He went to the combat zone with FRELIMO guerrilla fighters in Mozambique many times and also covered the Angolan civil war for BBC and for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation).

He knew and worked closely with all the leaders of the liberation movements including Robert Mugabe, Dr. Eduardo Mondlane, president of FRELIMO, who was assassinated in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in February 1969; and Mondlane's successor Samora Machel who died in a mysterious plane crash in 1986 when he was president of Mozambique.

The plane crashed on the South African side of the border with Mozambique and the apartheid regime was suspected of having caused the "accident." He was succeeded by Mozambique's foreign affairs minister, Joaquim Chissano, as president.

David Martin was also very close to many Tanzanian leaders including President Julius Nyerere, and President Benjamin Mkapa who was also his close friend for many years since the sixties when they worked together in the media.

He also interviewed President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia many times during the liberation struggle when many freedom fighters were based in that country and used it as an operational base as they did Tanzania.

He wrote more than 20 books. He died at his home in Harare, Zimbabwe, in August 2007, where he went to live after Zimbabwe won independence in April 1980.

President Mugabe delivered an official condolence message and David Martin was accorded a state-assisted funeral in recognition of his works exposing apartheid South Africa's destabalisation campaign in neighbouring countries, racial brutalities and injustices under white minority regimes throughout Southern Africa and for his outstanding role as a champion of racial equality.

The report of his death which included President Robert Mugabe's long message of condolence on behalf of the government and the ruling party ZANU-PF was published in the Zimbabwean government-owned newspaper, The Herald, 22 August 2007, and was headlined, "President Mourns David Martin."

Another report on David Martin's contributions as a journalist when he reported extensively on the liberation struggle in Southern Africa, and on his support for regional integration of the countries in that part of the continent after the end of white minority rule, was published in the same paper on August 24th and headlined, "Martin - Man of Many Talents."

He was buried in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe. Mozambican President Armando Guebuza and former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa were some of the African leaders who sent condolence messages.

Zimbabwean government leaders including cabinet members, Tanzanian officials, war veterans who fought for Zimbabwe's independence during the liberation struggle in the sixties and seventies, and diplomats, attended the funeral, according to The Herald, Harare, Zimbabwe, 25 August 2007, in a report headlined, "Martin Laid to Rest."

David Martin often said he credited his education to the 10 years he spent working as a journalist in Tanzania and was inspired by President Nyerere and by the liberation leaders and movements based there. He interviewed many of those leaders many times during the liberation struggle and thereafter.

In his book Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, Godfrey Mwakikagile has written about David Martin and the role he played as a journalist during the liberation struggle in Southern Africa. But David Martin was also instrumental in opening the door for Godfrey Mwakikagile into the world of journalism, writing everyday, after which both became successful writers.

As Godfrey Mwakikagile himself has stated in his books including Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, Africa after Independence: Realities of Nationhood, The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation, Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties and in Africa is in A Mess and others, his background as a news reporter which included meeting deadlines when writing news articles prepared him for the rigorous task of writing books.

Criticism of post-colonial Africa

Godfrey Mwakikagile lived and grew up under the leadership of Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, a legendary figure, liberation icon and staunch Pan-Africanist and one of the most influential and most respected leaders Africa has ever produced, whose socialist policies he has also defended in his writings because of the egalitarian ideals they instilled in the people of Tanzania enabling them to form a peaceful, cohesive nation in which they saw themselves as one people and equal in terms of rights and dignity as fellow human beings in spite of the poverty they endured under ujamaa, Nyerere's African version of socialism.

Yet, in spite of his admiration for liberation icons, he also is highly critical of African leaders from the same generation who led their countries to independence, contending that most of them did not care about the well-being of their people; a position he forcefully articulates in his writings¹¹.

He sometimes seems to be a contradictory character, or simply difficult to understand, but he is actually torn between two worlds because of the generation to which he belongs, having been born before independence and partly brought up under colonial rule. He even wrote a book, Life in Tanganyika in The Fifties, about those years.

One of his critics has described him as a shrewd intellectual in defence of liberation icons and accuses him of not being intellectually honest about leaders such as Nyerere and Nkrumah for not criticising them harshly for their failures¹².

In a way, some people may see him as a complex character not always easy to understand, although he articulates his position clearly and forcefully.

Some of the confusion among his readers about his position on African leaders of the independence generation has to do with his own background since he was an integral part of that generation in the sense that he witnessed the end of colonial rule and the emergence of the newly independent African states although he was not old enough to have participated in the independence struggle himself¹³.

He admires the leaders who led their countries to independence, yet he is highly critical of them in most cases for their failures during the post-colonial period. He admires many aspects of Nyerere's socialist policies in Tanzania, yet concedes the policies were also a failure in many cases. And he strongly favours fundamental change in African countries, yet he is nostalgic about the past¹⁴.

His advocacy for fundamental change is articulated in many of his writings including The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation, which was published in 2001 and which is also one of his most well-known books.

In his review of the book, Ronald Taylor-Lewis, a Sierra Leonean and editor of Mano Vision magazine, London, described it as a masterpiece of fact and analysis¹⁵.

The book has also been reviewed in other publications. Tana Worku Anglana reviewed Godfrey Mwakikagile's Modern African State: Quest for Transformation in Articolo and described it as unbiased literature¹⁶.

Other people have also cited the book in their different analyses of the African condition. They include Dr. Elavie Ndura, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, USA, who used Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation, among other works, in supporting her central thesis in her study, "Transcending The Majority Rights and Minority Protection Dichotomy Through Multicultural Reflective Citizenship in The African Great Lakes Region," in Intercultural Education, Vol. 17, No. 2, published by Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, in May 2006.

Professor Elavie Ndura, a Hutu from Burundi where her family experienced genocide, has taught for many years at a number of schools in the United States, including the University of Nevada-Reno and George Mason University. Ethnic conflicts in Rwanda and Burundi between the Hutu and the Tutsi is one of the subjects Godfrey Mwakikagile has addressed extensively in his book, The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation.

In many of his writings, Godfrey Mwakikagile focuses on internal factors – including corruption, tribalism and tyranny by African leaders – as the main cause of Africa's predicament, but not to the total exclusion of external forces.

And the position he articulates in his writings on many issues is cited by other people to support their arguments in their works. One of the works in which Godfrey Mwakikagile is cited and quoted is a compiled study by Professor Robert H. Bates, When Things Fell Apart: State Failure in Late-Century Africa: Cambridge Studies in Comparative Politics, published by Cambridge University Press in February 2008.

