Starred review from September 14, 2015
In this stunning book about the past, present, and future of Africa, foreign correspondent Perry (who’s written for Time and Newsweek) achieves the seemingly impossible: he writes about the continent from a Western perspective without trying to define Africa to the West, inviting Africans to speak directly to his readers. Perry starts his continental journey in Somalia during the catastrophic 2011 famine; moves on to the world’s newest and most volatile nation, South Sudan; and then works
his way through 14 more sub-Saharan African nations. He places
current crises into historical context, buttressed by on-the-ground reporting. Perry examines widely discussed issues affecting Africa (including famine, AIDS, humanitarian aid, terrorism, corruption, and Chinese influence), always mindful of the bearing each has on Africa’s future. Along the way, Perry bumps into George Clooney in South Sudan, watches Robert Mugabe speak to a crowd in Zimbabwe, and confronts Jacob Zuma in South Africa. The stories he tells, of average Africans trying to carve out a better life, have the vividness of fiction. Perry also exposes the flaws of large-scale humanitarianism in Africa, addressing the inflated claims made for its success and its often counterproductive strategies. Candid, smart, and self-aware, this work is an impressive accomplishment that does more to give Western readers context for Africa’s current condition than any book in recent memory.
October 1, 2015
Exploring modern Africa in all of its complexities. Perry (Lifeblood: How to Change the World One Dead Mosquito at a Time, 2011, etc.) is a veteran foreign correspondent, with Africa representing his most recent beat. This book builds on his reportage by exploring contemporary African problems and promise. One of his major themes is the ways in which those who claim to want to help Africa]foreign aid workers, nongovernmental organizations, Western governments and their militaries]often do more harm than good, emphasizing their own priorities over those of the people they purport to serve. Perry has an eye for the telling anecdote, and he generally makes his case well, though he is better at identifying problems than proposing solutions. The book is uneven; some chapters are deeply reported and compellingly presented, while others feel scattered, perfunctory, and incomplete. Furthermore, Perry overstates his book's uniqueness, effectively trying to dismiss a number of scholars and journalists, many of whom have written about Africa with at least as much insight and verve as Perry, without the self-regard. The author dismisses veteran "Africa hands" for allegedly mostly speaking with one another, and yet he relies on their insights when it is convenient for him. He also overstates the comprehensiveness of his coverage of sub-Saharan Africa and has a tendency to put himself at the center of the story, an unwitting irony for an author who disparages the solipsism of others. However, behind these flaws are important stories that Perry effectively conveys when he gets out of his own way. His arguments about the often deleterious effects of outsiders augment some of the scholarly literature by providing a human face to usually well-intentioned but misguided interlopers. A welcome addition to our understanding of Africa that occasionally overpromises and underdelivers.
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November 15, 2015
Journalist Perry (Time, Newsweek) draws on 20 years of experience covering conflicts in Africa and the Middle East to report hundreds of interviews with locals and foreign workers in more than a dozen countries in sub-Saharan Africa including Uganda, Zimbabwe, South Sudan, and South Africa, exposing the ways in which Western governments, aid agencies, and humanitarian activists have failed to understand Africa and have inadvertently added to the continent's misery. Citing examples and trends demonstrating that Africa's improved future is being built by Africans, Perry traces the birth of the African aid industry to Biafra of the 1960s and follows the failures of foreign aid to provide Africans even with effective emergency relief through ongoing disasters in a number of countries. His chapter on China's current role in African development credits the Chinese with a better approach to helping Africans develop infrastructure (while reaping benefits for China) but acknowledges Africans' capacity to look out for their own interests. The author's citation of the African-initiated greening of near-desert acreage in Niger seems the best indication that he may be correct in seeing Africa breaking free. VERDICT This in-depth, investigative report will intrigue readers concerned with U.S. policy and its impact on African nations.--Joel Neuberg, Santa Rosa Junior Coll. Lib., CA
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