Product Description

In A Continent for the Taking Howard W. French, a veteran correspondent for The New York Times, gives a compelling firsthand account of some of Africa’s most devastating recent history–from the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko, to Charles Taylor’s arrival in Monrovia, to the genocide in Rwanda and the Congo that left millions dead. Blending eyewitness reportage with rich historical insight, French searches deeply into the causes of today’s events, illuminating the debilitating legacy of colonization and the abiding hypocrisy and inhumanity of both Western and African political leaders.

While he captures the tragedies that have repeatedly befallen Africa’s peoples, French also opens our eyes to the immense possibility that lies in Africa’s complexity, diversity, and myriad cultural strengths. The culmination of twenty-five years of passionate exploration and understanding, this is a powerful and ultimately hopeful book about a fascinating and misunderstood continent.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #124993 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-12
• Released on: 2005-04-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 280 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Although both tragedy and hope are mentioned in the subtitle, this work of reportage on Africa focuses more on the former than the latter. French was first captivated by Africa after college, in 1980, when he joined his parents and siblings in Ivory Coast. Taken by the pride and beauty he found on the continent, he became a journalist there, eventually serving as a bureau chief for the New York Times. His strength as a reporter is evident as he takes the reader across the continent, recounting in vivid detail the genocide in Rwanda and the AIDS and Ebola outbreaks. His prose is evocative without being melodramatic in describing the suffering he saw. The "powerful and eerily rhythmic" wailing of those who had lost loved ones to the Ebola virus "was painful to hear, and clearly bespoke of the recent or imminent deaths of loved ones." French is just as eloquent discussing his ambivalence about covering African crises after criticizing other journalists for their pack mentality in focusing on such crises rather than on giving a more rounded picture of life on the continent. In addition to disease and murder, French focuses his book on Africa's other plague: corrupt tyrants. While his insights into Zaire's Mobutu and Congo's Laurent Kabila are valuable, like many other writers on Africa French excoriates the "treachery and betrayal of Africa by a wealthy and powerful West." But providing some ways to improve life thereâ€"to give Africans some hopeâ€"is not so easy. As his book shows, French might be exactly the kind of seasoned Africa observer who could help point the way. 8 pages of photos, 1 map.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
For the U.S., Africa is only a source for oil and other resources and a theater of misery, according to senior New York Times writer French, who reported on Central and West Africa in the 1990s. In contrast to that official detachment is French's own passionate engagement, both with what he sees close-up and with the politics and history. An African American raised in Washington, D.C., he has lived with his family in Africa, and he brings a unique perspective to the news in Liberia, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Congo. He is as critical of the corruption and greed of Africa's modern leaders as he is of the West, but he does blame much of the continent's trouble on colonialism and "faraway mapmakers" who patched countries together. Most damning is his criticism of the Clinton administration's preoccupation with the Bosnian crisis, while it ignored the much bigger Rwandan genocide and its aftermath. French's eyewitness reporting is unforgettable, as in the portrait of a Liberian child-soldier. The "hope" of the subtitle isn't here. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
“Lively . . . vivid . . . This is the best book about Africa to come out in some time.” –Chicago Tribune

“An often riveting eyewitness account of the chaos enveloping West Africa in the 1990s.” –San Francisco Chronicle

“Vivid, disquieting. . . . French’s engagement with the continent goes far deeper than most Africa-based correspondents.” –Washington Monthly

“Remarkable. . . . This deeply empathetic account of a region in crisis deserves to be read widely.” –Foreign Affairs

“[French’s] skill as a writer — in particular his telling anecdotes, fascinating historical narratives and prescriptions for a complex continent he clearly loves — is compelling. . . . He succeeds brilliantly in helping readers understand the continent and its people.” –The Globe & Mail (Toronto)

“Exhilarating for its frankness. . . . A triumph of passionate reporting.” –The New York Review of Books

“A passionate, heartbreaking, and ultimately heartbroken book. . . . [French] has a deeper and more profound connection to the continent than most journalists.” –The Nation

“A brilliant and nuanced meditation on the complexities of contemporary Africa. Essential reading for those of us who live Africa and for all those who wish to gain a fuller understanding of a continent that is sprawling, mysterious, and endlessly fascinating. Howard French’s voice is both fresh and enlightening.”–Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

“Persuasive. . . . The tone is grim, but French also finds an unquenchable African spirit.” –The Washington Post Book World

“Even when you've been there or know the basic facts, Howard French takes you to Africa in a way you've never been taken before. His superb writing, his keen insight and passion-driven analysis combine to make A Continent for the Taking a great read for those who find the continent as fasinating as he does, as well as for those who need to know why we do.” –Charlayne Hunter Gault , author of In My Place

“French gives us the context necessary to understand Africa’s current problems. . . . Broad-ranging. . . . Passionate.” –American Prospect

“French’s great advantage in telling his tale is his depth of perspective. . . . Rare is the book on Africa that gets passed around among policymakers in Washington–we can only hope this becomes one of them.”–St. Petersburg Times

“Many Western narratives tend to exonerate the West for Africa’s seemingly endless woes, placing blame squarely on the continent. Some African accounts tend to blame the West entirely. Howard French strikes the right balance, showing that Africa’s ills are rooted in internal and external factors but which are clearly linked.”–Ngugi wa Thiong’o, author of Weep Not, Child

“A harrowing picture of a continental catastrophe.” –Hartford Courant

Customer Reviews

riveting
the only reason this got 4 stars was amazons packaging. Smashed up the book pretty good.

Tone of the book leaves a lot to be desired
I'm in the middle of the book and I'm not liking it. Part of the problem is that I cannot stand the author. Something about the writing gives me the impression he has a huge ego. Apparently he's the only westerner who understands Africa's suffering. We're all too racist and far removed to see Africans as human beings. Apart from that, I don't like his portrayals of various figureheads. Is it really relevant to the story that Leopold III slept with 10 year old prostitutes? Do I care that Mobutu slept with his wife's twin sister? I understands these people are bad guys, but these asides are uncalled for.
I was hoping to read something that wasn't so infused with the author's personal opinions. The book is interesting when he just sticks to historical facts.

The Anti-Jeff Sachs
This book is a great counter argument to some of the recently popular literature that has been written on Africa by academics who have not spent significant time on the continent. (The End of Poverty by Jeff Sachs, The Mystery of Capital by Hernando de Soto, The White Man's Burden by William Easterly amongst other). French paints a vivid picture of what life is like in war-torn African countries. Understanding these realities is all that is needed to make Sachs' innovation/technology solution and de Soto's property rights solution irrelevant.

This book was recommended to me by the director of an African NGO when I started working there, like so many others, eager to help implement the most recent round of proposed solutions for African poverty. After reading it, I understand why. It is a must read for any young (actually or at heart) idealists who want to (and think they can) change the world.