Customer Reviews

State of Africa

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This impressive history of Africa is a thorough and detailed investigation of the reasons for the continent's dismal failure. Although filled with facts and figures, the work is quite accessible and readable as it charts the bitter history of 50 years of independence from its hopeful beginnings to today's total despair, in just 2 generations.

Ghana was the first African state to gain independence in 1957; it was ruined within 8 years. Today the whole continent produces less than Mexico. Upon taking power, African leaders appointed their cronies in government instead of properly trained civil servants, of which there weren't many anyway. These ruling elites indulged in corruption, oppression and bribery from the beginning.

The continent has been cursed with corrupt, incompetent and greedy leaders who never cared for their subjects. There have been at least 40 successful and many more unsuccessful coup attempts these 5 decades. The latest fashion is to hold sham elections. In oil producing countries like Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Nigeria and Cameroon, all the oil money ends up in the pockets of small ruling cliques while ordinary people subsist in misery.

The chapters are arranged according to this rogue's gallery of leaders like Amin, Bokassa, Mobutu, Nyerere, Banda, Mugabe, Kaunda, Kenyatta, Mengistu, Nasser, Nguema, Nkrumah. Other reasons for the failure are also considered, for example the rapid rise in population and unfavourable trade terms with the West.

But always the pattern repeats: coup d'etat, cruelty, misery, murder, refugees and the collapse of infrastructure. No matter how much money the West throws at the problem. Africa has had the equivalent of six "Marshall Plans" but the money ends up in Swiss bank accounts. Since independence, the Nigerian elites have stolen about $350 billion.

Meredith also looks at the exceptions like Botswana, South Africa and Senegal. These countries are multiparty democracies with well-run economies. They represent some hope that Africa might one day join civilization.

I also recommend The Shackled Continent by Robert Guest. Like State Of Africa, it 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 eventually come to Africa.

Most of us probably think about Africa in terms of famines, wars, massacres, AIDS and bottomless sink for foreign aid. Depressingly, as "The State of Africa" by Martin Meredith makes clear, these impressions are only too true and are not likely to change in the foreseeable future.

The book does an excellent job of describing the history of Africa's disparate states in the fifty years since independence. In general, the coverage of them all is balanced and thorough, with ample facts and references to aid readers who want to dig more.

Virtually without exception, the jumble of artificial states left behind by departing colonial powers like Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal descended rapidly into one-party states ruled by violence, spectacular corruption and ethnic cliques intent only on grabbing power and accumulating loot. Assets and revenues of the state were merely spoils to be stolen at will by all and sundry politicians and officials. Individuals or ethnic groups who seemed likely to impede the feeding frenzy were attacked with unbridled ferocity.

One struggles to find any morality, any sense of duty to the nation or even common decency among the sordid thugs and thieves who grabbed power while mouthing slogans about "democracy" and "the people" as if they were upright guardians of liberty and stalwart defenders of the national interest.

Meredith meticulously documents all this. The number of people killed, wounded and displaced during these decades of madness run into countless millions. The war dead alone possibly exceed ten million, an almost incomprehensible number.

Why did this slow-motion massacre happen in so many superficially different countries? Unfortunately the book does not address these deeper issues in any detail and one is left struggling for answers.

Tribalism was certainly one factor. Most of these countries were utterly unprepared for democratic processes. In the first place, the primary loyalties of an individual were to his family, tribe and ethnic group. Few, if any, had any meaningful loyalty to "the nation" as understood in Europe or America, for example. Naturally, political candidates in elections sought to garner support through tribal or ethnic appeals. Few of the newly independent African countries were free of major ethnic or religious tensions.

Another factor is the failure of colonial rulers to develop an educated class of professionals to run their countries. Political and bureaucratic office was simply regarded as a route to enrichment - not as service to the nation. Education standards were generally low, leaving the mass of people susceptible to demagoguery and empty promises.

The decades since independence were also marked by global economic upheavals for which African countries were ill-prepared. Commodity prices on which many countries depended went into long-term decline.

Climate change may also have had an influence, particularly in the sub-Saharan countries and the horn of Africa.

In recent decades AIDS has literally decimated populations and will continue to do so for decades to come.

The book describes in detail the nauseating manner in which America, Europe and the former USSR supported and fawned over some of the worst of these thuggish leaders, knowing full well what was going on.

It is also depressing to read about the ineffectiveness and ineptitude of most of the many NGO and UN operations in Africa. In fact, one can make a respectable case that these well-meaning organisations prolonged the endless African tragedy they were trying to end.

I closed this book with feelings of sadness and futility. To quote Meredith "fifty years after the beginning of the independence era, Africa's prospects are bleaker than ever. . . . it is also the only region where life expectancy is falling". The vast oil revenues of Nigeria, Gabon and other countries have disappeared virtually without a trace. The same can be said for over $500 billion of western aid, not counting the money poured into Africa by countless NGOs. The continent reeks of death.

