Artificical borders imposed by colonial powers, under-development, lack of educational opportunities for Africans, Cold War power politics and more were all factors that contributed to the problems that newly independent states faced in Africa. This is not to say that Meredith ignores those factors that contributed to these dismal outcomes. Meredith paints detailed portraits of people like Mobutu, Amin, Bokassa and so on, men who bled their countries dry and whose policies led to poverty and war that continues into the present.

Seizing and keeping power by force, these leaders have plundered their countries to an unimaginable extent. The following generations of leaders have been, if anything, worse. In many cases this meant exploiting tribal and racial differences, building huge networks of patronage and nepotism, enriching supporters and exploiting the rest of the population. With inexorable logic the systems they built lapsed into gangsterism that obeyed a single directive and that was to retain power at all costs. Without exception leaders like Nkrumah, Kenyatta, Nyerere and so on took power with excellent motives only to build regimes that were dysfunctional, corrupt, nepotistic and unfailingly authoritarian.

Unfortunately for Africa the first generation of post-independence leaders set the a pattern that continues to the present day. While the book certainly lacks the depth of a dedicated sudy of the history of any one country, Meredit makes a good job of providing convincing over-views of the principal events and key protagonists in recent African history. Add to this wide geographic scope the fact that it looks at the period from independence onwards, starting with the story of Kwame Nkrumah and Ghana in the late 1950s and closing with relatively recent events in Darfur and Zimbabwe. Meredith's work has an enormous scope, covering as it does the entire continent, from Egypt and North Africa right on down to South Africa, via the Congo, Nigeria, Uganda, Sudan and the rest.

How is that an entire continent, pretty much, can be in such dire straights? Why is it that it is afflicted with so many deep-rooted and intractable problems? Martin Meredith's 'The State of Africa' seeks to explore the recent history of the continent, throwing much light on the answers to these difficult questions. It is possible to believe that the many problems that Africa faces - war, genocide, poverty, famine - are the faults either of Western governments and financial institutions and/or the result of natural disasters.

The State of Africa by Martin Meredith