Product Description

A study of modern Africa, mixing careful analysis with racy first-hand reportage. Why is Africa so poor? Why are so many of its nations at war? Why is AIDS devastating Africa like nowhere else? And why do African entrepreneurs find it so hard to borrow money? In this provocative book, Robert Guest argues that the continent?s problems stem largely from bad government. Guest has reported from some 25 African countries for The Economist, but wears his expertise lightly. His subject is serious, but he writes with irresistible colour and wit.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #623728 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

Bob Geldof
'An excellent book. Timely, provocative, written throughout with a passion for Africa and Africans.'

Anthony Daniels, Sunday Telegraph
I doubt whether there is a better brief introduction to the travails of modern Africa and their causes

R. W. Johnson, Sunday Times
Astute and clever . . . The Shackled Continent is a lively and provocative read

Customer Reviews

Rays of hope in the darkness of despair
In this captivating book, the author shares his experiences of Sub-Saharan Africa by exploring the reasons for the region's abject poverty and suffering. Guest takes into account factors like for example climate and history, whilst quoting African writers like Chinua Achebe, Themba Sono and Chenjerai Hove.

The text often focuses on rays of hope amidst the despair so the book is not a relentless tale of woe. Guest identifies negative issues like tribalism and corruption and the waste of aid money while pointing out positive developments in places like Botswana, South Africa, Uganda and Senegal.

He examines the good results in countries that follow sound fiscal and monetary policies as opposed to the vampire state in places like Zimbabwe or the failed state in e.g. Congo (Zaire). A very important point that Guest makes is that Africa can develop and improve the lives of its people without sacrificing its culture. Japan is proof enough that modernity does not necessarily threaten an indigenous culture.

Guest discusses Rwanda's holocaust and religious clashes in Nigeria, takes a balanced look at South Africa's successes and its failures like its lack of an AIDS policy and criticises western countries for their agricultural protectionism that is holding Africa back. More Western aid is not the answer, and in some places mineral wealth has been more of a curse than a blessing.

He makes a plea for increased trade and praises the stability that exists in those countries where property rights are respected. He also surveys the situation of the media, where both oppression and lack of money are impediments to a free press. The book ends on an optimistic note with the example of a young man in the KwaZulu province of South Africa having become a successful businessman after abandoning a life of violence.

The book concludes with bibliographic notes and an index. The Shackled Continent can be heartbreaking at times, but the overall tone is optimistic, and realistically so. The book leaves an impression of hope and the reader can only pray that good government may soon come to Africa. The title of South Africa's national anthem by Enoch Sontonga, says it all: Nkosi sikelele i'Afrika, meaning God bless Africa.

A fascinating one by one examination of Africa's challenges
Chapter by chapter, Guest takes up a number of the challenges facing Africa and examines them. Beginning with the rapacious and rabidly corrupt power lechers who have headed up the governments of many, if not most African countries since independence, he then moves through topics such as how abundant mineral wealth and foreign arms supplies have lengthened the violent power struggles that have wracked the continent, the social and economic devastation of the AIDS plague, how tribal loyalties have been exploited by those wishing to seize or maintain power, why Western aid policies have largely failed and how trade would be a better alternative.

The book's portrait of Africa is not all negative. The remarkable economic growth of Botswana and the huge (though belated) success by Uganda and Senegal in tackling the AIDS problem are discussed. The post-apartheid successes and challenges in South Africa are examined and some cautious reasons for hope are put forward.

Within each of the topics examined, Guest uses a mixture of illustrative historical examples and stories from his own personal experience as a journalist for The Economist in Africa to support his arguments. His style is engaging and very easy to read and his comments are perceptive and enlightening. If I have one criticism of the book, it would be that each of the topics discussed is largely self-contained with few threads connecting the various arguments. Overall an extremely informative read, however.

Excellent guide to modern african life
This book by the Economist's African reporter is a fantastically well written guide to the reasons why Africa is the way it is now. His conclusion is that it is because of poor leadership and that if that was improved everything would get better. He fails to explain why virtually every country south of the Sahara has such poor leaders. This somewhat undermines his cautiously optimistic conclusions that Africa may be turning the corner.

Personally I think he is correct in his diagnosis but wrong in his conclusion and that Africa's decline will continue. There have been many false dawns in Africa and each of them have been followed by a darker night. This will not change and Africa will become globally more irrelevent except as a reason for the rich world to indulge in hand wringing.

Buy this book if you truly want to understand modern Africa. Also it is beautifully written and highly informative while be entertaining.