“The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence” by Martin Meredith left me feeling very sad and frustrated about the condition of most countries in Africa.  This is a very big book, over 700 pages long if you count the notes and index.  But in spite of its’ size, it’s readable.  And that’s a good thing, because I think this is a book that people should read.

At the end of the nineteenth century, many European powers laid claim to various parts of Africa, and cut it up in various countries without much thought to tribal placement.  For example, boundaries between two countries might be based on something arbitrary such as lines of latitude and longitude– even though doing so would split apart African cultural groups.  So you might say colonialism was the beginnings of doom for Africa.

Fifty or so years ago, after years of colonial rule, many of the African countries were given independence (of course, this book goes into detail about this) – mostly at a cost of native lives.  For instance, Belgian Congo became the Democratic Republic of Congo, and French West Africa was divided up into smaller countries that included Mauritania and Niger.  Unfortunately, after an initial honeymoon period when many of these countries under independent rule seemed to show promise, things continued to go downhill.  The reasons are varied — and Meredith details them very well; and it’s difficult for me to attempt to summarize.  One thing I hadn’t realized is that during the Cold War, even when a country’s rule was known to be blatantly corrupt,  in spite of that, it would be propped up by the West (or the Soviet Union, whichever the case might be) in hopes to keep it from going to the other side.

Billions of dollars have been poured in these African countries over the years, with very little to show for it.  It is shocking to realize the sheer numbers — millions — of Africans who have died because of starvation, of AIDS and other illnesses, of civil wars,  of genocides, and so forth.  It is depressing to realize that most of this world has now pretty much given up on Africa.

Meredith documents all of this in great detail, from discussing leaders of countries such as Kenya’s Jomo Kenyatta (he was a Moscow-trained revolutionary) and King Leopold (who helped ruin The Congo) and Nelson Mandela in South Africa — to the economies of Africa (i.e. all the money that ended up into corrupt hands).   Religious issues are also covered, such as radical Islam in the northern African countries such as Sudan.  Also, many genocides were and are based on religious differences in Africa. 

After a while, I felt I was reading the same thing over and over because it seemed like history kept repeating itself.  Meredith does not provide any real answers on how to solve Africa’s problems, but that is probably because they just can’t be solved overnight.  As he concludes:

“Time and again, its [Africa's] potential has been disrupted by the predatory politics of ruling elites seeking personal gain, often precipitating violence for their own ends.”

and:

“After decades of mismanagement and corruption, most African states have become hollowed out.  they are no longer instruments capable of serving the public good.  Indeed, far from being able to provide aid and protection to their citizens, African governments and the vampire-like politicians who run them are regarded by the populations they rule as yet another burden they have to bear in the struggle for survival”.

Again, I recommend reading this book because I think it’s important for us to know more about how Africa got to where it is today.  I definitely wish there were some easy solutions for the people’s very real problems.

This book qualifies for the “History” category of  The World Citizen Challenge.  I now have one book left to read, by the end of the year, to qualify for the PhD level in this challenge.

Other books I’ve already read for The World Citizen Challenge (reviews):

Culture/Anthropology/Sociology: “We Look Like the Enemy” by Rachel Shabi

Politics: “Dreams and Shadows” by Robin Wright

Memoirs/Autobiographies: “Honeymoon in Tehran” by Azadeh Moaveni

Worldwide Issues: “Day of Empire” by Amy Chua

Economics: “Spin-Free Economics” by Nariman Behravesh

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 9:38 PM and is filed under World Citizen Challenge, books, challenges, multicultural, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.