His Master's Voice refutes the simplistic pattern of condescending criticism versus a complacent justification which often transpires from the debate on post-colonial Africa's general departure from political pluralism toward autocracy under single-party regimes. Hence, it places the debate in the historical context of statecraft and nation-building, whereby the line between pre-colonial heritage, colonial legacy and post-colonial innovations - against all appearances - has chiefly been a thin one.