Customer Reviews

The Shackled Continent: Power, Corruption, and African Lives

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The author shares his experiences of Sub-Saharan Africa, exploring the reasons for the region's abject poverty and suffering. Guest takes into account factors like for example climate and history, whilst quoting African writers like Chinua Achebe, Themba Sono and Chenjerai Hove.

Amidst all the despair, the text often highlights rays of hope so the book is not a relentless tale of woe. Guest identifies issues like tribalism and corruption and the waste of aid money while pointing out positive developments in places like Botswana, South Africa, Uganda and Senegal.

The author examines the good results in countries that follow sound fiscal and monetary policies as opposed to the vampire state in places like Zimbabwe or the failed state in e.g. Congo (Zaire). A very important point that Guest makes is that Africa can develop and improve the lives of its people without sacrificing its culture. Japan is proof enough that modernity does not necessarily threaten an indigenous culture.

He discusses Rwanda's holocaust and religious clashes in Nigeria, takes a balanced look at South Africa's successes and its failures like its lack of an AIDS policy and criticises western countries for their agricultural protectionism. Apparently Africa has already received the equivalent of six Marshall Plans in aid and in some places mineral wealth has been more of a curse than a blessing.

Guest makes a plea for increased trade and praises the stability that exists in those countries where property rights are respected. He also surveys the situation of the media, where both oppression and lack of money are impediments to a free press. The book ends on an optimistic note with the example of a young man in the KwaZulu province of South Africa having become a successful businessman after abandoning a life of violence.

The book concludes with bibliographic notes and an index. The Shackled Continent can be heartbreaking at times, but the overall tone is optimistic, and realistically so. The book leaves an impression of hope and the reader can only pray that good government may soon come to Africa. The poignant title of South Africa's national anthem by Enoch Sontonga, says it all: "Nkosi sikelele i'Afrika", meaning God bless Africa.

Having been born and raised in Africa, I found this book to be a well-written, solidly researched, fair & all-round reliable read. Though not a citizen of an African country Mr. Guest, a seasoned 'Africa correspondent,' shows surprising insight, sensitivity & courage in sharing the facts, unpalatable as they are, along with the hopeful possibilities, idealistic as they may seem.

I am thus inspired to say, that the thinking behind the uncouth review labeling the writer, 'baas Guest' while [irrationally]insinuating a throwback to patronizing, oppression-ist values is PRECISELY the problem behind Africa's 'shackling' today. Such eristical stances impede Africa's self-awareness [& consequent success] by unnecessarily rehashing the already known colonial culpability while relegating the real but dirty change to someone else, somewhere else, some other time. Thankfully there are some [enough?] progressive, determined, and ambitious [capitalist?] Africans wrestling with the challenge of both understanding & fixing today's systemic problems to nurture Africa into an asset instead of another global liability. Too KUMBAYA?

Having spent many years in humanitarian development across the world but especially in Africa, I KNOW FIRSTHAND the truth of Guest's deductive accusations & also the poignancy of our wildest dreams for the continent's 'diamond-in-the-rough' success.

There might be other, more detailed works from this angle, but I'm betting they're few...and probably less readable and globally-conscious. This is informative without being too 'Politics 101 textbook.' BUY this BOOK! Then VISIT Africa!

There are an abundance of books and articles hypothesizing the reasons why African nations are so poor, the majority of which blame rich countries and European colonialism. Robert Guest, African correspondent for The Economist, briefly discusses and then dismisses these arguments as being the primary culprits by putting them in historical context against other nations that have similar histories.

Instead, Guest focuses on issues endemic to Africa, giving hope to improvements coming from within the continent and hope of a more stable, healthier and wealthier future. While Guest argues that there is need for aid in Africa, he outlines why, how and where the aid should be targeted, noting that much more can be achieved through less costly but better focused reforms.

The Shackled Continent is a pleasure to read as Guest's style is both interesting and informative. He uses personal accounts, first-person interviews and historical reference to solidify his points and lends an overall hopeful tone to his book.

Definityely 5 stars for this excellently written book. The narrative is smooth flowing,easy to read and follow, with admirable clarity and honesty of what is being told,interpreted,surmised,unravaled or analyzed.
I read it from cover to cover. It's like embarking on a journey through Africa and discovering,sometimes surprisingly, facts about this complex and beautiful continent which you were either unaware of, or just didn't care to know about before. As the author points out, tribalism,abuse of power and corruption of post colonial leaders are significant root causes of SubSaharan Africa's seemingly perpetual poverty. The deplorable conditions encourage educated professionals to emigrate to other (non-African)countries, thus depriving Africa of badly needed talent. But the author also stresses that elimination or at least significant mitigation of the widespread corruption and ineptness of the governing power will eventually lead the continent to prosperity. A new generation of skillful and educated Africans will inevitably and hopefully emerge to institute a massive cleanup of what the author calls as "thugocracy". The book is a coverage of Africa from a journalistic and economist point of view,the author being both a good journalist and economist. And this coverage skillfully told in a very interesting understandable style.

