bibliographical references (pages 417-422) and index.

Africa has long been misunderstood--and abused--by outsiders. This huge, diverse continent resists the one-size-fits-all solutions of aid workers and policy makers. In this evocative, poetic, and occasionally angry look at an emerging continent, award-winning journalist Alex Perry acknowledges its complexity and dares to ask, and answer: How will Africa's growth change it, and our idea of it, and even of ourselves? With both empathy and skepticism, Perry observes a rapidly globalizing landscape filled with the violent turmoil, rampant corruption, and economic challenges that most readers know--but also a continent sensing the end of an epic, centuries-old quest for liberation. Beginning with a stunning investigation into a largely unreported war crime in Somalia in 2011, Perry travels across all forty-nine sub-Saharan countries, meeting entrepreneurs and warlords, professors and cocaine smugglers, presidents and jihadists. From the drug ports of Guinea-Bissau and the genocide crypts of Rwanda to the remaking of Lagos, Africa's biggest city, and a homestay with Barack Obama's family in Kenya, Perry finds communities changing quickly, deeply, and unevenly--but ultimately breaking free. The culmination of close to a decade of on-the-ground reporting, this book is a fearless challenge to the conventional wisdom on Africa.