Adéwálé Májà-Pearce – författare

In this groundbreaking work, the essayist and critic Adewale Maja-Pearce delivers a mordant verdict on Nigeria's crisis of democracy. A mosaic of ethnic and religious groups, the most populous country in Africa was fabricated by British colonizers at the turn of the twentieth century. In the years since its independence in 1960, Nigeria spent an unbroken quarter century as a military dictatorship. Yet the blessings of today's democracy are unclear to many, especially among the more than half of the population living in extreme poverty. Buffeted by unemployment, saddled with debt, menaced by bandits and Islamic fundamentalists, Nigeria faces the threat of disintegration.Maja-Pearce shows that recent mobilizations against police brutality, sexism, and homophobia reveal a powerful undercurrent of discontent, especially among the country's youth. If Nigeria has a future, he shows here, it is in the hands of young people unwilling to go on as before.

An acclaimed British-Nigerian writer's odyssey through West Africa, starkly transformed since his youth.West Africa is at a crossroads. Boasting tremendous natural wealth, its inhabitants are among the world's poorest. Despite apparent multi-party democracy, there have been coups, conflict and corruption since independence. Where can it go from here?Journeying along the coast and across the Sahel, from Ghana to Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone to Senegal, Adéwálé Májà-Pearce uncovers a restless region on the verge of great change. Visiting fourteen countries--and seeking out the Nigerian diaspora in each--he reflects on these societies' dramatic shifts since the late 1980s, when he first travelled their roads. Refusing IMF loans and rejecting Western-imposed currencies, West Africa's diverse, expanding and overwhelmingly young population is staging a quiet revolution for its future, and discarding an aging elite still propped up by European power--from demonstrations against police brutality to theforced withdrawal of French troops.Speaking with local journalists and dissident scholars, street hawkers and immigration officers, Májà-Pearce brings to life the compelling story of a region at breaking point--as told by West Africans themselves.