Africa is forever on our TV screens, but the bad-news stories massively
outweigh the good. Ever since the process of decolonisation began in the
mid-1950s, and arguably before, the continent has appeared to be stuck in a
process of irreversible decline.
How did we get here? What, if anything, is to be done?
Fully revised and updated and weaving together the key stories and
characters of the last sixty years into a stunningly compelling and coherent
narrative, Martin Meredith has produced the definitive history of how European
ideas of how to organise 10 000 different ethnic groups has led to what British
prime minister Tony Blair described as the ‘scar on the conscience of the world’.
Authoritative, provocative, and consistently fascinating, this is the
seminal book on one of the most important issues facing the West today