Godfrey Mwakikagile is also quoted by Professors Robert Elgie and Sophie Moestrup in their book, Semi-Presidentialism Outside Europe: A Comparative Study - Routledge Research in Comparative Politics, Routledge, 2007; Mueni wa Muiu and Guy Martin in A New Paradigm of the African State: Fundi wa Afrika, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; Minabere Ibelema, The African Press, Civic Cynicism, and Democracy - The PalgraveMacmillan Series in International Political Communication, Palgrave Macmillan, 2007; James Crawford and Vaughan Lowe in British Yearbook of International Law 2005: Volume 76, Oxford University Press, 2007, and in other works.

Godfrey Mwakikagile's books have been used by many other scholars in different analytical contexts in a number of countries in the Third World and in industrialised nations.

And his diagnosis of – and prescription for – Africa's ailments has also been cited by scholars and other people for its relevance in other parts of the Third World. As Dr. Hengene Payani, a political scientist at the University of Papua New Guinea in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, stated in his review of Godfrey Mwakikagile's book Africa is in A Mess on amazon.com, the book is excellent, honest and thought-provoking and is relevant even in the context of Papua New Guinea, a country which has been ruined by greedy politicians. He also contacted Godfrey Mwakikagile to congratulate him for his work.

Although he has written mostly about Africa, and as a political scientist or as a political analyst, his works cover a wide range of scholarship including American studies.

One of Godfrey Mwakikagile's books, Black Conservatives in The United States, has been cited by Christopher Alan Bracey, a professor of law and African-American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, in support of his research when he also wrote a book about black conservatives entitled Saviors or Sellouts: The Promise and Peril of Black Conservatism, from Booker T. Washington to Condoleezza Rice, published in February 2008.

But there are limitations to the role played by people like Godfrey Mwakikagile in their quest for fundamental change in African countries. Their contribution is limited in one fundamental respect: They are not actively involved with the masses at the grassroots level precisely because of what they are. They belong to an elite class, and the concepts they expound as well as the solutions they propose are discussed mainly by fellow elites but rarely implemented.

This should not be misconstrued as unwarranted criticism of Godfrey Mwakikagile's writings or the role he plays in the quest for fundamental change in Africa. It is mere acknowledgement of the limitations he faces in his attempt to accomplish this task in conjunction with his brethren across the continent.

Still, there is no question that in many cases, only a few members of the African elite have played and continue to play the role of intellectual activists like Dr. Walter Rodney who wrote his best-selling book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa in the early 1970s when he was teaching at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania; coincidentally during the same period when Godfrey Mwakikagile was a member of the editorial staff at the Daily News in Tanzania's capital Dar es Salaam.

Before he went to Tanzania, Dr. Walter Rodney was actively involved with the masses when he taught at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, in Jamaica in the late sixties. He was also expelled from Jamaica by the government because of his political and intellectual activism and went to Tanzania in 1968 to teach at the University of Dar es Salaam in a country where his views and his role as an activist intellectual found acceptance under the leadership of President Julius Nyerere who was a superb intellectual himself and who was acknowledged as one even by some of his critics such as Kenyan Professor Ali Mazrui.

In his book On Heroes and Uhuru-Worship: Essays on Independent Africa and in his other writings, Professor Mazrui has described Nyerere as the most original thinker among all the leaders in Anglophone Africa, and Senegalese President Leopold Sedar Senghor in Francophone Africa. Mazrui has also described Nyerere as the most intellectual of the East African presidents, an attribute which enabled Walter Rodney to thrive in Tanzania as an intellectual activist.

After Rodney left Tanzania in 1974 and returned to Guyana, he continued to be actively involved with the workers at the grassroots level until he was assassinated in June 1980 by a government agent when Guyana was under the leadership of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham.

Most African intellectuals don't do that. They don't work with the masses at the grassroots level. And that severely limits their role as agents of dynamic and fundamental change in Africa.

African writers like Godfrey Mwakikagile and other intellectuals are also severely compromised in their mission because most African leaders don't want to change. Therefore they don't listen to them – in many cases the entire state apparatus needs to be dismantled to bring about meaningful change.

But, in spite of their limitations and the obstacles they face, many African writers and other intellectuals still play a very important role in articulating a clear vision for the future of Africa. And Godfrey Mwakikagile's writings definitely fit this category because of his analysis of the African condition and the solutions he proposes, although he is not a political activist like other African writers such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o in neighbouring Kenya or Wole Soyinka in Nigeria.

But even they – had to flee their homelands, at different times, for their own safety, in spite of the courage they had to contend with the political establishment in their home countries, and sought sanctuary overseas although that has not been the case with Godfrey Mwakikagile and many other Africans who once lived, have lived or continue to live in other countries or outside Africa for different reasons.

Writers like Godfrey Mwakikagile and other members of the African elite have a major role to play in the development of Africa. They do have an impact on constructive dialogue involving national issues. But it is not the kind of impact that reverberates across the spectrum all the way down to the grassroots level precisely because they are not an integral part of the masses, and also because they are not actively involved with the masses to transform society.

So, while they generate ideas, they have not been able to effectively transmit those ideas to the masses without whose involvement fundamental change in Africa is impossible, except at the top, recycling the elite. And while they identify with the masses in terms of suffering and as fellow Africans, many of themm – not all but many of them – have not and still don't make enough sacrifices in their quest for social and political transformation of African countries. And Godfrey Mwakikagile is fully aware of these shortcomings, and apparent contradictions, in the role played by the African elite. He's one himself.

Yet, he has not explicitly stated so in his writings concerning this problem of African intellectuals; a dilemma similar to the one faced by the black intelligentsia in the United States and which was addressed by Harold Cruse, an internationally renowned black American professor who taught at the University of Michigan for many years, in his monumental study, The Crisis of The Negro Intellectual. The book was first published in 1967 at the peak of the civil rights movement, five years before Godfrey Mwakikagile went to the United States for the first time as a student.

But that does not really explain why Godfrey Mwakikagile has not fully addressed the subject, the dilemma African intellectuals face in their quest for fundamental change, especially in his books – The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation, Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Done, and Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood – which are almost exclusively devoted to such transformation in Africa in the post-colonial era.

African leaders have failed Africa. But African intellectuals themselves have not done enough to help transform Africa into a better society.

Still, Godfrey Mwakikagile belongs to a group of African writers and the African elite who believe that the primary responsibility of transforming Africa lies in the hands of the Africans themselves, and not foreigners, and that acknowledgement of mistakes by African leaders is one of the first steps towards bringing about much-needed change in African countries; a position he forcefully articulates in his writings. For example, Political Science Professor Claude E. Welch at the State University of New York-Buffalo, in his review of one of Godfrey Mwakikagile's books – Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties – published in the African Studies Review (Vol. 45, No. 3, December 2002) described the author as being merciless in his condemnation of African tyrants.

