Book Pages: The Fate of Africa

I've been eyeing Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa: From the Hopes of Freedom to The Heart of Despair; A History of Fifty Years of Independence since it came out. It has garnered a number of positive reviews and after hearing it compared to The Scramble for Africa now I know I have to read it. Here are excerpts from Roger Bate's Weekly Standard review:

From Cairo to Cape Town, from Dakar to Djibouti, Meredith understands what is important and what the reader will want to learn. I say "probably" simply because I can only judge the writing on the countries I know something about; but where I have knowledge, he is spot on. If the rest of the book is as accurate as the chapters on Southern Africa, this is a seminal work.

I read the chapter about the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda more avidly than any part of any nonfiction book I have ever encountered. It is compellingly written and appalling to comprehend. Even Francophiles will be disillusioned by that country's politics, and disastrous and mendacious involvement in the Rwanda crisis. But no country gets a free ride. Britain's colonial legacy and contemporary policies are rightly decried in several chapters (notably on Sudan and Egypt), as is America's calamitous involvement with Mobutu Sese Seko's leadership in Zaire and the debacles in Liberia and Somalia. The Sudanese import of Osama bin Laden and Islamic influences in the region get an interesting, careful, and highly critical discussion as well.

Bate then discusses how Meredith explains how Africa got itself into this mess and the excuses made for it:

Starting with a chapter on the independence of Ghana from Britain in 1957, Meredith details the always painful, and generally disastrous, experience of African self-rule. The notable exception is Botswana, a country that moved peacefully from British colony to democratic African state, with private property rights, rule of law, economic growth, and
increasing standards of health care (albeit a huge AIDS problem). But while Botswana is a shining star on the continent, its luminescence is enhanced by the catastrophes around it, its achievements more moderate by Asian standards. Of 53 countries, only Botswana and post-apartheid South Africa may be considered successful.

The current trend, much favored by United Nations advisory panels, is to say that Africa has unique problems of geography and disease, which is why it is poor. Meredith blames governance. Uncaring colonial powers gave way to despotic African leaders, often pawns in the Cold War. Today, corrupt leaders must shoulder the blame. Africa is a continent where people still go into government to make money. As Meredith explains about Nigeria (although the analysis can easily be applied to other countries), during colonial times, it was seen as acceptable to rip off the government: "The same attitude prevailed with the coming of independence. The state was regarded as a foreign institution that could be used for personal and community gain without any sense of shame or need for accountability. Plunderers of the government treasury were often excused on the grounds that they had only 'taken their share.'"

The most fascinating parts are the portraits of the "big men," the leaders, most of whom were despots, ruling in the belief that they were infallible or God-like. Mengistu Haile Miriam of Ethiopia, Idi Amin of Uganda, Mobutu of Zaire, Sani Abacha of Nigeria, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, to name but a few. Accustomed to endless praise, it is not surprising to learn that absolute power tended to corrupt them absolutely.

Finally we close with some perspective on famine relief:

Although this book was written too early to discuss this summer's Live 8 concerts and Tony Blair's move to push Africa up the political agenda at the G8 summit, Meredith does deal most interestingly with the Live AID concerts of 1985 and how the money raised was largely wasted, given that the cause of Ethiopia's famine was the vile Mengistu regime. That section demonstrates Meredith's skepticism about aid, and leads this reader to the conclusion that nothing changed then, and nothing will change now, unless Africans and their leaders make change a priority--something Meredith concludes is possible, and is happening in many places.

Meredith first traveled up the Nile from Cairo in 1964 as a 21-year-old and claims that, in many ways, his "African journey has continued ever since." His careful, detailed analysis, his dispassionate but not detached writing, and his evident wit mean that we might all hope his journey continues for much longer.