The State of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence by Martin Meredith (2006)

An impressive work, covering the post-war experience of a number of African countries in a set of short, crisp chapters that makes it easy to read despite its length. The subject matter, however, makes for grim reading, and may be traumatic for the average reader, although the author narrates the history in a dispassionate and methodical manner. The reader is left wondering whether there is some deficiency in human nature that makes such awful and self-defeating cruelty possible. The chapter on South Africa's search for freedom and reconciliation is one of the few causes for hope.
A massive work, over 700 pages, as demanded by the subject. However, the style is crisp and engaging, individual chapters are to the point and workmanlike, making the overall reading less arduous than it could have been. ( )

"Meredith has written a narrative history of modern Africa, devoid of
pseudointellectual frills, gender discourse or postcolonial angst. He takes
each of the larger African countries and tells you what happened there after
independence. In chronological order. He convincingly shows that it is bad
leadership, first and foremost, that has held the continent back." --back cover

A short history from independence to the relatively modern day; a grand tour of African countries. ( )

I was looking for a book to summarize the recent history of Africa as I felt that I had a clearer sense of its colonial history than its post-colonial history. I wanted to know how Kwame Nkrumah handled Ghana's transition to independence, what had happened to Nigeria since Biafra, how South Sudan and Eritrea sustained separatist movements. This book admirably told those stories. It also told endless tales of civil war and corruption.

What it didn't do was to explain why this pattern repeated itself so regularly in each of these countries. I don't think that this is a fault of the book, but rather it is a fault of my expectations. The notion of a history of Africa as a singular thing is unrealistic. African history, from what I learned here, is a collection of histories of individual states. This book provides a framework for these histories, but the idea of a comprehensive narrative of post-colonial Africa within a single set of covers, such as Tony Junt's book on post-war Europe, is unrealistic. The continent is too fragmented and diverse. ( )