The same book was also cited by J.C. Owens of the University of Virginia in his article, "Government Failure in Sub-Saharan Africa: The International Community's Response," in the Virginia Journal of International Law, 2002. He used Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties, among other works, to document the failure of leadership in many African countries in the post-colonial era.

And that is valid criticism of African leadership in post-colonial Africa by Godfrey Mwakikagile. Corrupt and despotic rulers don't deserve mercy. They don't deserve sympathy. They are not entitled to it. They have destroyed Africa.

Controversy

In what is probably his most controversial book, Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done, he strongly criticises most of the leaders of post-colonial Africa for tyranny and corruption, and for practising tribalism, a common theme in the works of many African writers and other people including well-known ones and many African scholars in and outside Africa. But Godfrey Mwakikagile's book stands out as one of the most blunt ever written about Africa's rotten leadership.

Unfortunately, because of its vitriolic condemnation of most African leaders during the post-colonial era, the book has been cited by some people, who obviously have not read it well if at all, as a clarion call for the re-colonisation of Africa (because things are so bad, colonial rule was better) although the author says exactly the opposite in his work¹⁷.

One of the people he has quoted in his book articulating a similar position is Moeletsi Mbeki, the younger brother of South African President Thabo Mbeki and head of the South African Institute of International Affairs, who said in September 2004 that Africans were better off under colonial rule than they are today under African leadership in the post-colonial period.

Mbeki also said African leaders and bureaucrats are busy stealing money and keeping it in foreign countries while colonial rulers built and maintained the infrastructure and ran their African colonies efficiently. He was quoted by BBC Africa in a report, on what he said, entitled "Better Colonial Times" published on 22 September 2004.

Yet in spite of all that, Godfrey Mwakikagile unequivocally states in his book, Africa is in A Mess, that he does not support any attempt or scheme, by anybody, to recolonise Africa, but also bluntly states that African countries have lost their sovereignty to donor nations and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) dominated by Western powers including those who once colonised Africa and are therefore virtual colonies already.

He also contends that African countries have really never been free in spite of the instruments of sovereignty they are supposed to have. And in one of his books, Investment Opportunities and Private Sector Growth in Africa, he warns about the dangers of the Second Scramble for Africa by the industrialised nations which are busy exploiting Africa's resources for their own benefit and contends that globalisation is in many ways a new form of imperialism.

Yet he has wrongly been portrayed, along with some prominent African and European scholars including Professor Ali Mazrui, Christoph Blocher, Mahmood Mamdani, Peter Niggli, and R. W. Johnson as someone who advocates the recolonisation of Africa¹⁸.

Godfrey Mwakikagile says exactly the opposite in his book Africa is in A Mess.

In fact, the title, although not the sub-title, comes from President Julius Nyerere who said exactly the same words back in 1985: "Africa is in a mess."

Godfrey Mwakikagile explicitly states that in his book, saying he got the title from Nyerere's statement and felt it was appropriate for his work, although the tone and content might be disturbing to some people. He is brutally frank about the continent's deplorable condition.

But the book echoes the sentiments of tens of millions of Africans across the continent who live in misery and those who are frustrated by lack of fundamental change in African leadership notorious for corruption and other vices including tribalism and tyranny as Godfrey Mwakikagile bluntly states in his work.

His fellow Africans who have reviewed the book on amazon.com and elsewhere in different publications and on the Internet strongly support the author and share his concerns about Africa's plight and the misguided leadership the continent has had to endure for decades since independence¹⁹.

One African reviewer, Mona Kabba, a member of Sierra Leonean President Ahmed Tejan Kabba's family, also contacted the author to congratulate him for writing such an honest book, as she stated in her review of the book on amazon.com. And she provided an additional perspective, as an insider, that shed more light on Africa's predicament in her review of Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, Africa is in A Mess, and said she was going to work with him on a joint project about Africa.

And in the same book, Africa is in A Mess, Godfrey Mwakikagile is also highly critical of Western powers for ruthlessly exploiting Africa even today in collusion with many African leaders.

Academic Reviews

Godfrey Mwakikagile's books have also been reviewed in a number of academic publications, including the highly prestigious academic journal, African Studies Review, by leading scholars in their fields. They include Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties which was reviewed in that journal by Professor Claude E. Welch of the Department of Political Science at the State University of New York, Buffalo; and Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria reviewed by Nigerian Professor Khadijat K. Rashid of Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.²⁰.

His other books have also been reviewed in the African Studies Review and in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies. They include Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era and The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation which were reviewed in the African Studies Review; and Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era which was also reviewed in the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.

See also an analysis of Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria, in A. Simpson and B. Akintunde Oyetade, "Nigeria: Ethno-linguistic Competition in the Giant of Africa," published in Language and National Identity in Africa, Oxford University Press, 2007, pp. 172 - 198; and Godfrey Mwakikagile's Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties in P.J. McGowan, "Coups and Conflict in West Africa, 1955 - 2004: Part II, Empirical Findings," in Armed Forces & Society, Sage Publications, in 2006.

For more reviews of his books, see also Expo Times, Sierra Leone; The Mirror, Zimbabwe, and other publications including those featured on the Internet²¹.

He has also written about race relations in the United States and relations between continental Africans and people of African descent in the diaspora. His titles in these areas include Black Conservatives in The United States; Relations Between Africans and African Americans; and Relations Between Africans, African Americans and Afro-Caribbeans.

Godfrey Mwakikagile's books are found in public and university libraries around the world and have been adopted for class use at many colleges and universities in the United States and other countries. Most college and university libraries in the United States have his books.

Bibliography

Titles by Godfrey Mwakikagile:

• Economic Development in Africa, 1999

• Africa and The West, 2000

• The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation, 2001

• Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties, 2001

• Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria, 2001

• Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, 2002

• Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done, 2004

• Tanzania under Mwalimu Nyerere: Reflections on an African Statesman, 2004

• Black Conservatives: Are They Right or Wrong?, 2004

• Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era: Expanded Edition with Photos, 2005

• Relations Between Africans and African Americans: Misconceptions, Myths and Realities, 2005

• Life in Tanganyika in The Fifties: My Reflections and Narratives from The White Settler Community and Others, 2006

• African Countries: An Introduction, 2006

• Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood, 2006

• Life under Nyerere, 2006

• Black Conservatives in The United States, 2006

• Africa and America in The Sixties: A Decade That Changed The Nation and The Destiny of A Continent, 2006

• Relations Between Africans, American Americans and Afro-Caribbeans: Tensions, Indifference and Harmony, 2007

• Investment Opportunities and Private Sector Growth in Africa, 2007

• Kenya: Identity of A Nation, 2007.

