The Rift: A New Africa Breaks Free - Brossura

Perry, Alex

Brossura

ISBN 10: 0297871234 ISBN 13: 9780297871231

Casa editrice: W&N, 2015

Riassunto

Alex Perry's lyrical exploration of the new Africa came about after a spell in jail, visits to numerous wars and, eventually, his resignation as a news correspondent. But this is no tale of African woe.

Taking the Great Rift Valley - the geological fault that will eventually tear Africa in two - as his central metaphor, Perry explores the split between a resurgent Africa and a world at odds with its rise. Africa has long been misunderstood - and abused - by outsiders. Perry travelled the continent for most of a decade, meeting with entrepreneurs and warlords, professors and cocaine smugglers, presidents and jihadis. He uncovers a place that is defiantly rising from centuries of oppression to become an economic and political titan: where cash is becoming a thing of the past, where astronomers are unlocking the origin of life and where, twenty-five years after Live Aid, Ethiopia's first yuppies are traders on an electronic food exchange. But as Africa finally wins the substance of its freedom, it must confront three last false prophets - Islamists, dictators and aid workers - who would keep it in its bonds. Beautifully written, intimately reported, and sure to spark debate, THE RIFT passionately argues that a changing Africa revolutionises our ideas of it, and of ourselves.

Su questo libro

Recensione:

An epic, rich, endlessly surprising narrative of a fast-changing Africa by one of the few Western journalists to have spent enough time there to understand it. Calls to mind the best African writing of Ryszard Kapuscinski (Douglas Rogers author of THE LAST RESORT)

In this stunning book about the past, present, and future of Africa, foreign correspondent Perry (who's written for Time and Newsweek) achieves the seemingly impossible: he writes about the continent from a Western perspective without trying to define Africa to the West, inviting Africans to speak directly to his readers...Perry examines widely discussed issues affecting Africa (including famine, AIDS, humanitarian aid, terrorism, corruption, and Chinese influence), always mindful of the bearing each has on Africa's future. Along the way, Perry bumps into George Clooney in South Sudan, watches Robert Mugabe speak to a crowd in Zimbabwe, and confronts Jacob Zuma in South Africa. The stories he tells, of average Africans trying to carve out a better life, have the vividness of fiction. Perry also exposes the flaws of large-scale humanitarianism in Africa, addressing the inflated claims made for its success and its often counterproductive strategies. Candid, smart, and self-aware, this work is an impressive accomplishment that does more to give Western readers context for Africa's current condition than any book in recent memory. (Publishers Weekly - USA)

Descrizione del libro:

A vivid, powerful and controversial look at how the world gets Africa wrong, and how a resurgent Africa is forcing us to think again

Su questa edizione

• Editore: W&N
• Data di pubblicazione: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0297871234
• ISBN 13: 9780297871231
• Rilegatura: Copertina flessibile
• Numero di pagine: 320