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Fantastic Invasion: Dispatches from Africa
Explored and exploited, Africa has carried a different meaning for each wave of foreign invaders - from ivory traders to aid workers. Now, in crisis that has followed Independence, which way should Africa turn?
- GenresTravelAfricaNonfiction
240 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 21, 2011
"In the beginning, we had the land. Then the white man came and he had the Bible. So, he taught us to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened our eyes again, he had the land and we had the Bible."
Jomo Kenyatta
Jomo Kenyatta
March 4, 2025
After being in West Africa for two months, I left with such a widened curiosity about the history, politics, and the ever pervasive colonialism of the continent. Picked this book up at a secondhand bookstore in London for like $5 and indulged my curiosities.
It was also published in the 70s so I recognize it’s out datedness but overall messages and points are still very relevant today.
This book is meant to be taken in small doses I’d say. While enriched in a plethora of fascinating facts of Northern influence on Africa, the book can be very hard to digest due to the infinite use of specific names, political figures, regimes, wars, famines, cities, etc etc all pertaining to various regions of Africa. I’d often get lost in his acutely detailed stories (and I’d do my own side research quests to fully grasp the context then continue on reading), that were all nevertheless included to enhance and paint a picture of the overall moral of the story which is:
Northern colonialism and influence on Africa, while often thought to be carried out in the vein of improvement and development, actually just destroys the continents ability to naturally flourish.
The native people and tribes of Africa rely on the land, rich in minerals and resources. The very essence of life in Africa never relied on the heavy industry and advanced infrastructure that we have, yet, Europeans and Americans will interfere with African communities, implement their ways of “helping” and “developing”, only to ruin the natural integrity of the African life and cause more damage to their economy. The “help” they are providing is actually just unusable and unrealistic infrastructure. They aren’t equipped to sustain these northern/western ideologies and commodities that are forced upon them. They live simpler and more modest and
Colonialism from French and British swept in, tried to uprooot and change the African regions and industries for their benefit, then, when African states became independent from the colonial forces and then British and French left, the now independent states were left to uphold these imposed economies that are not inherent to their native way of living . Thus breeding, unstable, “undeveloped”, “corrupt” Africa that we learn about today. And now we still give these countries aid and help but often in a way that emphasizes deceptive dependency, help is given , but not integrated into their natural societies, and this, once rescinded, the communities struggle because they’ve become dependent on outside help.
Such a vast, deeply integrated issue that is hardly taught about (at least my personal experience). Infringing influence and power upon foreign commmuntiies as a means of “solution”- is not actually any real solution. Imagine if Western/ Northern world could realize that their ways of living, is not actually the only and correct way?!! Imagine!
It was also published in the 70s so I recognize it’s out datedness but overall messages and points are still very relevant today.
This book is meant to be taken in small doses I’d say. While enriched in a plethora of fascinating facts of Northern influence on Africa, the book can be very hard to digest due to the infinite use of specific names, political figures, regimes, wars, famines, cities, etc etc all pertaining to various regions of Africa. I’d often get lost in his acutely detailed stories (and I’d do my own side research quests to fully grasp the context then continue on reading), that were all nevertheless included to enhance and paint a picture of the overall moral of the story which is:
Northern colonialism and influence on Africa, while often thought to be carried out in the vein of improvement and development, actually just destroys the continents ability to naturally flourish.
The native people and tribes of Africa rely on the land, rich in minerals and resources. The very essence of life in Africa never relied on the heavy industry and advanced infrastructure that we have, yet, Europeans and Americans will interfere with African communities, implement their ways of “helping” and “developing”, only to ruin the natural integrity of the African life and cause more damage to their economy. The “help” they are providing is actually just unusable and unrealistic infrastructure. They aren’t equipped to sustain these northern/western ideologies and commodities that are forced upon them. They live simpler and more modest and
Colonialism from French and British swept in, tried to uprooot and change the African regions and industries for their benefit, then, when African states became independent from the colonial forces and then British and French left, the now independent states were left to uphold these imposed economies that are not inherent to their native way of living . Thus breeding, unstable, “undeveloped”, “corrupt” Africa that we learn about today. And now we still give these countries aid and help but often in a way that emphasizes deceptive dependency, help is given , but not integrated into their natural societies, and this, once rescinded, the communities struggle because they’ve become dependent on outside help.
Such a vast, deeply integrated issue that is hardly taught about (at least my personal experience). Infringing influence and power upon foreign commmuntiies as a means of “solution”- is not actually any real solution. Imagine if Western/ Northern world could realize that their ways of living, is not actually the only and correct way?!! Imagine!
November 4, 2007
To be taken only in small doses. There's nothing uplifting about this book, and that is why I sought it out. The subject matter is still remarkably relevant, despite the book being almost thirty years old. Marnham's Africa is a place of horror, mostly man-made, and his documentation of the failures of western aid programs in the continent is something we would do well to pay close attention to. Unfortunately out of print, but definitely worth a look if you can find a used copy.
May 28, 2020
An old book but very interesting nonetheless. Examines parts of post-colonial Africa and the impact years of foreign rule had/have on the new governments
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews