The New Africa

IN The New Africa, former Christian Science Monitor correspondent Robert Press tells his first-hand story of triumph and tragedy in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. Featuring photographs by Betty Press, whose work has appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, New York Times, Time, and Newsweek, the book offers a compelling account of the continent's emerging movements toward democracy.Drawing on hundreds of interviews, Press also explores the causes of the extraordinary human tragedies of civil war in Somalia and genocide in Rwanda and offers explanations for the West's failure to curb them.While providing broad, in-depth coverage of sweeping social and cultural upheaval, The New Africa also introduces readers to some of the many individual Africans struggling for greater personal freedom. We meet the "Mercedes Benz" women of West Africa who made small fortunes in the wholesale cloth business; Peter, once a homeless Kenyan, who took up tailoring lessons until he was stricken with the AIDS virus; and Nike Davis, a Nigerian artist who escaped a polygamous marriage and abuse to establish a tuition-free art school.Both general readers and students of African politics will finish The New Africa better informed about the intricate diplomatic and political problems surrounding the struggle for human rights in Africa today, while bearing witness to vivid and moving portraits of individual Africans who, often in the face of danger, strive for greater liberty.