By Martin Meredith
Series: The Plantation Series
Paperback: 784 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (14 Mar. 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0857203886
ISBN-13: 978-0857203885
About the Author
Martin Meredith is a British journalist, biographer, and historian renowned for his authoritative work on Africa’s political and historical landscape. With a career spanning several decades, Meredith has reported extensively from the continent, working for publications such as The Sunday Times and The Observer. His deep knowledge of postcolonial Africa has led to publishing several critically acclaimed books, including Mugabe: Power, Plunder and the Struggle for Zimbabwe, The Fate of Africa, and Mandela: A Biography. Meredith is known for his clear-eyed analysis and narrative skill, which brings journalistic rigour and historical depth to his writing. He is regarded as one of the leading Western chroniclers of contemporary African affairs.
Review
In The State of Africa, Martin Meredith offers a sweeping, unflinching chronicle of the continent’s modern political history — a compelling account of how the promise of post-independence Africa gave way, in too many places, to dysfunction, conflict, and despair. First published in 2005 and revised in this 2013 edition, the book remains one of the most authoritative single-volume histories of Africa’s postcolonial journey.
Spanning six tumultuous decades, Meredith traces how the euphoria of liberation in the mid-20th century gradually unravelled in the face of authoritarianism, civil war, endemic corruption, and the Cold War’s toxic meddling. From Nkrumah’s Ghana and Mobutu’s Zaire to Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and apartheid South Africa, the book reads as a catalogue of both grand vision and tragic failure.
What sets The State of Africa apart is not only the breadth of its research but its clarity. Meredith weaves the continent’s vast diversity, more than 50 countries, and thousands of ethnic groups into a coherent narrative, making complex political histories accessible without sacrificing depth. It is a tricky balancing act, yet he succeeds, primarily through vivid storytelling and a firm grasp of the forces that have shaped Africa’s postcolonial experience.
Meredith asks uncomfortable but essential questions: Why have so many African nations struggled to convert independence into prosperity? What role have international actors played, for better or worse, in Africa’s fate? And what can be done to break the cycle of exploitation, misrule, and external manipulation?
One of the book’s central themes is how colonial legacies, arbitrary borders, extractive economies, and imported governance models continue to haunt African states. Yet Meredith is careful not to place all the blame on former colonial powers. He is unflinching in his critiques of Africa’s “Big Men” leaders who enriched themselves while their populations suffered, and who too often used nationalism as a smokescreen for personal gain.
At nearly 800 pages, The State of Africa is dense and, at times, harrowing in its portrayal of violence, poverty, and political betrayal. But it is also essential reading. This is an eye-opening, often sobering work of political history for readers seeking to understand Africa beyond headlines and clichés or to challenge long-held assumptions.
This is not a book of solutions, nor does it pretend to be. Instead, it is a rigorous, well-documented account of how we arrived at the current crossroads and a powerful reminder that understanding history is the first step towards shaping a better future.
Verdict: A monumental work of narrative history — authoritative, accessible, and unflinching. Essential for anyone who wants to understand the modern African continent and the forces that have shaped it.