• South Africa in Contemporary Times, 2008.

• South Africa and Its People,2008

• African Immigrants in South Africa, 2008

• The Union of Tanganyika and Zanzibar: Product of The Cold War?, 2008

References

"Tanzanian writer: Godfrey Mwakikagile" web site.

1. Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, "Nyerere's Vision," in West Africa, 25th November - 1st December 2002, p. 41.

2. Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala, "Nyerere: True pan-Africanist, advocate of unity," in "Three Years After Mwalimu Nyerere, " in the Daily News, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Monday, October 14, 2002, p. 19.

3. Godfrey Mwakikagile quoted by South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka in "Address Delivered by the Deputy President, Ms. Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka at the Third Annual Julius Nyerere Memorial Lecture at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa." Issued by the Presidency through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Pretoria, South Africa, 6 September 2006.

4. Kofi Akosah-Sarpong, "Back to The Roots," in West Africa, 21st - 27th January 2002, p. 43.

5. Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa and The West, pp. 23 - 24. See also pp. 1 - 46, and 201 - 218.

6. Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era. For Godfrey Mwakikagile's Pan-Africanist views and perspectives, see also Professor Eric Edi of Temple University, in his paper, "Pan-West Africanism and Political Instability: Perspectives and Reflections," in which he cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's books, Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties and The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation.

7. Reviews of his book, Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era on amazon.com.

8. Godfrey Mwakikagile, Nyerere and Africa: End of Era; and Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood.

9. Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood, pp. 156 - 163.

10. Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done, and Africa After Independence: Realities of Nationhood.

11. Kwesi Johnson-Taylor in his review of Godfrey Mwakikagile's book, Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era, on amazon.com, February 21, 2006.

12. Biography on the web site, "Tanzanian Writer: Godfrey Mwakikagile."

13. Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa is in A Mess, Africa and The West, and Life in Tanganyika in The Fifties.

14. Ronald Taylor-Lewis, in his review of Godfrey Mwakikagile, The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation, in Mano Vision London, Issue 23, October 2001, pp. 34 - 35. See also Professor Catherine S.M. Duggan, Department of Political Science, Stanford University, in her paper, "Do Different Coups Have Different Implications for Investment? Some Intuitions and A Test With A New Set of Data," in which she cites Godfrey Mwakikagile on fundamental changes in African countries. See also Godfrey Mwakikagile, cited in Christopher E. Miller, A Glossary of Terms and Concepts in Peace and Conflict Studies, p. 87; and in Gabi Hesselbein, Frederick Golooba-Mutebi, and James Putzel, "Economic and Political Foundations of State-Making in Africa: Understanding State Reconstruction," Working Paper No. 3, 2006.

15. Articolo: http:// www.africansocieties.org/n1/paginaarticolo2.htm.

16. Dr. Kenday Samuel Kamara of Walden University in his abstract, "Considering the Enormity of Africa's Problems, is Re-Colonization an Option?" in which he cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's Africa is in A Mess and related works by other African leading academic authors including Professor Ali Mazrui, and Professor George Ayittey's Africa in Chaos. See Mwakikagile's book on the subject, Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done. See also Tunde Obadina, "The Myth of Neo-Colonialism," in Africa Economic Analysis, 2000; and Timothy Murithi, in his book, The African Union: Pan-Africanism, Peacebuilding and Development.

17. Hobbit, in "Gaire: Africa Re-Colonized," 28 March 2007.

18. Professor Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni, a Zimbambwean teaching international studies at Monash University, South Afica campus, in his abstract, "Gods of Development, Demons of Underdevelopment and Western Salvation: A Critique of Development Discourse as a Sequel to the CODESRIA and OSSREA International Conferences on Development in Africa," June 2006. Professor Ndlovu-Gatsheni advances the same argument Godfrey Mwakikagile does and cites Mwakikagile's work, Africa is in A Mess, to support his thesis. See also Floyd Shivambu, "Floyd's Perspectives: Societal Tribalism in South Africa," September 1, 2005, who cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria, in his condemnation of tribalism in post-apartheid South Africa; Mary Elizabeth Flournoy of Agnes Scott College, in her paper, "Nigeria: Bounded by Ropes of Oil," citing Godfrey Mwakikagile's writings including Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria; Professor Eric Edi of Temple University, in his paper, "Pan West Africanism and Political Instability: Perspectives and Reflections," in which he cites Godfrey Mwakikagile's books, Military Coups in West Africa Since The Sixties and The Modern African State: Quest for Transformation.

19. Professor Claude E. Welch, Jr., in African Studies Review," Vol. 45, No. 3, December 2002, pp. 124 - 125); and Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria, reviewed by Nigerian Professor Khadijat K. Rashid of Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. in African Studies Review, Vol. 46, No. 2, September 2003, pp. 92 - 98).

20. Godfrey Mwakikagile in Expo Times, Freetown, Sierra Leone, and in The Mirror, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2002.

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Book Reviews

From amazon.com customer reviews of Godfrey Mwakikagile, Africa is in A Mess: What Went Wrong and What Should Be Done.

“Work of scholarship and statesmanship,” review written by tony, 6 January 2005:

This is a work of scholarship. It is also a work of statesmanship as opposed to the kind produced by politicians and others to score political kudos or advance a particular agenda for personal gain. And that is what sets the author apart, like a few others I know. It is also important to know what type of person he is in order to understand, or at least try to understand, why he wrote this kind of book, and why he says the things he says in his book which has become a subject of hot discussion and spirited debate among many Africans; at least the ones I know and those whom I am around and I'm sure many others.

Before I go any further, let me first say that I know the author both as a colleague and as a mentor. When we first met more than 30 years ago, I came to know him as a man of principle and stubborn convictions who rarely conceded defeat, if at all. And he became one of my mentors, and not just a colleague, because of his unwavering commitment to principle in spite of the fact that he was younger than I am. We are roughly the same age, but I am about three years older than he is.

Of all my fellow African students I went to school with in Africa and in the United States, Godfrey Mwakikagile is one of the very few, in fact extremely few, whom I know to have remained true to their convictions, their core beliefs, without sacrificing principle for the sake of political expediency or in pursuit of personal interests at the expense of public interest. Most talk about commitment, but few live that way. He is one of those few among us.

