Reddit mentions of The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence. Martin Meredith

Have you ever read "State of Africa" by Martin Meredith? (US Amazon, UK Amazon if you want new). Hands down one of the most accessible history books I've ever read, and as Meredith has been living throughout Africa, he uses a lot of original sources since he understands the language. Rather than a brief history of each state, he focuses on time periods and tells you what happened in each state during that time period. The latest version takes you from imperialism to early 2013 after the Egyptian revolution. What I like best about it is there is no romance - he presents facts and figures and let's you make your own impression.

South African (living in the UK) here.

Aside from South Africa’s Western Cape Province (which is run by the official opposition party who’re largely competent and ‘white’), you can’t see much of an improvement across the rest of SA. The ANC has been in control of the country now for 21 years and all they’ve really done is build some shoddy, basic houses for the poor in areas that are visible to the rest of the country (like along national roads).

As a Somalian ex-colleague of mine once said, the biggest problem with Africa is the lack of accountability; SA’s president, Jacob Zuma, has just got away (after a shit ton of hearings and parliamentary reviews) with a grossly-inflated tax payer-funded private compound (that's also is very poorly built) to the tune of £13million. Another problem across the continent is that of the ‘Big Man’ – the chief – who dictates to his village/tribe/country how it is to be, and people simply accept things, thus making it easier to get away with his unquestioned indiscretions. The continent’s incredibly complicated tribal makeup also means people don’t want to work together because of historical tribal animosity – it happens in SA with the Xhosas and Zulus who're always vying for power in government.

Martin Meredith’s The State of Africa is a great read for better understanding why it is the continent is so fucked up.

Eine Freundin von mir hat dieses Buch gelesen und sehr empfohlen. Sie hat gemeint da gabs ja diese ganz komische Geschichte wo der König quasi eine Kolonie hatte die sein "Privatbesitz" war und nicht dem Reich an sich gehört hat oder so.

Sie sagt es ist sehr gut zu lesen, dass es auch bei den Kolonien immer neue Ansätze gab. Also "Ok, dieses mal machen wir es anders und es wird funktionieren!" - "ok, war nix, aber dieses Mal!!!" usw.

Gibt auch einen sehr guten Überblick über die Anfänge von dem Kampf "Arabischer Nationalismus" (also Nasser, Assad, Saddam) versus "Politischer Jihadismus" wo wir die Ableger grade in Syrien und co immer noch/schon wieder sehen. Für mich war das doch sehr neu wie tief da eigentlich die Wurzeln sind. Man kriegt die bei uns nur mit wenn die im Westen einen Anschlag schaffen oder in einem Krieg mitmischen wo der Westen auch involviert ist, aber dann wird einem bewusst, aja die verschwinden ja nicht wirklich zwischen den unterschiedlichen Aktionen, die machen die ganze Zeit weiter, nur halt in Ländern wo wir nicht so aufpassen/die uns nicht so interessieren.

> Siirtomaahallinnot toimi hyvin mikäli olit valkoinen.

Verrattuna vaikka tähän katastrofiin minusta tuo siirtomaahallinto toimi kyllä melko hyvin kaikille - ja Ghana oli sentään se maa jolla piti olla parhaat mahdollisuudet. Lue tästä lisää jos et usko.

Ancient History


Modern African History

Post Independence

EDIT: Don't quite know what ankh-like means..UrbanDictionary and Wikipedia weren't helpful. Apologies in advance if these books are ankh-like.

Well it was, for the most part, the colonial nations that drew the lines and I agree that is certainly a cause for continued conflict in Africa.

Read a good book on this a few years back called the State of Africa, recommend: https://www.amazon.co.uk/State-Africa-History-Continent-Independence/dp/0857203886