The author acknowledges the stereotypes early on and puts their truths in context: This book is a good place to dip your toes. I want to dive in, but I don't know where to start. I think about Africa like I used to think about the Internet: vast, complex, distant. Compelling reading, highly informative, and highly recommended.

It's very well written: evocative, vivid, often extremely funny, with biting sarcasm but also immense generosity of spirit, which really makes you read with a sense of hope as well as fury. I particularly liked the sections on strongmen and wealth-hoarding grossly privileged leaders that included pieces on Johnson and Trump, written in the style in which people write about African despots. My knowledge of African history is pathetic-for some reason we don't learn about that at school, can't think why-so this was hugely informative and helped slot a lot of things together. It covers colonialism and the scramble for Africa, the mass theft of cultural heritage for museums (it is really embarrassing to read this book as a white Brit), how Hollywood portrays Africa, current issues like strongmen/dictators, success stories, white saviours and unhelpful charity, and behaviour which is somewhere between ignorance and appropriation (jollof rice and the Jamie Oliver nonsense). Obviously this is a huge subject, but this book gives a good sense of the breadth by cherry-picking examples from different countries and histories, and focusing on a particular set of topics. Terrific book discussing various facets of Africa.

Africa Is Not a Country by Dipo Faloyin