I remember him well. He was a very serious committed Pan-Africanist more than 30 years ago when he was a mere youth in his early twenties in college in the United States. He firmly believed that Africa is one, and Africans are one people, including those in the diaspora. And he still is a very serious committed Pan-Africanist today, more than 30 years later, as shown by his scholarly works (found in university libraries in many countries) addressing serious economic and political issues and problems across Africa from a Pan-African perspective. His book "Africa is in A Mess" is one of his best in terms of analysis, honesty, commitment, and candor. It may also be his most controversial.

Whereas many of us are afraid to tell the truth because we don't want to ruffle the feathers of our leaders in Africa or make Africa look bad before the rest of the world especially among those who despise us and make fun of us as a backward and ignorant people, Mwakikagile is one of those Africans who sincerely believe that nothing is going to change in Africa for the better if we don't tell the truth about our condition; and if we don't explain why our leaders are part of the problem and not part of the solution.

Anyone who reads his book, "Africa is in A Mess," as well as his other books about Africa, can easily see why all our talk of African solutions to African problems means absolutely nothing if we continue to have the kind of leadership we have in Africa today. The people are not the problem, the leaders are.

I remember asking him, I don't know if he remembers this but he probably does since he had excellent memory, but I remember asking him about 30 years ago if he thought that Africa would ever develop like Europe did. He responded quickly and said, no, not in our life time; it is too short a time. Even Europe did not develop that fast. It took hundreds of years for Europe to develop, he said. I agreed with him on that. But he also brought up the Soviet Union and said it was able to industrialize (in heavy industry) within 40 years since the Russian Revolution because of central planning, although he emphasized that the foundation of modern Russia was laid before then by Peter the Great, an achievement that helped facilitate progress at a faster pace years later, especially in education and heavy industry, after the Bolsheviks seized power and started implementing their strategy of central planning.

Mwakikagile also strongly believed back then, during our student days, that even with all their weaknesses, African governments had a major role to play in economic development because it was they, and not the people, who had large amounts of capital at their disposal; it was they who had control over national resources; and it was they who had access to foreign capital. Our people did not have that. And he was a firm believer in regional integration as the way of the future for Africa. Without it, the continent will never develop, he said. Years later, regional integration did, indeed, become a reality in Africa, with formation of regional economic blocs in West Africa, East Africa, and southern Africa. Many of us of his generation did not foresee that, the way he, and may be a few others amongst us, did.

He was also a strong admirer of leaders such as Nkrumah and Nyerere who also adopted central planning as a strategy for rapid economic development and because of their Pan-African commitment. He saw them as true Pan-Africanists unlike most African leaders. He also greatly admired Sekou Toure for that, as a true Pan-Africanist and great African leader. I strongly disagreed with him on that and said Sekou Toure had jailed and killed many people in Guinea. He agreed but countered by saying Sekou Toure still had African interests at heart, and was a true African leader in spite of his faults, unlike Senghor who was more French than African. I also remember that Sekou Toure was a very close personal friend and ideological compatriot of Nyerere and Nkrumah, both of whom were Mwakikagile's Pan-African ideological mentors.

I vividly recall that Mwakikagile had no respect for Senghor and Houphoutet-Boigny and the rest of the leaders in Francophone Africa anymore than he did for Mobutu. None whatsoever! Absolutely none, as leaders. He saw them as French puppets, and their countries still French colonies, except Guinea under Sekou Toure. By the way, I come from West Africa and remember the rivalry between Nkrumah and Houphouet-Boigny of the Ivory Coast. Mwakikagile also knew about this rivalry and defended Nkrumah when the Ghanaian leader said we will see who will develop faster, Ghana or the Ivory Coast.

Yet, in spite of our disagreements on a number of issues, and in spite of the arguments we had on African subjects on several occasions, I must admit that Mwakikagile was more far-sighted than many of us even back then in the seventies when he was just a young man in his early twenties. In fact he was, in spite of his youth, even elected president of the African students union at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, against much older, more "mature," African students because of what people saw in him as a natural leader of the pack. Many people used to say he was very wise and acted far more mature than his age; in fact way beyond his age. Even just the way he looked at you, you felt as if you were in the presence of an elder. Yet he was nothing but a youth, in his early twenties.

He had a serious look, was basically quiet, and very humble in spite of his great intelligence and knowledge, and did not talk much. But when he talked, people listened. He radiated confidence and was very popular. Yet he was also an enigmatic character and could be extremely difficult to decipher; a combination of sharp wit, remarkably high intelligence, humility and simplicity making it even more difficult to understand his personality. But it was all for a purpose and provided him ample room to think; the product of which is what you see today: the books he has written on a wide range of subjects.

He was thinking all the time, a subject brought up now and then especially by one Nigerian student who knew him well. He was so simple, and so humble, that you could easily underestimate him, but only at your own risk. And, for whatever reason, he liked to be underestimated, and to be considered as just a simple African among hundreds of millions, no better than the poorest peasant in some remote part of Africa. This also explains why he wrote this book, "Africa is in A Mess." It is about the well-being of the toiling masses across Africa more than anybody else. And that is why, in order to help improve the condition of the masses, and probably out of desperation, he proposes the following in his book (p.144):

"African countries should also liberalize their immigration laws to attract highly skilled farmers from the former colonial powers and elsewhere and enable them to lease land or become citizens. Africa is an agricultural continent, and it can greatly benefit from them. They have much-needed skills they can impart to local peasants and farmers to boost production. And because they have large capital, they will also be able to invest in the economy and provide much-needed employment....South African white farmers who are also leaving their country because of conflict over land and the polarized racial situation down there should be encouraged to settle in other African countries."

He goes on to say (p. 145):

"If we want foreigners - no matter where they come from - with skills and money to invest in our economies and help develop our countries, we should welcome them with open arms. We are going to have investors or no investors. We don't have enough local investors with enough capital to fuel our economies. Therefore we need foreign investors. And we need highly skilled people to work and even settle in our countries. All this will have multiplier effect and help to develop our economies and create jobs our governments have failed to create for our our people. But local people, and the government, must have a controlling share in all investment ventures in our countries. Otherwise our countries are going to be owned by foreigners."

Although some of us may have trouble with some of that, and I do because we don't need foreigners to help us or teach us how to work on our land or develop our agricultural economies, what he says shows the depth of his commitment to the well-being of our people, the poorest of the poor in our continent and indeed of the entire Africa in general. May be he says this out of desperation as I said earlier, as a last resort, to see how we can help our people since nothing else seems to be working and our governments are doing nothing to seriously address the problem. I have not seen or talked to him in years to find out what he really thinks about all this. But his book raises a lot of important questions.

