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Africa Is Not a Country: Notes on a Bright Continent
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60/99
Critics
91/99
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Scholars
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66/99
Volume
92/99
Rating
90/99
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About This Book
Africa Is Not A Country is a bright portrait of modern Africa that pushes back against harmful stereotypes to tell a more comprehensive story. You already know these stereotypes. So often Africa is depicted simplistically as an arid red landscape of famines and safaris, uniquely plagued by poverty and strife. In this funny and insightful book, Dipo Faloyin offers a much-needed corrective. He examines each country's colonial heritage, and explores a wide range of subjects, from chronicling urban life in Lagos and the lively West African rivalry over who makes the best Jollof rice, to the story of democracy in seven dictatorships and the dangers of stereotypes in popular culture. By turns intimate and political, Africa Is Not A Country brings the story of the continent towards reality, celebrating the energy and fabric of its different cultures and communities in a way that has never been done before.
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Reviews
"It brims with the sort of outrage that speaks of hope, of change."
"A chapter dedicated to Lagos is a moving, vibrant love letter to a city and its people, while a lyrical analysis of the 'Jollof Wars' will leave readers laughing and daydreaming of the 'sweet, spicy, triumphantly orange and irrationally delicious rice dish' that every West African country claims to make best."
"It's a well-worn path ..."
"The chief flaw of the book is exactly the one it's titled for: that Africa is not a country and one manuscript can never be anything but superficial when criss-crossing a continent."
"Flashes of joy and humor enliven the proceedings."
"A trenchant study demolishes stereotypes about Africans as a product of colonial history ..."
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