/books/The State of Africa
So, I've finally finished The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence. It was one of the most eye-opening, gap-filling books I've ever read. It's something that should be read by everyone who donates money to African causes, or goes to protest concerts or considers aid issues when they vote.
It's big, and it's heavy. Meredith doesn't shy away from any of what happened, and presents Africa's recent history as a series of somewhat-interlocking narratives. It's heavily fact-based, and light on the editorializing.
There are three big things that totally changed my perspective on Africa. The scale of the corruption went (and continues to go) beyond anything I had previously understood. Many of the "Big Men" leaders in Africa shot anyone who opposed them. The more civilized ones just tortured and jailed them. Few survived the end of their reign, so they had little motive to leave anything in working order. Foreign reserves (the result of trading with other countries) were routinely transfered to offshore accounts, completely debilitating the ability of these countries to trade. Votes were suppressed, rigged, then ignored. Racial tensions were exploited as distractions, or to sow fear. Aid was stolen, diverted, or skimmed. There were no lengths to which some of the despots would not go in protecting their power and gutting the wealth and hopes of their fiefdoms.
The second, which in many ways comes first was the utter lack of educated personel in the countries as they all cascaded into independence in the late 50s. Some of them had couple dozen university-educated natives in the whole country. It's no wonder these countries collapsed in on themselves. Despite what was no doubt the immense political popularity of African independence amongst the intelligentsia at the time, colonial governments almost certainly chose an immoral path in letting these countries run themselves so quickly, though they may well have not known it at the time.
The third big surprise was France's participation, aid and abetting of the Rwandan genocide. Their diplomatic support for the Hutu leader, provision of guns, and general tunnel vision in supporting a pro-French leader really shocked me. They clung on, denying the ongoing genocide very late. Along similar but less surprising lines, I hadn't realized how much the Soviet Union and the US waged proxy battles in Africa during the cold war. It was an explicit policy of the US to try to drain Soviet resources in Angola.
It's no wonder the continent is as fucked up as it is, and sadly, having read this book, I don't have a lot of hope for its future.
Good book. Heavy reading, but an excellent summary of what's going on in Africa, and why.
Comments
Cathy wrote
Rob, I can't get that book at my library - can you lend it to me? I need to read it.
And just think, none of that even touches AIDS, and the current social crisis that is beyond what any of us can comprehend. :(
Rob wrote
It talks about AIDS at the end.
There's demand for the book here amongst coworkers, but once that's subsided I'll post you my copy. Or something