Many of his critics do, of course, probably wonder why he decided to live outside Africa for many years if he thought he had some solutions to some of our problems. But I think it is easy to understand why. I don't believe that he had any political ambitions to be a leader in Africa after finishing his university studies, although he had the potential to be one within the limited context of his home country Tanzania, even if not necessarily as a leader of continental stature. If he did have such an ambition, he would not have chosen to live abroad.

His decision to live outside Africa for whatever reasons, and even if he has returned to the continent now and then through the years, was obviously a well-calculated move (knowing him) as the best way for him to help Africa. As a writer, he has far more opportunities to get his books published if he lives abroad than anywhere in Africa. If he did not, and stayed in Africa to write, he probably would not have written the books he has, including this one, "Africa is in A Mess."

Besides the hostile political climate in African countries which discourages many of our people to write anything let alone books, we hardly have any publishers in our continent. And Mwakikagile is by no means the only African writer and scholar who has lived abroad for many years. Far better known and more influential African writers and scholars such as Professor Ali Mazrui, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Ngugi wa Thion'go, Dennis Brutus, Lewis Nkosi, Ezekiel Mphalele (who is now back in South Africa) and many others have also lived abroad for years even if for different reasons. Yet they are no less committed and no less patriotic than their fellow countrymen who still live in Africa. And Mwakikagile fits this category.

Of course, quite a few of us back then in the seventies when we were in college together thought that Mwakikagile was destined for high office and would end up in public life, as a public figure in a high government position when he returned to Tanzania. But he ended up as somebody else instead, as a writer, a public figure nonetheless, speaking for the underdog, and guided by his foresight and gifted intellect.

Most of us during those days were excited about our newly won independence, just like he was, of course. Remember, in the early and even in the mid-seventies, most African countries had been independent for only about 10 years or so or less. Yet, Mwakikagile was one of the few among us who were able to look beyond all that excitement and see that one of the biggest problems we already had even back then and would have in the future was our leaders, not just Western or Eastern imperialism. And he did emphasize that, yes, there was also Eastern imperialism, Russian and Chinese, and not just Western.

Those were also the days of the liberation struggle in southern Africa, especially in the seventies, and almost all of us paid close attention to what was going on down there, perhaps ignoring what our leaders were doing to us. Godfrey Mwakikagile and a few others did not ignore that, in spite of the fact that his country Tanzania was in the thick of the struggle especially as the headquarters of all the African liberation movements and guerrilla camps, training freedom fighters to wage war against the white minority racist regimes in southern Africa and Portuguese Guinea in West Africa.

The point of all this is that, had we looked at the weaknesses of most of our leaders as an incompetent lot, mired in corruption and motivated by greed for power at whatever cost more than anything else, we probably would have begun sooner to demand fundamental change way back then in the seventies, and even in the sixties. And we would not be in the kind of situation we are in now as destitute nations surviving on international relief.

And that brings up another question Mwakikagile has also addressed in his book, "Africa is in A Mess." Although he was optimistic about the future back in the seventies, he was mature enough to realize that Africa's problems were not entirely our fault or that of our leaders only. He did not, for one moment, believe that industrialized nations will ever listen to us at the conference table if we demanded fair treatment and tried to protect our interests. And the reason was simple, he said. We were weak. Without power, you are nothing in this world, he used to say. Power respects power. Morality does not count. If it did, Africa would not be ignored or exploited by powerful nations. And I agreed with him on all that. He said the international system, created and dominated by powerful countries especially after the end of World War II, had built-in biases against us and the rest of the Third World. It is an issue he also talks about in his book "Africa is in A Mess" and in his other works.

His book is a must read. But I hope that he will write another one on how we are going to escape from the grip of the powerful nations who dominate the world, stipulating terms of international trade and controlling everything else that affects us in the global arena and even in Africa itself. For example, as he states in his book citing declassified documents, the United States even had contingency plans to invade Nigeria in the mid-seventies, especially when the fiercely independent Murtala Mohammed was the military head of state, had the country cut off oil supplies to the West in case of another oil embargo by the OPEC nations or as a unilateral move in pursuit of national and Pan-African interests. He also points out that the American government had plans to neutralize the Nigerian military because it was becoming very powerful and Nigeria was playing a major role in the liberation struggle in southern Africa.

Do we Africans have solutions to such domination of our continent by Western countries and other powerful nations? Much as I admire Mwakikagile and his works, and much as I respect him as a scholar and as a thinker, I don't think he or anyone of us has fully addressed the issue. That is one of the weaknesses of his book, "Africa is in A Mess," if not its major weakness. If it wasn't for that, and may be a few other things he says in this controversial work, I would have given him five stars. But I give him four, instead. There's nothing wrong with being a four-star general!

Continue to marshal facts, Godfrey. Remember, you were even nicknamed "professor" back then when you were still a young university student barely out of your teens! And I'm sure you will also remember me, who I am, after you read this review. Thank you for "Africa is in A Mess" and your other books. Keep up the good work, fellow compatriot in Africa's redemption.

“Brilliant and honest book, especially for African leaders,” review written by Mona Kabba, a Sierra Leonean, on amazon.com, 8 May 2005:

This is a brilliant and honest book worth reading, especially by African leaders.

My first reaction after spending a whole night reading this brilliant book was to send comments of gratitude to the author for being this honest and courageous to write such a coherent and thought-provoking book. A book difficult to refute, even if you may not like how he says it. Well, I succeeded in my quest to contact him and I must say he belongs to those groups of authors who respond to letters from their readers and appreciates comments made to him even if they may not coincide with his point of view. I have been in touch with him ever since and he has answered all my letters. He is also working on another project in which I am going to participate as he has asked me to. I have told him I will.

One of my first comments to a Zambian friend was "If we had more of this kind of honesty and straight talk from our leaders and people in Africa, our continent may have been different and somewhat in a better shape." However, it is not, and something needs to be done, which is what Godfrey Mwakikagile's book is all about and more. I applaud the author because his book is based not only on the critical hard facts about our continent and alternatives (which some people may not agree with), but demonstrates one of our fundamental flaws in Africa, which is the failure of being honest to ourselves and using that as a stepping stone to progress.

