Perseus Academic: The Skull Beneath the Skin by Mark Huband

In The Skull Beneath the Skin: Africa After the Cold War award-winning journalist Mark Huband argues that foreign involvement in Africa—whether by colonialists, financial donors, armies, political reformers, or Cold War protagonists—has been the single most destructive element in the continent's history. He argues that the catastrophes that have erupted since the end of the Cold War are a legacy of that long foreign involvement, and that stability will be achieved on the continent only if African countries are left to find their own solutions to the problems they face. The end of the Cold War may now offer the opportunity for Africa to achieve the independence it never really achieved when the European powers departed from their former colonies.

Mark Huband is an award-winning journalist and former correspondent for The Guardian, The Observer, and The Times. He is currently Security Correspondent for the Financial Times. He lives in London.