The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to the Heart of Despair; A History of Fifty Years of Independence

by Martin Meredith

Book Overview

The definitive story of African nations after they emerged from colonialism -- from Mugabe's doomed kleptocracy to Mandela's inspiring defeat of apartheid. The Fate of Africa has been hailed by... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1586483986
• ISBN13: 9781586483982
• Release Date: June 2006
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 752 Pages
• Weight: 2.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 6.0" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Perfect description but... no solutions

This is an excellent book for understanding why Africa is the poorest continent. Killings, murders, coups, tribal rivalries, no care for others life, no care for democracy, no care for justice, child soldiers, women rapes, hands feet and ears cuttings, famines, corruption, nepotism, raw power. This and other expressions are commonplace in this book. It reaches a point were you seem you are always told the same story, no matter the country, the tribe or the persons involved. The conclusion is that Africa's situation is due to Africans lack of leadership and internecine rivalries. No matter how much foreign aid they receive or how much natural wealth the get, because they do not use it to improve people's situation, but as a weapon to fight against each other. I only would make a critic to Meredith: is missing a guide of solutions to correct or offering a hope for Africa. Once diagnostic is done, what follows is the cure, but Meredith offers none.

A litany of selfish greed an power lust

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.

The (sorry) state of (most of) africa

I have just started reading this book aloud onto tape (actually, into a computer) for blind 'readers', so I am obliged to read every word. Even only 2 chapters in, it is absolutely riveting. This is no dull historical treatise - it is lively, interesting, well-written and filled with fascinating information presented in a superbly easy-to-read manner. The little-known (to me, anyway!) historical snippets that it reveals are startling, and it dispassionately presents, without comment, the well-researched facts that show why the future of Africa is still forever in the future.

A continent in ruins

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.

A horror story

Five stars for this plain, urgent, and very comprehensive account of Africa since the colonial powers packed up and left, or were booted out. And as far as I know, this is the only book which covers all of Africa in the last 50 years. But I think readers should be issued with a very strong warning. You have to ask yourselves if you have a strong stomach. Because make no mistake, this is a horror story, and it has left me, after all the Geldoff-inspired euphoria, after the recent debt-cancellations, after all those good words from Blair and Brown, close to despair. Let me give you some examples chosen as random. From page 173 : "President Omar Bongo of Gabon...ordered a new palace for himself with sliding walls and doors, rotating rooms and a private nightclub, costing well over $200 million". From page 273: "The disruption caused by the `villagisation' programme nearly led to catastrophe (in Tanzania). Food production fell drastically, raising the spectre of widespread famine.... Drought compounded the problem." From page 368: "By the mid-1980s most Africans were as poor or poorer than they had been at the time if independence." From page 460: "Over a ten-year period (in Algeria) more than 100,000 people died. Nor was there any end in sight. The violence seemed to suit both sides - the military and the Islamist rebels." The story of each African country seems to be the same. There is the early promise of independence, the charismatic new leader (it could be Nkrumah or Kenyatta or even Mugabe, of whom Ian Smith, the leader of white Rhodesia, said : "He behaved like a balanced, civilised westerner, the antithesis of the communist gangster I had expected"). There follows corruption and megalomania - palaces built, roads to nowhere commissioned, Swiss bank accounts opened, the president's tribal associates given all the top jobs. The president bans all political parties except his own, because multi-party democracy is not the African way and just plays into the hands of unscrupulous tribal leaders (but of course it is the President himself - and in Africa there has never yet been a herself - who's the biggest player of tribal politics). Then comes twenty - sometimes thirty - years of tyranny, with all political opponents jailed and tortured, and the country bankrupted. Then comes the military coup with the idealistic young military leader declaring a Council of National Salvation and a raft of anti-corruption laws. A few years later, the same young military leader (could be Samuel K Doe of Liberia, could be Yoweri Museweni of Uganda) has turned into a clone of the tyrant he deposed. Slavery in Africa was followed by colonialism, and once that was ended, by Cold War proxy wars, and once they were over, by Aids. You would think that - plus the endemic disease and drought of course - was enough. But no, Africa suffers from another disease just as debilitating - the infestation of their own "vampire-like" ruling classes. By the end of M