Power in Africa: An Essay in Political Interpretation

Power in Africa casts a fresh look at contemporary Black African politics. It reviews the merits and failings of existing interpretations of Africa's post-colonial society and proposes a new approach to its understanding. It has two main aims. First, to present a comparative conceptual framework which places Africa's politics within their appropriate historical context. Second, to offer an explanation of what is actually happening in Africa--beyond the cliches of a dark continent perennially in crisis. No one can deny that today Africa is in crisis. Wars, coups, famines and violence stalk the continent and fill the pages of our newspapers. Africa's debt is astronomical, economic development has virtually ceased, corruption is endemic and force seems the chief instrument of politics. Our understanding of that crisis, however, has often been hampered by the conceptual frameworks we have used to explain it. Power in Africa develops a political analysis which attempts to construct a plausible interpretation of Africa's contemporary predicament.