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24 August 2023 - Éauze
Dipo Faloyin's Africa is not a Country feels like it needs an exclamation point in the title. The subtitle, Breaking Stereotypes of Modern Africa is only slightly less polemic sounding. To say that Faloyin writes with a chip on his shoulder is an understatement. He's of Nigerian heritage but spent time in the States and now lives in London. His own personal story is woven throughout, from the beginning of the narrative in Lagos to the end where there are impassioned arguments about the recipe of a West African regional dish, Jollof. Along the way he reviews the history of the Scramble for Africa by European powers to decolonialisation to dictatorships. And professes his love for two fake African countries created in America: Zamunda & Wakanda. Actually it's interesting that, even though there's a chapter decrying the "White Saviour", America is generally not the target of his wrath. Europe is. In fact Faloyin has little to say about the slave trade and much else before the Scramble at the end of the 19th century. The African diaspora in America (and to be clear I mean all the countries north and south) is just a culturally enriching part of our social fabric that is all too often neglected by the countries they came from. Faloyin doesn't shy away from detailing the terrible things 20th century dictators did on the continent, so it's suprising that he doesn't delve into the history of the nations that rounded up people and then sold them to Europeans and then Americans to ship overseas. But so much of his narrative turns on the arbitrary borders set in the Scramble, so I suppose it makes sense to start there. Definitely a book worth picking up!
