Perry, Alex
The Rift

A New Africa Breaks Free.

A vivid, powerful and controversial look at how the world gets Africa wrong, and how a resurgent Africa is forcing it to think again. Africa has long been misunderstood and abused by outsiders. With both empathy and skepticism, Perry observes a rapidly globalizing landscape filled with the violent turmoil, rampant corruption, and economic challenges that most readers know - but also a continent sensing the end of an epic, centuries-old quest for liberation. Beginning with a stunning investigation into a largely unreported war crime in Somalia in 2011, Perry serves as a bracing, ever-questioning guide, uncovering shocking and revealing stories that have never been told. Traveling across all forty-nine sub-Saharan countries, he meets entrepreneurs and warlords, professors and cocaine smugglers, presidents and jihadists. From the drug ports of Guinea-Bissau and the genocide crypts of Rwanda to the remaking of Lagos, Africa's biggest city, and a homestay with Barack Obama's family in western Kenya, Perry finds communities changing quickly, deeply, and unevenly - but ultimately breaking free. To finally win their freedom, Africans must confront three last false prophets-Islamists, dictators and aid workers-who would keep them in their bonds. Beautifully written, intimately reported, and sure to spark debate, 'The Rift' passionately argues that a changing Africa revolutionizes our ideas of it, and of ourselves. XIV,432 Seiten und 16 Farbtafeln, gebunden (Little, Brown and Company 2015) textsauber, mit leichten Gebrauchsspuren, schwarzer Filzstiftfleck auf Kopfschnitt/clean text pages, minor traces of use, black felt-tip pen spot on cut