- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (April 12 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1400030277
- ISBN-13: 978-1400030279
- Product Dimensions: 13.2 x 1.9 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#350,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #73 in Books > History > Africa > Central Africa
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enlightening read,
By Jones (IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa (Paperback)
A CONTINENT FOR THE TAKING is a beautifully written work that provides a fascinating insight into Africa's underdevelopment and civil strife. Devoid of sentimentality and full of objectivity, the author conveys the deep message, which explains the hope that the continent has retained despite its turbulent history. Behind the tragedies of the continent are the heavy hands of the ex-colonial masters and the exploitative drives of some business concerns working in partnership with African dictators, psychopaths and administrative kleptomaniacs that have power and are excluding the people in the running of the land. The author sees an inevitable victory for the forces of hope against the perpetrators of evil in the continent, since the fall out of Africa's misery cannot be ignored by the rest of the world forever. Other titles that treat this African malaise are AFRICA UNCHAINED, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE , THE SCHAKLED CONTINENT, TRIPLE AGENT DOUBLE CROSS. Together these titles exposed the personal and collective problems of the people and the personal and collective efforts, and the means and ways to take the Africa forward.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An enlightening read,
By Peter Jones (Springfield, IL) - See all my reviews
This review is from: A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa (Paperback)
A CONTINENT FOR THE TAKING is a beautifully written work that provides a fascinating insight into Africa's underdevelopment and civil strife. Devoid of sentimentality and full of objectivity, the author conveys the deep message, which explains the hope that the continent has retained despite its turbulent history. Behind the tragedies of the continent are the heavy hands of the ex-colonial masters and the exploitative drives of some business concerns working in partnership with African dictators, psychopaths and administrative kleptomaniacs that have power and are excluding the people in the running of the land.The author sees an inevitable victory for the forces of hope against the perpetrators of evil in the continent, since the fall out of Africa's misery cannot be ignored by the rest of the world forever. Other titles that treat this African malaise are AFRICA UNCHAINED, DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE , THE SCHAKLED CONTINENT, TRIPLE AGENT DOUBLE CROSS. Together these titles exposed the personal and collective problems of the people and the personal and collective efforts, and the means and ways to take the Africa forward.
5.0 out of 5 stars
An insightful work,
By
This review is from: A Continent for the Taking: The Tragedy and Hope of Africa (Hardcover)
A well written work that delivers unusual insight into the peculiar political situation in Africa. Howard French brings to bear his deep understanding of the continent. This book is a must-read for anybody seriously interested in understanding the true socio-political dynamics of Africa. Unlike most books about Africa that are written by foreigners, it avoids the condescending know-it-all attitude that gets many Africans mad.More importantly, French is not shy about pointing out the role played (and still being played) by many western powers and multinational corporations in fostering the instability and and conflict that has plagued Africa. The one criticism I have is that the book deals so much with the Congo crisis and with conflicts in Africa in general, but does not adequately address key positive developments that also took place. Perhaps, Mr. French will address those in a second volume. All in all, Mr. French deserves commendation for writing such an honest and deeply incisive book.
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