Table of Contents
PRAISE FOR AFRICA
This book is, quite simply, a masterpiece. The finest possible guide to sub-Saharan Africas past and present. It is both realistic and powerfula 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 Dowdens Africa is an extraordinary book of many dimensions. It is full of unconnected stories, eyewitness accounts of Africas 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 readers 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 its refreshing to encounter not only Dowdens 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, April issue
Richard Dowdens compelling new book ... looks at individual countries in turn, drawing on his own experiences in an engaging narrative.
The Independent (UK)
Dowdens experiences as a journalist over three decades are blended with summary historical analysis and a sprinkling of more wide-ranging insights.
The Guardian (UK)
A wise, compassionate, and understanding account of Africa, written by a man who has glimpsed deeper truths about the continent; truths that we need to know.... This book is an inspiring gift of hope about a continent that never ceases to surprise.
The Times (London)
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 lasta 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 Africas place in the world.
Kirkus Reviews
This is non-fiction writing at its most authentic ... it is a masterly overview of the worlds 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 Africas 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 Dowdens new and excellent portrait ... is to be greeted with a hearty round of applause.
Herald
Fresh, revealing.... Dowdens 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
To Penny who let me go and welcomed me home and Isabella and Sophie who endured my long absences.
Acknowledgements
My life in Africa began with the Lule family in Uganda and they have always made me welcome in Kampala, particularly Michael Nsereko Webale Nyo. I would also like to thank the many Africans, from drivers and market women to professors and presidents, who helped me to understand why Africa is the way it is. Without their patience and many kindnesses, this book would not have been possible.
I am deeply indebted to the late Anthony Sampson who believed I could write this book and told me to get on with it. A particular thank you to fellow journalists Koert Lindyer, my travelling companion for many years, as well as Karl Maier, Michael Holman, Michela Wrong, Peter Sharp and William Wallis, who were also there in bad places at bad times and still in varying degrees love and believe in Africa.
Stephen Ellis shared his striking insights into the continent and refined the manuscript.
This book covers many years of travelling in Africa as a journalist so I would like to thank those who helped me go there: Ivan Barnes at The Times, Andreas Whittam-Smith, Stephen Glover and especially the late Nick Ashford at the Independent, and Bill Emmott at The Economist. Thanks too to all at the Royal African Society for their patience as I finished the manuscript.
The following also contributed, wittingly or unwittingly, to its creation:
Peter Adwok, Bernard Awazi, Nickson Bahati, Zainab Bangura, John Battersby, Maria Burnett, Cecil Cameron, Chukwu Emeka Chikezie, Abdi Dahir, Alex de Waal, Susana Edjang, Ilona Eveleens, Chris and Rhoda Gibbons, John Githongo, Robin Gorna, William Gumede, Heidi Holland, Joel Kibazo, Donu Kogbara, Matthew Kukah, Daniel Large, Margaret Lindyer, Ali Mazrui, Smangaliso Mhkatshwa, Miles Morland, Nkosana Moyo, Ben Okri, Dapo Oyewole, Trevor Page, Tajudeen Abdul Raheem, Adam Roberts, Andrew Rugasira, Betty Senoga, Tim Sheehy, Patrick Smith, Henry Ssemanda, Alfred Taban, Camilla Toulmin, Pat Utomi and Alan Whiteside.
Thanks also to my editor at Portobello, Philip Gwyn Jones, and to Jonny Geller and Gordon Wise at Curtis Brown.
Foreword
Africa is a vast continent, a continent of people, and not a place of exotica, or a destination for tourists. In Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, it is clear that Richard Dowden understands this, and one could not ask for a more qualified author to explore Africas complexity. It helps a great deal that he has travelled extensively in Africa, his work having taken him to nearly every African nation, and that throughout his distinguished career he has committed himself to Africas advancement as teacher, journalist and executive of the Royal Africa Society in London.
