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Title: The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence
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Manufacturer: PublicAffairs
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| The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by PublicAffairs Extremely well-written recent history that makes you sad and mad | In only 688 pages Martin Meredith succeeds in capturing the recent history of more or less the whole of (sub-Saharan) Africa, throwing in a few countries above the Sahara for good measure. After a brief introduction, he starts off at independence of most countries, and what you read does not make you happy. With only very few exception new rulers with initially good intentions turn within no-time into greedy, ruthless killers that divide the loot (read "the treasury"and "the natural resources of their countries") among themselves, their close familiy, their tribe and their cronies. When things get too obvious, a military coup follows, after which the new leaders do exactly the same. And in the meantime the common people suffer, be it from the lawlessness of Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda, the economic ruins in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe, or the denial of Mbeki in South Africa that HIV causes AIDS. And these are only a few of the countless examples that make you feel quite depressed. Despite all the foreign aid that is being poured into a continent that has such rich resources (gold, diamonds, oil and a host of minerals), the economic situation of most people has only deteriorated since independence. and this is also in stark contrast to for example Southeast Asia that has gone through an economic explosion.
I regularly work in Africa in collaborative scientific research projects on infectious diseases and I see abysmal hospital facilities, people (including colleagues) dying from diseases that can easily be cured and hot-shots whose only attitude is "what is in it for me?" (and they are so shameless that they actually ask you that question). But I also see tons of very dedicated people -mainly in the lower echelons-, trying to make the best of the meagre resources they have available, people who thoroughly know how to enjoy life and are as hospitable as can be. I always tell them that they are too friendly and slightly naive in believing the promises made. If in the west we would have a ruler like Mugabe, we would have kicked him out years (and put him in prison for good measure).
In my opinion education is key to solving the problems of Africa: educated people are people who can make their own decisions, are able to critically evaluate their options and ultimately can decide together what is best for their country. And yes, maybe in some instances it will be necessary to re-consider borders so that they coincide better with historical delineations between tribes and religions. But it will ask for vision, courage and patience and the question is whether there will be sufficient time available... | | The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by PublicAffairs Terrifically Informative + Extremely Depressing | | I read this book 2 years ago, and it haunts me still. I've since gone on to read two other of Martin Meredith's books ("Diamonds, Gold, and War" and "Mugabe"). He's an extremely companionable author, and his more-or-less deadpan tone is perfectly suited to the very depressing subject matter he covers in this book. From famine and genocide to the absolute corruption of lawful states, this book covers the consistently tragic history of post-colonial Africa. | | The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by PublicAffairs fantastic, comprehensive book | The Fate of Africa is a fantastic book - Meredith has truly done his work! This book is lengthy and can take some time to get through, but the history if clear and you will leave the book with a greater understanding of the trends that weave African history together. Meredith does his best (and almost always succeeds) in leaving his own political persuasions out of the history, simply relating the actions of world leaders and laying out the results - both good and bad - for his readers to examine.
I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone interested in a true understanding of what has brought Africa to where it is today. | | The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by PublicAffairs the biggest a-ha moment | | People easily dismiss Africa as something that cannot be fixed. Even though the author doesn't have much optimism for the future, this comprehensive history allows you to understand why each country is in the state is. It is one big" a-ha I see moment". All together a very good book. | | The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by PublicAffairs Pessimistic yet fascinating and highly informative account of recent African history | _The Fate of Africa_ by Martin Meredith is a impressively through (688 pages) and yet highly readable account of the history of Africa - all of Africa, including North Africa - since independence, beginning (after a good introductory chapter on general African history) with the independence of the Gold Coast (becoming Ghana) in 1957 all the way up until events in the mid 2000s, including such issues as the genocide in Rwanda and Burundi, the civil wars in Liberia and Angola, the collapse of Joseph Desire Mobutu's Zaire, Nigerian delta oil politics, the genocide in Darfur, Robert Mugabe's ruinous reign over Zimbabwe and his seizure of white-owned farms, the AIDS epidemic, the advent and role of conflict diamonds, and post-Apartheid and post-Mandela politics in South Africa.
