''This book will rightfully head many a reading list...''C.Allen, British Book News Power in Africa casts a fresh look at contemporary Black African politics. It reviews the merits and failings of existing interpretations of Africa''s post-colonial society and offers a new approach to its understanding. It has two main aims. First, to present a comparative conceptual framework which places Africa''s politics within its appropriate historical context. Second, to offer an explanation of what is actually happening in Africa - beyond the clichs of a dark continent perennially in crisis.

''This book will rightfully head many a reading list...''C.Allen, British Book News Power in Africa casts a fresh look at contemporary Black African politics. It reviews the merits and failings of existing interpretations of Africa''s post-colonial society and offers a new approach to its understanding. It has two main aims. First, to present a comparative conceptual framework which places Africa''s politics within its appropriate historical context. Second, to offer an explanation of what is actually happening in Africa - beyond the clichs of a dark continent perennially in crisis.

''This book will rightfully head many a reading list...''C.Allen, British Book News Power in Africa casts a fresh look at contemporary Black African politics. It reviews the merits and failings of existing interpretations of Africa''s post-colonial society and offers a new approach to its understanding. It has two main aims. First, to present a comparative conceptual framework which places Africa''s politics within its appropriate historical context. Second, to offer an explanation of what is actually happening in Africa - beyond the clichs of a dark continent perennially in crisis.