Read in 2019. A bit dated but still quite revealing. Stupidity by the British followed by many other European countries lead to this and still 20 years after this book was written are still evident.
Nor was the situation helped by incompetent United States governments. ( )

Chapter reports on different countries in africa. Mostly the politics of how things went wrong. Some ideas

Captivating read, writer is not fast in his judgement, but sound. More than journalism ( )

A remarkable and controversial book about Africa. The author evokes with passion, argument and fabulous stories the destruction of Africa at the end of the millenium

Blaine Harden's book usefully lets Africans talk about Africa with a central theme being the manipulation of religious and tribal differences (and foreign aid) to construct the shaky platforms from which African Big Men dominate their countries.
However, it doesn't have to be this way. He shows the functioning democracy of Botswana with it's respect for the law and equal opportunity and the basic forcing of the right to free speech by the Nigerian people on their successive governments (even if the economy remains a shambles).
This is a really great book about Africa. ( )