If we were honest with ourselves, we would not first of all want our condition to be sugar-coated with semantics but told as it is with all honesty. And we would also acknowledge the fact that the problem lies within, and not without, as the author pointed out. Because constantly shifting the blame for one's predicament is not helpful in solving one's problems at all. Yes, the West has contributed and still is contributing to our deplorable condition one way or another, but what are we doing to get up from that dogmatic slumber for lack of words? What have we really done besides constant, self-inflicting deterioration? We must remember that we were not the only countries colonized or relatively poor. So what have we done to improve our condition?

Without over-emphasizing the fact and echoing the words of the author, Africa is indeed in a mess which is due to various factors, but largely due to our corrupt leaders as discussed by the author and rightly so. However, I must say that we as people must share some of the blame, because we do not tell the hard truth to our leaders but help them in some cases (countries) in their quest for personal aggrandizement by supporting their "sultanism" and "fuherism" kind of governance for our own individual selfishness. As a Sierra Leonean having lived most of my life in my country, and being a very close relative of the President of Sierra Leone, Tejan Kabba, I know what I'm talking about.

We help to create the monsters we call corrupt leaders. We do not tell them the truth and help them to become relatively honest and dedicated leaders, but instead support them and demand exorbitantly for ourselves regardless of the rest of the millions they are supposed to serve and provide for. As soon as a relative is in a position that wields power and money, we see it as our opportunity to get rich and powerful at the expense of the masses. It is not the story for all African states but common in some which is one of the fundamental contributing factors to corruption in Africa.

On the 27th of April this year my country celebrated 44 years of independence. But what is there really to celebrate? A country that, in spite of its enormous potential to be one of the richest countries in Africa due to its natural resources, has hardly achieved any progress, is one of the poorest in the world, and has as legacy to show - chopped arms and limbs of innocent civilians who did not deserve such brutality for just being Sierra Leoneans. A devastated infrastructure and economy that would require writing a whole book to explain and analyze, Sierra Leone, a country once known as the "Athens of West Africa," is one of the countries that have suffered tremendous brain drain and continues to do so. That is why Mwakikagile's suggestion of opening up our borders and liberalizing our immigration policies to allow large numbers of foreigners to become citizens and invest in our economies is one of the possibilities our leaders should consider seriously.

This idea may not be favourable to some Africans who believe that our leaders may have already sold our countries to foreigners in this era of globalization. But for want or lack of alternatives, what is really left to sell in some of our African states besides our total independence? We therefore do not only need to criticize our leaders but examine ourselves and contribute in a meaningful way by finding and implementing alternatives to improve conditions in our continent.

To the author, I say, Bravo! And, please, do not relent in telling the truth in whatever way you can.

“Post-colonial manifesto,” review written by Kofi Mensah, Ghana/USA, on amazon.com, 4 March 2005:

On March 6th, my country Ghana is going to celebrate her 48th independence anniversary. It was the first black African country to win independence under the leadership of Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

But, in spite of this distinction, and in spite of the fact that our country has enormous potential, throughout most of those years, almost half a century, we have hardly achieved enough progress, economically, to justify our claim to independence. The same is true with the rest of black Africa. And that is where this book, "Africa is in A Mess," by Tanzanian writer Godfrey Mwakikagile, a fellow Pan-African patriot, comes into relevance as a manifesto for post-colonial Africa.

"Africa is in A Mess" is a political manifesto and an economic blueprint written by one of Africa's most brilliant and committed sons. His works are taken seriously by many people, including African leaders.

He has been sought for interviews by the BBC, by Voice of America (VOA), and even for an appearance on PBS (American public television) in a documentary on the history of socialism since Lenin as a commentator on President Julius Nyerere's policies and other issues. His books have been reviewed by leading scholars and by influential publications, including WEST AFRICA magazine. And he has been interviewed by others including an American journalist who once worked in Tanzania for a major African weekly news paper, "The East African". All this is a testament to the importance of his works addressing issues that affect Africa as a whole. He is not a narrow-minded nationalist only concerned about his country, Tanzania. He is concerned about the whole continent, as his books, including "Africa is in A Mess," clearly demonstrate.

He was one of the most promising intellectuals of our generation, and one of the most inspiring, to emerge out of the seventies, when he graduated from university, and has lived up to his full potential. But may be not quite. Expect more from him.

He probably would not have made a good politician - he's too honest for that on issues of public policy - and would, instead, have made a lot of enemies had he decided to go into politics, unless he decided to look the other way. Most politicians thrive on corruption, exactly the kind of enemy the author is waging war against. He would never have been able to write this kind of book, "Africa is in A Mess," as a politician, unless he was suicidal, surrounded by vicious sharks which swim in the rough waters of African politics. Writing is what he does best. And I look forward to reading his next book about Africa, or on any other subject for that matter.

Like any other book, by any human being, "Africa is in A Mess," has its weaknesses. It may be too pessimistic in some cases but, overall, it's an excellent book, and brutally honest, the kind African leaders need to read, whether they like it or not. And most of them probably won't like it, even though, privately, and deep down in their hearts, they will find it hard to disagree with what Godfrey Mwakikagile says. Fortunately, like any honest scholar or just any other honest writer, he did not write this book to please them. He wrote it to demand fundamental change. And it will come one day. It is for the people to decide when, and how.

And when the change comes, many of those in power would wish they had never sought public office.

It is this cry for justice and fairness, this deep anguish of the masses demanding the fruits of independence, which is the central message of "Africa is in A Mess." But that is only one man's perspective on this very important book. You may have a different perspective, may be even radically different from mine. All you have to do is read the book, and see for yourself what the author has to say.

You may not like how he says it, all the anger and the bitterness which also is the anger and bitterness of the masses across Africa, but you will have a hard time refuting what he says. Just try it, after you read the book.

“To the point but, could, and should, have said more,” review written by Melvin Mitchell, independent scholar, Detroit, Michigan, USA, 15 February 2005:

I just finished reading this book a couple of days ago and couldn't wait to comment on it, partly in response to what many of the reviewers have said here, but mainly because of what the author himself says.

We all know Africa is in a mess. So that's nothing new. It's not just what we see and read in the media, it's the evidence itself (including depressing images on television) coming out of Africa that shows the continent is indeed in a mess. That is what this book is all about, and more than that.

But the author is so focused on Africa's misery and corrupt regimes that sometimes his readers may be lost in a maze of details he has compiled in this compact study (which, by the way, is a credit to him to pack so much in so few pages). Although his work is highly focused, it may also, because of its harsh message, blind some people to other harsh realities about Africa, mainly the negative role played by the West in the continent's underdevelopment since its conquest and subsequent colonization by the imperial powers.

