Oil field worker, soldier, Washington bureaucrat, professor, farmer, builder, academic dean, and international consultant. These are some of Jake Smith’s job titles chronicled in this memoir. Dining with dictators is just one small episode in an eclectic career. This book documents Smith’s life and times --- from a small town in rural Louisiana to presidential palaces in Africa; from struggles to survive on a Tennessee farm to struggles in academia, where the stakes are small, but the fights are vicious. Dinner with Mobutu covers Smith’s 40-year fascination with Africa --- from student to scholar to political consultant.