then The State of Africa is definitely one to pick up.

I've just finished reading it - took me two months because there's just far too much horror to read all at once. But the book is fascinating.

Meredith gives a brief overview of the Scramble for Africa and the colonial era before taking a chronological journey through the first 50 years of African independence. There's little analysis of who was to blame, or what went wrong. The book is basically a catalogue of facts - what happened when.

I studied Africa's post-colonial era at university, but only looked in depth at the Sudan and the Belgian Congo, so I wasn't entirely prepared to read about the same violence and corruption in almost every single African country. It was certainly eye opening.

I absolutely recommend it as a starting point for understanding Africa today, and suggest that people on both sides of the aid debate read it. It will probably make you think, and thinking is always good.

Thanks to whoever it was last year who said I should read it! <3