Most of the reviewers here, even if understandably, have indeed or seem to have been blinded by their anger at Africa's corrupt leaders, a position they share with the author, to the point where they lay the entire blame for the continent's misery and predicament on African leaders, hardly any on the West especially the former colonial powers and the world's leading imperialist nation, the United States, whose multinational corporations are busy ripping off African countries and the masses. That is one of the weaknesses of this book (fueling misdirected anger in some cases), and of the angry Africans who have reviewed this work here on amazon.com and probably others elsewhere who support the central thesis of this book.

Yet, having said that much from a critical perspective, I must also acknowledge the work's strong points, while at the same time being critical, of course, in order to provide a balanced account of what has taken place on the African continent through the years.

The book is written from a Third World perspective, not just from an African perspective. The author is highly perceptive and, for good reason, wary of multinational corporations (probably unlike some of his supporters) operating with impunity in Third World countries. But he also realizes that Africans and other Third Worlders can't do anything about this. He also knows that in this age of globalization, they can't do without multinationals. As an African American, born as a disadvantaged person because of our minority status in a predominantly white society, I know how the author and other Africans feel about all this. We ourselves here in the United States complain about white domination and racism, the equivalent of imperialism in the international context. But we also know that we are an integral part of America, we are here to stay, we are going nowhere, and we need America in order to survive and to develop as much as Africans and others are an integral part of the global economy which they also need in order to develop and sometimes even simply to survive as a people and as countries. It's tragic but true. This world is ruled by one race, a reality the author knows so well.

I don't want to get much into this but suffice it to say that I also happen to know something about the author, Godfrey Mwakikagile, although not as much as two of the reviewers do, as they have stated here. In fact I have more than just superficial knowledge of him as a student at Wayne State University because I used to interact with a significant number of African students in Detroit in the seventies when he was a student there. I did not go to Wayne State like he did - I had already graduated from another college in another state - but knew Mwakikagile more than just superficially, as I just said, as much as I knew one of his colleagues, a Ghanaian student, who went to school with him at Wayne State and who later became a cabinet member in the government of President Jerry Rawlings when he returned to Ghana. And both, he and Mwakikagile, had a lot in common in terms of political beliefs. They also knew each other very well.

The tragedy of all this, and this is relevant in terms of their political beliefs and that's why I bring it up here, is that many African students did not want to criticize the leaders they admired most, like Nkrumah and Nyerere or Kaunda and Sekou Toure. And such shortcomings are still evident today, reflected, for example, in Mwakikagile's book, "Africa is in A Mess."

While he should be commended for being honest about the rotten leadership in Africa through the decades, he should also be taken to task for not being very honest about the failures of the president of his country (whom I also highly admire), Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, in the economic field. He admits socialism failed. But that's about it. He does not go into details WHY it failed, not just in Tanzania under Nyerere, but also in Ghana under Nkrumah, in Zambia under Kaunda, in Mali under Modibo Keita, in Guinea under Sekou Toure, in Uganda under Obote, in Benin under Kerekou, in Ethiopia under Mengistu, in Somalia under Barre, and in all the other African countries where it had been adopted as economic policy. That is one of the biggest shortcomings of this book, "Africa is in A Mess." He may have addressed this subject in one of his other books, "Economic Development in Africa," but I have not read it to make a definitive statement on that. Even if he has, he should also have addressed it in this book, "Africa is in A Mess."

And I hope he has dealt with the subject in his other book or books, if he is to be taken seriously as an honest scholar, not one of those African intellectuals who rationalize Africa's failures and mistakes from an ideological standpoint, especially since socialism was the dominant ideology in post-colonial Africa and during the liberation struggle in southern Africa partly in response to Western domination of the continent.

Now, on the plus side. I have already said the author has been forthright in his condemnation of corrupt politicians and governments on the African continent. He should be commended for that. He should also be commended for being resolutely opposed to the recolonization of Africa, as some people including a number of Africans themselves have suggested, although one may get the wrong impression when reading the first chapter in which he has thoroughly discredited the leadership in post-colonial Africa, so much so except in a few cases that some people may misconstrue what he says and think that he wants Africa to be recolonized. In fact, he argues exactly the opposite, and very forcefully. He is one staunch Pan-Africanist and committed intellectual.

The chapter on the brain drain is equally excellent. So is the rest of the book in which he displays his formidable knowledge of Africa from a historical and contemporary perspective. He knows his subject well, not just about Africa but also when he writes about the United States as well, as he has clearly demonstrated in his illuminating study of black conservatives, also published as a book that has been favorably reviewed by other readers here on amazon.com and elsewhere.

But there is another shortcoming in his book, "Africa is in A Mess." Given his analytical ability and intellectual depth, he could have said more about the negative and devastating impact of Western penetration of Africa, past and present, to provide a a balanced account. He seems to have focused squarely on the failures of post-colonial Africa. I know a whole book can be written about that alone, and he has done that, just like others have. But many readers would also like to see the other side of the coin. He condemns colonialism and imperialism in his book and categorically states that his intention is not to exonerate the colonial and imperial powers who conquered and continue to dominate and exploit Africa. All that's fine. But he has done it in shorthand. A deeper and longer analysis would have been more satisfying even if it would have meant writing a bigger book, something he's capable of doing since he has already done that more than once; for example his book about Nyerere and Africa, the second edition, is a monumental study almost 700 pages: quite an accomplishment.

Any way, in short, what lacks here is balance. But the author seems to overcome that with his formidable analytical skills and engaging style he has used well when addressing other issues from a continental perspective. And for that, he should be highly commended. After all, it is not easy to write a fully balanced book on such a highly emotionally-charged subject as the disintegration of post-colonial Africa, especially when the author himself is an African who is intimately involved in the affairs of the continent (read about this in his book, "Nyerere and Africa: End of an Era," and about his personal high-level contacts with African leaders including presidents) as a dedicated scholar; as a public intellectual (in fact, top-notch, in terms of intellectual power, especially on African and Third World issues, even if flawed in some cases as the rest amongst us as mere mortals); as a staunch Pan-Africanist and may be even a militant one; and simply as a human being who would like to see his people, fellow Africans, especially the masses, do better, much better, than they are now.

A job well done, illuminated with sparkles of brilliance.

“Honest, thought-provoking,” review written by Hengene Payani, Ph.D. (Political Science), Senior Research Academic, Papua New Guinea (PNG) National Research Institute, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, 9 February 2005:

I come from Papua New Guinea (South Pacific). I have read "Africa is in A Mess." It's excellent, honest, and thought-provoking. It has some relevance for a developing country like Papua New Guinea which is currently on the verge of collapse caused by greedy politicians.