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Toyin Falola and Emmanuel M. Mbah, eds. 2014. Contemporary Africa: Challenges and Opportunities. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. 261 pp.
The editors of this book have assembled contributions from various scholars with competences in history, political science, international studies, and anthropology. In general terms, the contributors adopt a pessimistic approach to political and socioeconomic developments in Africa since the era of decolonization between 1945 and the mid-1960s. The focus has been on developments in sub-Saharan Africa, with the main themes ranging from the lack of peace and security, limited protection of human rights, the debt crisis, increased levels of unemployment and poverty, and gender inequality to the deteriorating health care standards a situation compounded by the HIV and AIDS pandemic.
The book is organized into two main parts. The first, consisting of chapters two to five, focuses on the legacies of colonial rule on postcolonial Africa. The second part, chapters six to ten, deals with some of the notable socioeconomic changes in sampled African countries. Mickie Mwanzia Koster, who wrote chapters two and nine, has focused on the history of Kenya, discussing the Mau Mau uprising...