The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence

Today, Africa is a continent rife with disease, death, and devastation. Most African countries are effectively bankrupt, prone to civil strife, subject to dictatorial rule, and dependent on Western assistance for survival. The sum of Africa's misfortunes — its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts — is truly daunting.

What went wrong? What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the space of two generations?

Focusing on the key personalities, events and themes of the independence era, Martin Meredith's riveting narrative history seeks to explore and explain the myriad problems that Africa has faced in the past half-century, and faces still. From the giddy enthusiasm of the 1960s to the "coming of tyrants" and rapid decline, The Fate of Africa is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how it came to this — and what, if anything, is to be done.

• Reframing Contemporary Africa: Politics, Economics, and Culture in the Global Era
• African Economic Development (Routledge Textbooks in Development Economics)
• African Politics in Comparative Perspective
• Poor Numbers: How We Are Misled by African Development Statistics and What to Do about It (Cornell Studies in Political Economy)
• The Looting Machine: Warlords, Oligarchs, Corporations, Smugglers, and the Theft of Africa's Wealth
• The Fate of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence
• Dancing in the Glory of Monsters: The Collapse of the Congo and the Great War of Africa
• The Next Africa: An Emerging Continent Becomes a Global Powerhouse
• Sovereignty and Struggle: Africa and Africans in the Era of the Cold War, 1945-1994 (African World Histories)
• Emerging Africa: How 17 Countries Are Leading the Way