African Renaissance
Challenges, Solutions & the Road Ahead

By David N. Abdulai
December 2001
Asean Academic Press
ISBN: 1-901919-30-7
216 pages, 5 3/4" x 8 3/4"
$87.50 Hardcover

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The Africa today is different from that of yesterday. The Africa of today is witnessing a renaissance, one that is not merely going to change leaders and whitewash old structures. It is a renaissance that is seeing real changes taking place: meaningful political reforms, the building of democratic institutions, economic reforms, freedom of the press, etc. Such changes are spearheaded by new leadership in Africa. This new leadership has rekindled the spirits of Africans, awakening them to the new day at hand, and African dawn. This book is about such a renaissance. It thus differs from other books that only paint a gloomy picture of Africa. It offers a balanced view, tracing where Africa came from, the colonial, postcolonial to the present post-postcolonial periods. Each period is critically analyzed and the legacies outlined. Based upon such analyses, it talks about the impending African Renaissance as a result of the reforms developed and implemented by post-postcolonial African leadership. By outlining some of the challenges, the new leadership in Africa would face as they create their renaissance and offering solutions to some of these challenges, this books holds no illusions that the creation of the African Renaissance would be easy. The task of creating the African Renaissance should not be shouldered by the new leadership of Africa and Africans alone; the global community must play their part by creating a Global Constituency for Africa. Through such a constituency, the global community can contribute in many ways to help Africa to realize its renaissance. The road ahead for Africa lies in unity: by uniting politically, economically and socially, a sustainable African Renaissance is assured. To attempt to go it alone on the part of individual African nations in this era of globalization is suicidal.

African Studies; Politics

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