Perseus Academic: Africa by Richard Dowden

“This book is, quite simply, a masterpiece. The finest possible guide to sub-Saharan Africa’s past and present. It is both realistic and powerful—a highly personal book written with evident love for the culture of that beguiling continent. A triumph. A gift of love to Africa.” —Alexander McCall Smith

“Richard Dowden’s Africa is an extraordinary book of many dimensions. It is full of unconnected stories, eyewitness accounts of Africa’s ordinary horrors and miracles. Yet they illustrate a powerful analytical narrative that links them all. And the prose is often poetry. . . . An enthralling journey, with a uniquely knowledgeable commentator who forces his reader to turn every next page.” —The Financial Times

“Mr. Dowden maintains the reader’s interest by skillfully interweaving his research on the economic effects of AIDS and international aid into stories of myriad encounters with Africans rich and poor.” —The Economist

“We journalists tend to cover Africa in stark and simple contrasts, but countries live and grow and falter in grays. So it’s refreshing to encounter not only Dowden’s hopefulness, but also his reliance on shading and nuance, on the recognition that the world does not have to feel sorry for Africa to care about it.” —New York Times

“A deeply informed and informative ‘tough love’ love letter to a continent.” —O, the Oprah Magazine

“Richard Dowden’s compelling new book . . . looks at individual countries in turn, drawing on his own experiences in an engaging narrative.” —The Independent (UK)

“Dowden’s experiences as a journalist over three decades are blended with summary historical analysis and a sprinkling of more wide-ranging insights.” —The Guardian (UK)

“Dowden has devoted his life to reporting and striving to understand Africa. . . . It is a wonderfully honest book that makes more sense of the current situation across the continent than any other recent account I have read.” —Patrick Marnham, The Spectator (UK)

“At last—a book about Africa the way it is. Richard Dowden is the Africa experts’ Africa expert. Drawing on more than thirty years of extraordinary experiences the length and breadth of the continent he shows us an Africa of light as well as darkness, engaging as well as horrifying. The real Africa.” —BBC News

“Africa is a remarkable, ground-breaking achievement, capturing the complex texture of a rapidly changing continent. It is also terribly moving.” —Arts & Book Review

“A remarkably full-bodied and frank discussion of Africa’s place in the world.” —Kirkus Reviews

“This is non-fiction writing at its most authentic . . . it is a masterly overview of the world’s most troubled continent.” —The Daily Telegraph (UK)

“Hugely readable. . . . Dowden writes with the rigour of an academic but the immediacy and personal observation of a first-class reporter unraveling the paradoxes of Africa’s recent history.” —New Statesman

“Dowden weaves his experiences, journeys, and reflections into an acutely perceptive, always sympathetic, and defiantly hopeful portrait of a continent he loves. . . . [A] compelling book.” —Tablet (UK)

“Richard Dowden’s new and excellent portrait . . . is to be greeted with a hearty round of applause.” —Herald

“Fresh, revealing. . . . Dowden’s African survey is over 500 pages long and a brief review can only skim its rich resources. It is very likely to be the non-fiction book of the year.” —Morning Star