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The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair Hardcover – July 5, 2005
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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.
- Print length768 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPublicAffairs
- Publication dateJuly 5, 2005
- Dimensions6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-101586482467
- ISBN-13978-1586482466
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"Africa's tragedy is all the more moving for his lack of constantly reminding you to be moved..." -- The Globe & Mail, 8/27/05
"Meredith [has] written a narrative history of modern Africa, devoid of... gender discourse or postcolonial angst... It is a joy." -- Wall Street Journal, August 31
...a masterpiece...a comprehensive, wonderfully readable survey of the entire continent's recent past...the nonfiction book of the year. -- The New York Post, October 2, 2005
A solid journalistic and analytical recounting of recent African history with a hard, dispassionate eye without an ideological edge. -- The Indianapolis Star, September 24, 2005
An impressive history, well told. -- The Age, September 17, 2005
MMMeredith writes with sobriety, intelligence, and a deep knowledge of Africa. -- Library Journal, July 2005
MMMeredith's exhaustive study appears as leaders come to grips with Africa's needs. It starkly underlines the urgency of that task. -- Providence Journal, July 10, 2005
aaa welcome and significant contribution to the local and global debate about the state of the continent. -- AllAfrica.com, July 17, 2005
aaan ambitious survey of fifty years, fifty-three counties and countless wars and coups. -- The Nation, October 24, 2005
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Product details
- Publisher : PublicAffairs (July 5, 2005)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 768 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1586482467
- ISBN-13 : 978-1586482466
- Item Weight : 2.75 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.75 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,225,768 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,000 in African Politics
- #2,861 in African History (Books)
- #58,520 in Social Sciences (Books)
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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.
Readers like me, who have often found themselves confused when trying to mentally keep straight the various African nations, strong men, acronyms, and tribal affiliations reported in the news will undoubtedly find THE FATE OF AFRICA invaluable. Thus, those who have questioned how Unita, Joseph Savimbi, Cuba and Portugal fit together; or ZAPU, ZANU and the Rhodesian Front; or else simply would like to distinguish between figures like Charles Taylor, Robert Mugabe, Mobuto Sese Seko, etc, etc, etc, will have an excellent resource to answer their questions. The summary approach used here should also be helpful for those who would like to continue learning more details regarding any individual area, as many of these regions have become intertwined over the years.
Along with author Meredith's matter-of-fact reportage, the organization and clarity of the book easily makes this a five-star effort, despite any shortcomings. On of which that stands out is the editorial choice to focus on the sensational (and horrifying) stories - of which there are plenty to choose from - and the short shrift successful states receive. Botswana, which the author points to as remarkable in its record of democracy and wise leadership, garners only a salutory paragraph near the beginning and a sentence in the afterward. But, given that the predominant story in Africa has been utter failure rather than success, I don't suppose it could have been done much differently and still been able to familiarize the reader with the names and organizations that have most often been in the world's spotlight.
Readers who have a richer background in African history may also notice other faults - considering the scope of what Mr. Meredith has attempted here, I don't see how there couldn't be. But as a reference which clearly outlined the history of this period, I found it invaluable. Difficult to read at times due to the horrific events which have plagued Africa since independence, I still consider it a must read for those interested in this part of the world.
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This is depressing reading for the pattern continues in country after country, one leader after the other, and war after war, famine after famine. A rich continent is a basket case yet has every reason to be prosperous and vibrant. Only South Africa gives a glimmer of hope but that country still has many massive problems to overcome before it can reach out and help its neighbours.
This is a book of the politics of despair and cynics who care nothing for the people they are supposed to lead and protect. Revolt against this tyranny is either crushed or replaced with more of the same. It can only be hoped that now there is no excuse for any western powers to support these monstrous regimes for any reason. Martin Meredith has exposed the truth. He must be truly hated by Africa's ruling elites.
I am deeply disppointed that I as a customer was led to believe that Mr. Meredith had actually two different books published.
Therefore, without having the intention to judge the brilliant, yet identical, content of the books, I still have to express my discontent for the irritating fact that one book is published twice.