Though this book could have been a sprawling if interesting mess, trying to cover fifty years of history of a huge continent, it isn't, as Meredith did a good job with the material. Part of it is from his excellent writing style and his vivid and engrossing portrait of Africa's often quite colorful leaders, but part of it is sad to say from a theme that gets hammered home again and again with many examples from fifty years of African history. With a special emphasis on the role of African leaders and their role in the fate of their countries, Meredith examines why, "after the euphoria of the independence era, so many hopes and ambitions faded and why the future of Africa came to be spoken of only in pessimistic terms." Though acknowledging the diversity of Africa, he noted that African states have much in common in terms of their origins and the problems they face. Time and again, Meredith in his country by country history of the continent provided tragic examples of states with vast economic potential being ruined by the "predatory politics of ruling elites seeking personal gain," often exploiting ethnic tensions for their own ends (it was sickening to read the political and economic motivations of those who helped fan the flames of genocide in Rwanda for instance, or how Mugabe essentially ended up ruining Zimbabwe, blaming and in the end chasing away the vital white farmers in order to cover up his own massive mistakes). Many though not all colonies at independence were often able to produce nearly all their own food and had a functioning infrastructure of roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, and a civil service as well as in many cases a thriving export industry, but after often epic mismanagement and corruption, massive embezzlement, squandering of national budgets on useless prestige projects, and ruinous involvement in foreign wars, most African states "have become hollowed out," no longer able to provide basic services, able to feed themselves, mired in debt, dependent upon international aid, the only ones in the country wealthy are governments themselves and the "vampire-like" politicians who run them as personal fiefdoms and who come to regard the populations they rule over "as yet another burden they have to bear in the struggle for survival." You can count on one hand the number of times African leaders have peacefully allowed themselves to be voted out of office, and even when regimes do change, as the result of either a military coup or a popular uprising, that despite initial hope and euphoria, the only result is a different group of politicians and their friends siphoning off a nation's resources and often times a different ethnic group being persecuted. Africa in the 1980s was dominated by Big Men, dictators who tolerated no opposition or dissent and whose faces appeared on currency notes and their faces looming over stores and offices. While many dictatorships in Africa fell in the early 1990s, a new breed of dictators emerged, adept at maintaining the appearance of a democracy in order to appease foreign aid donors while maintaining the same systems of patronage and autocratic rule of their predecessors, replacing "Big Man" rule with "Big Man democracy." Even attempts at reform backfired; when the IMF and the World Bank pushed African states towards parastatal reform, notably the privatization of public companies and factories, what instead emerged was "Crony capitalism" as government assets were instead sold off to select businessmen and friends on highly favorable terms (often ruinous to the government). In worse cases "cannibal capitalism" emerged as state-controlled industries were looted for the gain of politicians (so bad was the plundering in Zaire for instance of state-owned mining companies that copper production fell from 450,000 tons in the 1970s to 30,600 tons in 1994 and diamond production was nearly halved).
Much of the book as noted is a country by a country account of the main points of recent African history. Some of the events might be fairly well known to the general reader, such as Algerian war of independence in the 1950s and 1960s and the1980s famine in Ethiopia (though I wager many of the details will be quite surprising). Other events a good deal less so, such as the insane regime of Francisco Macias Nguema in Equatorial Guinea (among other things, he personally hoarded all foreign currency, ordered foreigners ransomed to generate income, banned the use of the word "intellectual," and decreed that priest must reiterate slogans such as "There is no God other than Macias"), Julius Nyerere's socialist experiments in 1960s and 1970s Tanzania (which included mass nationalization and a gathering of the scattered rural population into poorly planned and poorly run communal "ujamaa" villages, a movement of some 11 million people, the largest mass movement in African history), and how the Rwandan genocide and resulting conflict's aftermath lead to a massive four year war in the late 1990s in Zaire in which 3 million people died and "like vultures picking over a carcass," Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Angola, and Zimbabwe engaged in a scramble for "the spoils of war," tearing apart the country fighting each other and trying to secure Congolese mineral wealth and their own private business empires.
| | The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by PublicAffairs Product Description | Fifty years ago, as Europe's colonial powers withdrew, Africa moved with enormous hope and fervor toward democracy and economic independence. Dozens of new states were launched amid much jubilation and the world's applause. African leaders, popularly elected, stepped forward to tackle the problems of development and nation-building. In the Cold War era, the new states excited the attention of the superpowers. Africa was considered too valuable a prize to lose.
Today, Africa is a continent rife with disease, death, and devastation. Most African countries are effectively bankrupt, prone to civil strife, subject to dictatorial rule, and dependent on Western assistance for survival. The sum of Africa's misfortunes — its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts — is truly daunting.
What went wrong? What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the space of two generations?
Focusing on the key personalities, events and themes of the independence era, Martin Meredith's riveting narrative history seeks to explore and explain the myriad problems that Africa has faced in the past half-century, and faces still. From the giddy enthusiasm of the 1960s to the "coming of tyrants" and rapid decline, The Fate of Africa is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how it came to this — and what, if anything, is to be done. |
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