White Malice, Susan Williams
White Malice, Susan Williams
4 Rating(s)
List: $44.99 | Sale: $31.50
Club: $22.49

White Malice
The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa

Author: Susan Williams

Narrator: Chanté McCormick

Unabridged: 21 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 08/10/2021

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

 A revelatory history of how post-colonial African Independence movements were systematically undermined by one nation above all: the US.
 
 In 1958 in Accra, Ghana, the Hands Off Africa conference brought together the leading figures of African independence in a public show of political strength and purpose. Led by the charismatic Kwame Nkrumah, who had just won Ghana’s independence, his determined call for Pan-Africanism was heeded by young, idealistic leaders across the continent and by African Americans seeking civil rights at home. Yet, a moment that signified a new era of African freedom simultaneously marked a new era of foreign intervention and control.
 
In White Malice, Susan Williams unearths the covert operations pursued by the CIA from Ghana to the Congo to the UN in an effort to frustrate and deny Africa’s new generation of nationalist leaders. This dramatically upends the conventional belief that the African nations failed to establish effective, democratic states on their own accord. As the old European powers moved out, the US moved in.   
 
Drawing on original research and recently declassified documents, and told through an engaging narrative, Williams introduces readers to idealistic African leaders and to the secret agents, ambassadors, and even presidents who deliberately worked against them, forever altering the future of a continent.

 

Author Bio

Susan Williams is a senior research fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London. Her research is archive based; her research has taken her to many countries in Africa, Europe, and North America. Susan served as historical adviser to the independent Hammarskjold Commission, which was founded in direct response to Susan's book Who Killed Hammarskjold?, and released its report at the Peace Palace in The Hague in September 2013. She has published widely on Africa, decolonization, and the global power shifts of the twentieth century, receiving widespread acclaim for Colour Bar, her book on the founding president of Botswana. Her other books include The People's King and Ladies of Influence, as well as edited volumes such as The Iconography of Independence: Freedoms at Midnight'.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Fatman on April 25, 2022

Assassinations, overthrowing elected governments, sowing conflict between political groups and bribing politicians, trade unionists and national representatives at the UN were some of the clandestine and coercive strategies used by the CIA to support American plans for the African continent. Every t......more

Goodreads review by Zach on March 19, 2022

This is a treasure trove of CIA secrets and U.S. actions in Africa, focusing specifically on Ghana's independence in 1957 to Lumumba's assassination in 1961 and Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966. Equal parts inspiring and infuriating, I was blown away with just how much has come out about what the CIA was......more

Goodreads review by Dan on May 25, 2022

A fantastic examination of the subversion and devastation wrought by the US in Ghana and Congo during the 1960s. Williams has poured over a massive amount of primary sources to pull together an incredibly engaging history. Weaving together the assassination of Patrice Lumumba by Mobutu, Belgium and......more

Goodreads review by Christopher on November 21, 2023

Susan Williams' White Malice details how the United States sought to undermine newly independent Africa in the '50s and '60s, focusing specifically on Ghana and Congo. Under the charismatic leadership of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana was one of the first sub-Saharan African countries to gain independence, be......more