"This book looks at different responses to the African predicament from prominent writers like Soyinka, Ngugi, and Achebe, the military men in power and the students who defy repression. It suggests that intervention by international agencies who claim to promote "democracy" and "empower the youth" may reinforce authoritarian attitudes and structures, and gives voice to the outrage, ridicule, revolutionary ardour and reformist caution of those directly affected. It also exposes the shallow pretences of those in power as well as the hypocrisy and arrogance of the foreign helpers, and concludes that being an "insider" or an "outsider" is less important than being committed to listen to ordinary people." -- Back cover.

Psychopaths in power: the collapse of the African dream in A Play of Giants / Olusegun Adekoya -- Re-establishing the basis of social order in Africa: a reflection on Achebe's reformist agenda and Ngugi's Marxist aesthetics / M.S.C. Okolo -- Narrating the green gods: the (auto) biographies of Nigerian military rulers / Gbemisola Adeoti -- Ambiguous transitions: mediating citizenship among youth in Cameroon / Jude Fokwang -- Student radicalism and the national project: the Nigerian student movement / Björn Beckman -- Transnational governance and the pacification of youth: civic education and disempowerment in Malawi / Harri Englund -- Identity and knowledge production in the fourth generation / Nana Akua Anyidoho.