The New Africa: Dispatches from a Changing Continent

By Robert M. Press

Dispatches from a former Christian Science Monitor correspondent who tracks emergent democracy in Africa. Drawing on hundreds of interviews, these are intimate, personal tales of Africans and their struggle for human rights and individual freedom.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813017041
• ISBN13: 9780813017044
• Release Date: November 1999
• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

A Stirring & Insightful Look at Africa

Superb. In a single volume, the writer and the photographer present stories and images that break the heart and then help put it back together again. They offer a rare look at Africa--a telling mix of broad stroke historical analysis and intimate personal portraits. Reading it, I met people who have endured extraordinary struggles--warfare, famine, political assault. I also encountered individuals involved in grass roots efforts to claim their human rights and rebuild their communities and their nations in the twin wakes of colonial and post-colonial devastations. Throughout, I was pulled by the lively urgency of Robert Press' prose--a tone suggesting that the author is not only well-acquainted with his subject, but deeply concerned about Africa and its peoples. That quality is reinforced by Betty Press' striking, and sometimes haunting, photographs. While this book is well equipped to pass muster with scholars and long-time Africa watchers/commentators, it offers much for a more general public that may be struggling to sort through the tangle of news coming from the continent.