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A History of Postcolonial Lusophone Africa. By Patrick Chabal with David Birmingham, Joshua Forrest, Malyn Newitt, Gerhard Seibert, and Elisa Silva Andrade. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002. Pp. xx, 339; 1 map. $49.95 cloth, $22.95 paper.
A History of Postcolonial Lusophone Africa explores contemporary debates regarding African politics in the context of the lusophone countries of Africa, that is, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Principe. The first three chapters by Patrick Chabal provide a theoretical and analytical framework for the five country case studies that follow. The book is ambitious and covers a great deal of material both chronologically and intellectually. All of the contributors are very knowledgeable about their subject matter and for the most part, the book is well referenced and informative. It would prove useful in familiarizing advanced undergraduates and beginning graduate students with the commonalities and particularities of political systems in lusophone Africa.
The three thematic chapters by Chabal cover the political history of lusophone Africa over the last forty years. Through comparative analysis, he revisits a number of questions that have perplexed students of lusophone Africa and of the continent more generally such as: What were the origins and outlooks of the decolonization movements that took hold across Africa after World War II? What is the nature of the postcolonial state in Africa? Why has the postcolonial state had such a poor record? In addressing these issues, Chabal is careful to draw out the...