Summary

This is a genuinely comparative study of the different trajectories and experiences of independent African states. Following the independence of the Sudan and Ghana in 1956-7, Africans have been engaged in efforts to fashion a workable political and economic dispensation for the post-colonial era. Paul Nugent examines the record of African Socialist, Afro-Marxist and Capitalist regimes over the first two decades, and explores the retrenchment associated with structural adjustment, as well as the record of multi-partyism after 1989. Nugent also addresses the impact of HIV and AIDS, the contagion of warfare and efforts at achieving national reconciliation.