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Overview
After a lifetime’s close observation of the continent, one of the world’s finest Africa correspondents has penned a landmark book on life and death in modern Africa. It takes a guide as observant, experienced, and patient as Richard Dowden to reveal its truths. Dowden combines a novelist’s gift for atmosphere with the scholar’s grasp of historical change as he spins tales of cults and commerce in Senegal and traditional spirituality in Sierra Leone; analyzes the impact of oil and the internet on Nigeria and aid on Sudan; and examines what has gone so badly wrong in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. Dowden’s master work is an attempt to explain why Africa is the way it is, and enables its readers to see and understand this miraculous continent as a place of inspiration and tremendous humanity.
Synopsis
After a lifetime’s close observation of the continent, one of the world’s finest Africa correspondents has penned a landmark book on life and death in modern Africa. It takes a guide as observant, experienced, and patient as Richard Dowden to reveal its truths. Dowden combines a novelist’s gift for atmosphere with the scholar’s grasp of historical change as he spins tales of cults and commerce in Senegal and traditional spirituality in Sierra Leone; analyzes the impact of oil and the internet on Nigeria and aid on Sudan; and examines what has gone so badly wrong in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Congo. Dowden’s master work is an attempt to explain why Africa is the way it is, and enables its readers to see and understand this miraculous continent as a place of inspiration and tremendous humanity.
The New York Times - Nicholas Kristof
Dowden is at his best when looking at grand themes—like the degree to which Africa is more promising than journalists or aid workers often acknowledge…journalists tend to cover Africa in stark and simple contrasts, but countries live and grow and falter in grays. So it's refreshing to encounter not only Dowden's hopefulness, but also his reliance on shading and nuance, on the recognition that the world does not have to feel sorry for Africa to care about it.
Editorials
From the Publisher
Times UK“This book is anecdotal, engaging, realistic, and delightfully up-to-date.”
Nicholas Kristof
Dowden is at his best when looking at grand themes—like the degree to which Africa is more promising than journalists or aid workers often acknowledge…journalists tend to cover Africa in stark and simple contrasts, but countries live and grow and falter in grays. So it's refreshing to encounter not only Dowden's hopefulness, but also his reliance on shading and nuance, on the recognition that the world does not have to feel sorry for Africa to care about it.—The New York Times
Library Journal
Dowden (director, Royal African Soc.) can be forgiven if each of the 18 chapters in his massive tome feels like an abridged version of a larger book; summarizing the history, politics, and people of an entire continent in one volume is a daunting task. Dowden, however, has a wealth of personal experience to qualify him for the job, having first visited Africa as a volunteer teacher in the 1970s and then become a highly regarded Africa-based journalist. Here he attempts to educate readers about Africa's many different nations and to counter the claim that journalists have harmed Africa by publicizing only negative news about it. He alternates chapters each devoted to a particular African nation with chapters on particular issues. Dowden writes in a conversational tone, freely offering up his opinions on controversial topics including politics, foreign investment, the AIDs crisis, and Africa's leadership vacuum. Like other recent works in English on Africa, such as Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence and John Reader's Africa: A Biography of the Continent, this work is essentially subjective; unfortunately, books that describe Africa more objectively at this time are primarily directed at juvenile readers. Despite Dowden's optimistic conclusion, much of what he discusses is deeply tragic and can leave the reader feeling discouraged about Africa's future. Recommended for informed readers; includes an introduction by famed African author Chinua Achebe.
—April Younglove