As I have mentioned previuosly in another African review ,we have become too overly exposed to the conflicts of the Middle East to such a degree that we tend to ignore Africa (subSaharan) and its people.It is hoped that when you take this journey with Robert Guest,you will become more broadminded and feel more compassion and respect for this remarkable continent wracked by post colonial civil wars and their after effects,and receiving insufficient attention by the international community.

Yet,despite all these devastation and painfully slow rehabilitation,the comments and anecdotes expressed by the people who can still afford to retain their sense of humor, somehow suggest hope.The progress which is reflected by South Africa may serve as a beacon of hope for the rest of the continent. This hope is somehow depicted in the last paragraph of the last chapter of the book: The author was talking to a 19 yr old youth who,after the civil wars, began raising and processing chickens for a living.The author commented that the Japanese labored for a century before they caught up with the West. The African boy shrugged his shoulders."We can do it,too," he replied,"And besides,raising chickens is better than fighting."

I highly recommend this book to everyone who knows plenty,knows little or knows nothing about Africa.

An awesome read! Thrilling to read text that flows with examples, but still the writer makes very justified conclusions.

On the latter part of the book, one of the chapters began dragging and getting disoriented from Africa slightly towards Asia. Anyhow, Guest has a good command of history and economics, so fine and even unique are some of the comparisons. The text is supported by notes.

To conclude: I enjoyed reading facts, sad ones, as in a suspense thriller.

Its amazing it's really good when you read you dont need to stop also when you finish reading you feel like reading it again, it is all true story , when i give to my friend to read they always ask me where did you buy this we also want to buy the same. I am not sure if the author was against Mugabe on this book I dont know much about him but i saw his speaches it looks that he is intelligent and a good politition too. I visited Zimbabwe and what the author described it is 100 % true the people and the country, even the farms visited by me were dead.
NO ONE SHOULD MISS READING THIS BOOK It opens out our minds and shows us the way we human being act/change when we become on the top and also how we end up.

Thanks to the author of this book Excellent and hope to get more from him especially of the Middle east if possible

Shaqsy

I haven't found a better quick overview of sub-Sahara Africa. Necessarily simplified and reflecting an Economist magazine-type conservatism, Guest nonetheless provide a lot of information.

The Shackled Continent is a tour de force. Robert Guest is a writer for The Economist and the style and quality of writing is outstanding. Guest is a brave soul for bringing us the true story of Africa: a continent full of potential that has been wasted by the deeds of socialist leaders who, in casting off their colonial chains, have destroyed their people's lives and, worse, much of their hope for a better future. The root cause of these problems? Tribalism.

After reading this book, I am convinced more than ever that Africans are entrepreneurial and hard-working with a good head for business. They are let down by creaky government infrastructure, corruption, and a lack of foreign direct investment from wealthier nations. But the rest of the world pays little attention to what goes on in Africa (sub-Saharan at least) and until more scrutiny is directed at governments in countries such as Zimbabwe, nothing much is going to change and the cycle will continue as is.

Guest's book paints a frustrating picture and one does not finish reading it wholly satisfied, which I think was his point, mirroring the current situation in Africa.

Africa, how did it get that way, and who's fault is it?

Guest puts his gift for prose and analysis on full display in this fascinating page turner. He avoids the pitfall that so often engulfs writers who take on the subject of Africa, in blaming the West for the horrors that pass for everyday occurrences on the "Dark Continent". In fact, Guest probably is guilty of going too far the other way and assigning almost total blame on the Africans themselves.

Truth be told, his perception is more accurate than the opposite school, and as ubiquitous as that pandering thought is, this is a breath of fresh air.

Imminently readable and evidence of decades of travel all over sub-Saharan Africa, this is a must read for anyone interested in analyzing the most horrific examples of human endeavor (Africa).

The book is immature and riddled with inaccurate information and frequent exaggerations. Guest is no doubt an able communicator capturing your imagination but the book has more fiction than facts. One example is his reference to a purported myth supposedly rife in Kenya that any HIV AIDS positive sufferer can get cured by having sexual intercourse with a mad person. I have lived in Kenya all my life and have never heard such foolishness! If he cooks stories about Kenya my guess is that he does the same for other countries.