly not know who he was, who his family were, or that he was King.
While leading his army, he started fighting his own troops because a leper told him he had traitors - he killed several men before he could be brought under control.
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