Product Description

An absorbing, highly acclaimed examination of Africa's transition from colonialism to revolution to the social turmoil of today. "Probably the most concise indictment available in the English language of how colonialism and neocolonialism, with a lot of help from capitalism and communism, turned the continent upside down."--The Washington Post.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #782358 in Books
• Published on: 1993-04-27
• Released on: 1993-04-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The postcolonial countries of Africa turned to nationalism as a liberating force, but as Davidson observes in this profound inquiry, the modern African nation-state has meant harsh dictatorships, massive poverty and ever-increasing transfer of wealth to the industrialized world. Author of more than 20 books about Africa ( The African Genius ), he traces the roots of this crisis to Africans' slavishly copying European models of governance and denying their own past. Tribalism in Africa, he argues, has often been a force for good, creating progressive civil societies that were eventually undermined by alien rule and imperialist partition. Surveying renascent movements for democracy from Eritrea to South Africa, he sees the beginnings of a new politics of decentralization and grass-roots participation in self-government. With a masterful knowledge of the whole continentas is, evokes--is?--racist stereotype , Davidson in this energizing meditation delivers a powerful rejoinder to pessimists who would write off contemporary Africa.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this thought-provoking book, Davidson, a prolific, longtime writer of African history and politics, discusses not only Africa and its overwhelming problems but also draws comparisons of the conditions and the causes of Africa's malaise with those of Central and Eastern Europe both in 1918 and today. He details the legacy of imperialism and the failures of the nation-states of Africa after independence. In a surprising conclusion, Davidson sees the ground for hope "in one or another mode of the politics of participation." He points to the Economic Community for West African States and the Southern African Development Coordination Conference as proposing projects that have "supposed a gradual dismantlement of the nation-statist legacy derived from imperialism, and the introduction of participatory structures within a wide regionalist framework." He reminds us finally that "even those most nationalist of peoples, the English and the French, might before long find themselves without sacred and sovereign frontiers between them." Recommended as a thought-provoking purchase.
- Maidel Cason, Univ. of Delaware Lib., Newark
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews
For 40 years, Davidson (Can Africa Survive?, 1974, etc.) has fought to secure Africa's place in world history. The stakes in this battle have been more than academic, as the commonly accepted notion that ``Africa had no history'' served as justification for the European colonial domination of the continent and its peoples. Here, Davidson shows how that historical denial not only allowed colonialism to take root but also contributed to the imposition of European-style national governments after independence. At independence, according to Davidson, a Western-educated African elite rose to power over traditional African leaders because it was commonly assumed that Africa had no indigenous models for ruling nation-states. Gathering the historical evidence, Davidson shows that, before the imposition of colonialism in the late 19th century, Africa was well along in the process of evolving its own models for the nation-state. The Asante kingdom of modern- day Ghana, for example, was ``manifestly a national state on its way to becoming a nation-state with every attribute ascribed to a Western European nation-state.'' Historians, though, neglected or were unaware of Africa's rich political history; and so Davidson portrays an Africa stripped of tradition. Africans under colonialism were told that, in order to be civilized, they must cease being African--while at the same time they could never be European. Ironically, this view didn't change after independence, with adherence to African tradition still derided as ``tribalism'' and seen as an obstacle to development. What Africa's leaders inherited, says Davidson, was ``a crisis of social disintegration.'' From here he charts the plummeting spiral of economic and social decay that has brought Africa to its current political crisis. Davidson's reach extends through medieval Europe, 19th-century Japan, and to the quandary faced by Eastern European nations today. He offers a rich and fascinating history, essential for any understanding of modern Africa's troubles--and a welcome contrast to the blame-the-Africans-for-their-problems books that have proliferated in the past decade. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

Summation of a career?
Is this Basil Davidson's summation of his career? If it is, he can be proud that he brought to life aspects of history that, for generations, was left either buried, or unsaid. This book is an excellent analysis of post colonial Africa that is accessable to the main stream reader and to the person who is also already versed in aspects of African history.

Very important book
This book is one of my favorite histories of Africa because of the sensitivity and knowledge with which the author devotes himself to the topic of the post-colonial nation state in the world's most maligned continent. This is a good book for non-specialists, which explains with good writing and apt analogies to other troubled nation-projects (namely in Eastern Europe) how Africa did in fact have many indigenous nationalisms prior to colonial rule, which were thwarted and distorted by the imposed shackle of the national boundaries drawn by outsiders who knew nothing of Africa's own traditions, people, or nations.

Many I've spoken to who do not have even the most rudimentary knowledge of Africa (most people that is!) are shocked when I tell them that the boundaries of all modern African nations were drawn at a conference in 1884 in Berlin with no Africans present, based on the geo-strategic concerns of the imperial powers, NOT on any linguistic/cultural unity in the territories created. But this basic fact, so crucial to understanding the fundamental problems facing 20th and 21st century Africa, deserves repeating, and nowhere have I seen any author treat it with as much concern and care as Davidson.

Davidson's contribution to African history cannot be overstated; he has over the years earned the affection and trust of many Africans, who trust him perhaps more than they do any other European to write their history. More than most Europeans, Davidson emphatically and repeatedly asserts that Africa has the history and tools to build successful political entities based on their own values, not those imposed on them from outside. They did so prior to colonial rule, and they can in the future. Davidson is a treasure and this book is as well.

Basil is Background
As a student in African Studies, I read Black Man's Burden as a way to expand my background in Africa's history. I found Davidson's book to be quite informative, filled with interesting facts and right-on analyses of many African issues Though there was a slow period around the middle, Davidson provides a source of knowledge on Africa that couls be useful for anyone interested in the continent, its challenges and hopes for the future.