Into the House of the Ancestors: Inside the New Africa Book

Much recent popular writing about Africa has been of the "gloom and doom" variety. Karl Maier, a veteran foreign correspondent who has worked in many parts of the continent, sets out to provide a more balanced picture of "the new Africa" at the end of the millennium. He sees Africans as resilient people, who are drawing upon the traditional to meet the challenges they face. And so he introduces us to an enterprising Nigerian saleswoman in Europe, to traditional healers working against AIDS, to university professors giving young children basic education. Though well aware of the immense diversity to be found in a large continent, Maier sometimes makes generalisations that do not hold water, or does not swing the pendulum against the doomsayers far enough. But in presenting a vivid account of aspects of contemporary Africa, his book should make its readers stop to think before they accept the latest negative report about the continent. It should also encourage them to read other, even more nuanced accounts. --Christopher SaundersRead More