I have travelled in many African countries and I learned like and respect the ordinary people I met. I was often humbled by their kindness towards me. They deserve a better hand than that which fate and their leaders have dealt them. If there is any hope it lies in the examples set by Nelson Mandela and a pitifully few similar men and women.

Few writers could do justice to the mammoth task of covering 50 years of the turbulent history of an entire continent in a single volume, but Meredith achieves just that and with considerable power and finesse. The task necessitates skipping between countries and back and forth in time but Meredith manages very successfully to bridge the potential confusion this could have created with themes that run through the post-colonial history of most of the states of Africa. Though there are variations to the theme, most African countries passed from the euphoria and hope of early independence to domination by dictators who justified their single party policies as the only answer to potential tribal conflict. Dictatorships caused unrest, which often lead to coup attempts with the coup leaders promising an end to repression and corruption, but soon falling into the same patterns as their predecessors.

The book is a litany of incompetent government, of insatiable greed and exploitation on the part of leaders and their cronies, of unbelievable power lust and the resulting repression, of megalomaniac leaders with delusions of grandeur, of ludicrous levels of corruption and of the suffering of millions of ordinary people. Meredith's coverage is comprehensive and his style is easy to read. The inclusion of fascinating details about particular events or the personal lives of particular leaders brings the narrative to life. The tales he has to tell are gripping (though horrific) and you will fly through the nearly 700 pages.

Meredith skillfully establishes the historical similarities between almost all African countries. His explanations show only too well how poor leadership and economic management has led to the continent becoming the most desperately poor and underdeveloped region on earth. He leaves it to others, however, to attempt to explain why it is that almost all African countries should have taken such similar and devastatingly violent historical trajectories and why the necessary leadership to break the cycle has not been forthcoming.

At least in Europe, this book is currently being heavily promoted at airport book shops. Makes sense, really. It is an important subject, and makes a potential reader feel as though they've chosen something a step above David Baldwin. At the same time, the subject is broad enough that it can't help but be a little bit shallow.

I'm being flip, but I learned a lot from the book. I knew many pieces of these histories, but it was actually really helpful to put them next to each other; it gave me a much better view of post-independence African politics. A (largely) depressing view, I'll own, but still a better one than I had before reading it. Meredith is not really making theories about the root causes of the common disasters. I was happy about that, but other readers who knew more than I did may wish that he did.

One small complaint-- the book covers a really *wide* set of topics. The bibliography is huge. Meredith had a great opportunity to assist his readers by annotating or organising the bibliography so that it pointed the reader towards particular subjects. So few writers do this, and I don't know why.

Recommended.

Why would anyone read fiction books when there are so many well written books that cover fact? Africa has always been a mystery to me, all these exotic fancy countries, an incredible diversity of environment and people. This book is beautifully composed and very gripping. I took it on my week long cruise and finished it just before we got back into port. I feel the book gives a great overview of the horrors the majority of African people have been subject to. Great maps and photos.

Meredith's book lives up to its hype as the essential primer for anyone attempting to understand the hugely disparate and complex historical and social tapestry of the Dark Continent. While focusing with great intensity on the horrific and predatory self-governance that has haunted African nations since gaining independence from their European colonial masters, Meredith also reveals an underlying empathy and even respect for the long-suffering people and their ability to endure hardships seemingly beyond their control. The book is an interesting historical read made all the more so with Meredith's gripping prose and marvelous organizational thought process.

Excellent, a must read for any African wanting to get a broader perspective on events in Africa spanning the past 50 years.

'The State if Africa' is an extremely detailed account of African politics in the last 50 years. It looks at the whole continent in a roughly chronological order and has some wonderful photo plates to illustrate the various 'dictators' and issues explored. I found some chapters more engaging than others and these provided explanation of key events in good detail to provide an in-depth understanding. Other chapters sadly were bogged down in acronyms and detail that only true African scholars would find of interest (hence the 4 stars). Overall, this is a well researched and presented introduction to post independence Africa that sadly leaves you feeling not a great deal has changed and that this is a continent left ravaged by tyranny and corruption. Not a particularly positive book, but an in-depth and well articulated one.

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The book starts reasonably upbeat describing newborn states and charismatic leaders, but soon these same people suppress all dissent and turn into ruthless monsters.
While reading the book, time and again, you expect things to get better. But the 60s, 70s and 80s pass; old dictators die and new ones take power and fresh and raw horrors follow. By the end of the 90s you begin to doubt: are there too few pages left for a happy end? The most recent events in the new milennium hardly offer anything but hopelessness. Putting it down after 700 pages you feel you have read a good and necessary book, but also a monotonous and unfinished tragedy that might go on and on for decades to come.

very helpful to understand the cycle of freedom, emerging nations and the reimposition of tyranny