Africa Is Not a Country

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Dipo Faloyin: Africa Is Not a Country (2022, Penguin Random House)

288 pages

English language

Published Nov. 3, 2022 by Penguin Random House.

ISBN:
978-1-78730-295-2
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4 stars (5 reviews)

6 editions

A bit unsure what it wants to be

3 stars

There is quite a lot of personal stuff in here, and quite a bit of (contemporary) history. Personally I was here mostly for the contemporary history, but I didn't quite feel I got enough of that. Pockets of information about a few African states. I thought we would get to know all of the African states, the current status they have, the outlook for their future, perhaps a bit about how they came to be a country etc. The general point is taken, that Africa has many countries and there are significant differences between those countries.

Review of 'Africa Is Not a Country' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

A remarkable book that everyone should read. For folks like me, it is an important history lesson about Africa and the devastating impacts of European imperialism. And for everyone, it is a bright, beautiful, touching love letter to Africa.


And I’ll give an honorable mention to the hilarious and sad send up of Hollywood’s two-dimensional take on Africa.

Regardless of plot: you must start your film with the camera high in the sky, surveying vast rolling grasslands that stretch until they simply cannot stretch any more. Let the camera hang still over the title sequence as our eyes settle on Real Africa. No signs of a modern, technologically advanced civilisation should visually block the view of these rolling plains: no tall buildings, paved roads, or illuminated billboards advertising expensive fragrances.

Land. We should just see land.

The sun should ideally be rising…


And from there it goes and goes, and …

A book to learn from

4 stars

At times l, this book burns with a righteous anger, at others it shines with joy and humour, in still others it frustrates with a scattergun lack of focus. In those bright and angry moments, though, it's something to learn from. Great discussions of how 'Africa' has been created in Western media, and how the cultural treasures of the real Africa have been looted to museums in the rest of the world.

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rated it

5 stars