The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony (second edition) by Molefi Kete Asante, and: Healthcare Policy in Africa: Institutions and Politics from Colonialism to the Present by Jean-Germain Gros, and: The Roots of Ethnic Conflict in Africa: From Grievance to Violence by Wanjala S. Nasong'o

Abstract

Reviewed by: The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony (second edition) by Molefi Kete Asante, and: Healthcare Policy in Africa: Institutions and Politics from Colonialism to the Present by Jean-Germain Gros, and: The Roots of Ethnic Conflict in Africa: From Grievance to Violence by Wanjala S. Nasong'o Frank Matanga Asante, Molefi Kete. The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony (second edition). New York: Routledge, 2014. Gros, Jean-Germain. Healthcare Policy in Africa: Institutions and Politics from Colonialism to the Present. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishersx, 2015. Nasong'o, Wanjala S. The Roots of Ethnic Conflict in Africa: From Grievance to Violence. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. The common thread in the three books under review is an examination of contemporary themes in the social, economic, and political history of Africa. The issues of ethnic violence, healthcare policies, and political and economic systems are critically examined from an Afrocentric perspective, rather than a Eurocentric perspective. The three authors, from Africa, Latin America, and the United States, respectively, all teach at American universities and, collectively, have produced a significant amount of scholarship. Consequently, the three books under review succeed in shedding new light on Africa's problems and challenges, while proposing exciting and innovative solutions to such [End Page 77] issues. These books are a must-read for Africa's theorists, practitioners, and policy makers as well as university students who seek to comprehend and interpret contemporary African issues. Molefi Kete Asante is a professor at Temple University who is well known for his works based on Afrocentricity, a cultural ideology that focuses on the history of black Africans and that rejects Eurocentric and Orientalist attitudes about African people. Asante, who was born Arthur Lee Smith in Georgia, legally changed his name because he believed that his birth name was a slave name. The second edition of The History of Africa: The Quest for Eternal Harmony is divided into seven parts. Part 1, "The Time of Awakening," is used by Asante to demonstrate the extent to which Africa is the home of both humanity and civilization. He opines that "one could not write a complete history of humanity without delving into the prehistory of Africa" (p. 9). Part 2, "The Age of Literacy," traces the roots of issues and events such as modern science and technology, agriculture, architecture, philosophy, mathematics, and writing skills to Africa. In Part 3, "Moment of Realization," and Part 4, "The Age of Construction," Asante critically traces the origins of the great rivers in Africa and the respective river kingdoms and empires. Part 5, "The Time of Chaos," examines the two principal invasions of African civilizations: European Christian and Arab Islamic penetration carried out by missionaries, merchants, and mercenaries. Part 6, "The Age of Reconstruction," explores the age of resistance against colonialism. Asante examines the fathers of African decolonization [End Page 78] and freedom such as Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, and Haile Selassie. According to the author, these decolonization efforts were an integral component of the Pan African Movement. In Part 7, "The Time for Consolidation," Asante focuses on attempts to re-assert Africa's economic, socio-cultural, and political sovereignty through resistance measures to neo-colonialism as perpetrated by external forces. In addition to external forces, Asante urges the reader to focus on internal forces that have also accounted for the current socio-economic and political decay and abuse on the continent resulting in military coups, civil wars, and genocide. This is what Asante calls Africa creating its own chaos. The History of Africa: The Quest for Internal Harmony is a refreshing look at the history of Africa. As aptly put by Asante, "African historiography has typically consisted of writing Africa for Europe instead of writing Africa for itself, as itself, from its own perspectives" (p. xiii). This book redresses the dilemma by letting the perspectives of Africans themselves take center stage. By balancing blame for Africa's problems between external and internal forces, Asante presents a more nuanced approach to studying Africa. He does not simply blame colonial forces for Africa's predicament the way many African theorists and practitioners do, but holds internal forces culpable for the same. All...