The rift : a new Africa breaks free : dispatches from a changing continent

A vivid, powerful, and controversial look at how the world gets Africa wrong, and how a resurgent Africa is forcing it to think again. Africa has long been misunderstood -- and abused -- by outsiders. Correspondent Alex Perry traveled the continent for most of a decade, meeting with entrepreneurs and warlords, professors and cocaine smugglers, presidents and jihadis. Beginning with a devastating investigation into a largely unreported war crime-in 2011, when the US and the major aid agencies helped cause a famine in which 250,000 Somalis died-he finds Africa at a moment of furious self-assertion. To finally win their freedom, Africans must confront three last false prophets-Islamists, dictators and aid workers-who would keep them in their bonds. Beautifully written, intimately reported, and sure to spark debate, The Rift passionately argues that a changing Africa revolutionizes our ideas of it, and of ourselves. Africa has long been misunderstood--and abused--by outsiders. This huge, diverse continent resists the one-size-fits-all solutions of aid workers and policy makers. In this evocative, poetic, and occasionally angry look at an emerging continent, award-winning journalist Alex Perry acknowledges its complexity and dares to ask, and answer: How will Africa's growth change it, and our idea of it, and even of ourselves? With both empathy and skepticism, Perry observes a rapidly globalizing landscape filled with the violent turmoil, rampant corruption, and economic challenges that most readers know--but also a continent sensing the end of an epic, centuries-old quest for liberation. Beginning with a stunning investigation into a largely unreported war crime in Somalia in 2011, Perry travels across all forty-nine sub-Saharan countries, meeting entrepreneurs and warlords, professors and cocaine smugglers, presidents and jihadists. From the drug ports of Guinea-Bissau and the genocide crypts of Rwanda to the remaking of Lagos, Africa's biggest city, and a homestay with Barack Obama's family in Kenya, Perry finds communities changing quickly, deeply, and unevenly--but ultimately breaking free. The culmination of close to a decade of on-the-ground reporting, this book is a fearless challenge to the conventional wisdom on Africa.-- Adapted from book jacket "A vivid, powerful and controversial look at how the world gets Africa wrong, and how a resurgent Africa is forcing it to think again, "--Amazon.com