Martin Meredith

Fifty years ago, as Europe's colonial powers withdrew, Africa moved with enormous hope and fervor toward democracy and economic independence. Dozens of new states were launched amid much jubilation and the world's applause. African leaders, popularly elected, stepped forward to tackle the problems of development and nation-building. In the Cold War era, the new states excited the attention of the superpowers. Africa was considered too valuable a prize to lose. Today, Africa is a continent rife with disease, death, and devastation. Most African countries are effectively bankrupt, prone to civil strife, subject to dictatorial rule, and dependent on Western assistance for survival. The sum of Africa's misfortunes — its wars, its despotisms, its corruption, its droughts — is truly daunting. What went wrong? What happened to this vast continent, so rich in resources, culture and history, to bring it so close to destitution and despair in the space of two generations? Focusing on the key personalities, events and themes of the independence era, Martin Meredith's riveting narrative history seeks to explore and explain the myriad problems that Africa has faced in the past half-century, and faces still. From the giddy enthusiasm of the 1960s to the "coming of tyrants" and rapid decline, The Fate of Africa is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand how it came to this — and what, if anything, is to be done.

A History of Fifty Years of Independence

The Fate of Africa

Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced first upon the world's richest deposits of diamonds, and then upon its richest deposits of gold. What followed was a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land, culminating in the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and in the devastation of the Boer republics. Martin Meredith's magisterial account of those years portrays the great wealth and raw power, the deceit, corruption, and racism that lay behind Britain's empire-building in southern Africa. Based on significant new research and filled with atmospheric detail, it focuses on the fascinating rivalry between diamond titan Cecil Rhodes and Paul Kruger, the Boer leader whose only education was the Bible, who believed the earth was flat, yet who defied Britain's prime ministers and generals for nearly a quarter of a century. Diamonds, Gold and War makes palpable the cost of western greed to Africa's native peoples, and explains the rise of the virulent Afrikaner nationalism that eventually took hold in South Africa, with repercussions lasting nearly a century.

The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa

Diamonds, Gold and War

a history of fifty years of independence

The state of Africa

Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. After a century of investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. But vital clues still remain hidden. In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies as well as their feats of skill and endurance. The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than twenty species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans. They have revealed how early technology, language ability, and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa; and they have shown how small groups of Africans spread out from Africa in an exodus sixty thousand years ago to populate the rest of the world. We have all inherited an African past.

The Quest for the Origins of Human Life

Born in Africa

A portrait of a man who has inspired millions around the world with his experiences in both prison and the presidency of South Africa

A Biography

Nelson Mandela

Biography of an Endangered Species in Africa

Elephant Destiny

In this vast and vivid panorama of history, Martin Meredith, bestselling author of The State of Africa, follows the fortunes of Africa over a period of 5,000 years. With compelling narrative, he traces the rise and fall of ancient kingdoms and empires; the spread of Christianity and Islam; the enduring quest for gold and other riches; the exploits of explorers and missionaries; and the impact of European colonisation. He examines, too, the fate of modern African states and concludes with a glimpse into their future. This is history on an epic scale.

A 5,000 Year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavour

Fortunes of Africa

Power, Plunder and the Struggle for Zimbabwe

Mugabe

Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980 after a long civil war in Rhodesia. The white minority government had become an international outcast in refusing to give in to the inevitability of black majority rule. Finally the defiant white prime minister Ian Smith was forced to step down and Mugabe was elected president. Initially he promised reconciliation between white and blacks, encouraged Zimbabwe's economic and social development, and was admired throughout the world as one of the leaders of the emerging nations and as a model for a transition from colonial leadership. But as Martin Meredith shows in this history of Mugabe's rule, Mugabe from the beginning was sacrificing his purported ideals—and Zimbabwe's potential—to the goal of extending and cementing his autocratic leadership. Over time, Mugabe has become ever more dictatorial, and seemingly less and less interested in the welfare of his people, treating Zimbabwe's wealth and resources as spoils of war for his inner circle. In recent years he has unleashed a reign of terror and corruption in his country. Like the Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, Zimbabwe has been on a steady slide to disaster. Now for the first time the whole story is told in detail by an expert. It is a riveting and tragic political story, a morality tale, and an essential text for understanding today's Africa.

Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe's Future

"Today Zimbabwe is a country beset by violence and lawlessness, regarded by the international community as a pariah state. Its economy is in tatters. Determined to stay in power, Mugabe has used armed gangs to crush political opposition, subverted the rule of law, undermined the judiciary, harassed the independent press and vilified the small white community."--BOOK JACKET.

Mugabe Power And Plunder In Zimbabwe

Martin Meredith pieces together the riveting and tragic political story of what happened to Zimbabwe and to a leader who once represented one of the world's best hopes for democratic Africa.

Power, Plunder and Tyranny in Zimbabwe

Robert Mugabe

Martin Meredith documents the remarkable life of Bram Fischer in his biography Fischer's Choice. Fischer was born into an aristocratic Afrikaans family but became one of South Africa's leading revolutionaries. Regarded in his youth as having a brilliant career ahead of him, he rebelled not only against the apartheid system but also against his own Afrikaner people. As a defence lawyer, Fischer managed to save Mandela from the death penalty demanded by state prosecutors for his sabotage activities. He played a remarkable role in the underground movement aimed at overthrowing the government. To the very last, even when all the other conspirators had been arrested or fled into exile, Fischer held out, sought for months by the security police. His single-handed efforts ended inevitably in failure. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he was cast into solitary confinement, the government continued to regard him as a potentially dangerous influence even when he was dying of cancer, refusing all appeals to release him until the last few weeks of his life. Set against the dramatic background of two massive historical struggles, one by the Afrikaans, the other by the Africans, Fischer's life contains all the ingredients of a political thriller.

The Life of Bram Fischer

Fischer's Choice

A Life of Bram Fischer

This book describes the main political events in Zimbabwe during 1965-80 and provides background information on the causes of the mass exodus of Zimbabwean refugees during that period. After a brief historical review, the background to Rhodesia's 'Unilateral Declaration of Independence' (UDI) is given. The book focuses on the numerous international negociations which attempted to achieve majority rule in the country: the Tiger Talks (1966); the Fearless Talks (1968); the Pearce Commission (1972); the Kissinger Proposals (1976); the Geneva Conference (1976); the Anglo-American Initiative (1977); the Salisbury Agreement (1978) which lead to the establishment of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia'; and the Lancaster House Conference (1979). It concludes with the 1980 elections and the victory of Robert Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU). The growth, major personalities and policies of the liberation movements are also described.

Rhodesia 1890-1979

The Past is Another Country

钻石、黄金与战争：英国人、布尔人和南非的诞生

Furnishes a vivid history of the tumultuous period leading up to the 1910 founding of the modern state of South Africa, exploring how the discovery of vast diamond and gold deposits led to a fierce struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the region, as well as the repercussions of the conflict in terms of both sides, as well as for Africa's native peoples.

Diamonds, Gold, and War

A biography of the noted South Africa leader traces his life, his role in the resistance to apartheid, his long imprisonment, and his presidency, and attempts to separate the man from the myth.

Mandela

Nelson Mandela stands out as one of the most admired political figures of the twentieth century. It was his leadership and moral courage above all that helped to deliver a peaceful end to apartheid in South Africa after years of racial division and violence and to establish a fledgling democracy there.

Presents a narrative of the last fifty years of African history, analyzing the factors which account for the political chaos, financial troubles, and civil wars which prevail in many African countries today.

Martin Meredith

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