Season of Rains: Africa in the World - Hardcover

Ellis, Stephen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226205592 ISBN 13: 9780226205595

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2012

Synopsis

Africa is playing a more important role in world affairs than ever before. Yet the most common images of Africa in the American mind are ones of poverty, starvation, and violent conflict. But while these problems are real, that does not mean that Africa is a lost cause. Instead, as Stephen Ellis explains in "Season of Rains," we need to rethink Africa's place in time if we are to understand it in all its complexity--it is a region where growth and prosperity coexist with failed states. This engaging, accessible book by one of the world's foremost researchers on Africa captures the broad spectrum of political, economic, and social foundations that make Africa what it is today.Ellis is careful not to position himself in the futile debate between Afro-optimists and Afro-pessimists. The forty-nine diverse nations that make up sub-Saharan Africa are neither doomed to fail nor destined to succeed. As he assesses the challenges of African sovereignties, Ellis is not under the illusion that governments will suddenly become more benevolent and less corrupt. Yet, he sees great dynamism in recent technological and economic developments. The proliferation of mobile phones alone has helped to overcome previous gaps in infrastructure, African retail markets are becoming integrated, and banking is expanding. Businesses from China and emerging powers from the West are investing more than ever before in the still land-rich region, and globalization is offering possibilities of enormous economic change for the growing population of one billion Africans, actively engaged in charting the future of their continent.This highly readable survey of the continent today offers an indispensable guide to how money, power, and development are shaping Africa's future.

About this title

Review:

"An outstanding, original and provocative work. . . . The breadth of "Season of Rains" is extremely impressive. . . . its greatest strength is the way it manages to convey a sense of both continuity and change. . . . a considerable achievement."

--Daniel Branch, University of Warwick

"Stephen Ellis has produced a masterpiece. "Season of Rains" is the product of Ellis's innovative and imaginative analysis of the mainsprings of Africa's contemporary political and economic trajectories. This book takes the reader over the horizon to peek at Africa's place in a new world that is just coming into being and a clear-headed view of where it really has been. Ellis stands out as a pioneer analyst and scholar of a post-post-colonial Africa; an Africa that acts for itself in a world that cannot take this continent for granted. Ellis writes in a manner that is equally accessible to professional scholars, policy experts, and the broad learned public. In this masterful book, he provides readers with the analytical framework for understanding the game-changing developments such as the aftermath of devastating wars, collapsing bureaucracies, the emergence of dynamic economies, and the arrival of China and other countries on the African stage that are affecting Africans and the rest of the world today. It will be this book that will set the terms of debate for years to come."

--William Reno, author of Warfare in Independent Africa

"One of the most insightful and thought-provoking analyses of Africa of the last decade. Stephen Ellis mercilessly exposes the outdated preconceptions that mold outsiders' interactions with the continent and the yawning gap between what statesmen, diplomats, and aid officials would like the continent to be and what it really is. His conclusion is refreshingly upbeat."--Michela Wrong, author of It's Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblow

"This book is a lucid and brief analysis of Africa in the world. It is a subversive masterpiece, undermining stereotypes of and about Africans. Everyone interested in Africa should read it to give their assumptions an invigorating cold shower and to modify their own policies."--Sir Edward Clay, former British High Commissioner to Kenya, for the Royal Africa

"Ellis has written a timely and nuanced book on Africa in all its ambiguities and contradictions. His remarkable historical knowledge informs his acute insights into contemporary Africa, reflecting over three decades of searingly honest and perspicacious engagement with the continent. His analysis is required reading for anyone who cares about Africa and its role in the world."--Andrew Feinstein, author of After the Party

"The notion, still popular in the west, that Africa is a lost continent, somehow cut adrift from global moorings, is given short shrift in this provocative assessment, which manages to combine a deep understanding of the way in which history informs the present with an appreciation of the enormous change that globalization is bringing."

--Economist "on the UK Edition "

One of the most insightful and thought-provoking analyses of Africa of the last decade. Stephen Ellis mercilessly exposes the outdated preconceptions that mold outsiders interactions with the continent and the yawning gap between what statesmen, diplomats, and aid officials would like the continent to be and what it really is. His conclusion is refreshingly upbeat. --Michela Wrong, author of It s Our Turn to Eat: The Story of a Kenyan Whistleblow"

An outstanding, original and provocative work. . . . The breadth of "Season of Rains" is extremely impressive. . . . its greatest strength is the way it manages to convey a sense of both continuity and change. . . . a considerable achievement.
--Daniel Branch, University of Warwick"

"[Ellis] succeeds brilliantly in showing that the need to find a new way of understanding African politics is neither a merely academic question, nor a reason for the rest of the world to disengage with Africa. For while African states since the ending of empire may not be exemplars of sovereign virtue and while some may remain seemingly bottomless pits for the rich world s largesse, they are, nonetheless, integral parts of the planet s social, political, economic, and natural environment. What happens in Africa matters for everyone, not just Africans. . . .The author engages the subject from a decidedly African perspective, based on a deep knowledge and commitment to the continent and its people. --Adam Ashforth, University of Michigan"

This book is a lucid and brief analysis of Africa in the world. It is a subversive masterpiece, undermining stereotypes of and about Africans. Everyone interested in Africa should read it to give their assumptions an invigorating cold shower and to modify their own policies. --Sir Edward Clay, former British High Commissioner to Kenya, for the Royal Africa"

About the Author:

Stephen Ellis is a senior researcher at the African Studies Center in Leiden and the Desmond Tutu Professor in the social sciences at the Free University of Amsterdam.

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About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0226205592
• ISBN 13: 9780226205595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224